BABY BORN WITHOUT EYES

CRADLE....Lacey Buchanan cradling Christian who was born with no eyes.

A mum whose son was born with no eyes has made an inspiring video - to tell the world how much she loves him. Lacey Buchanan, from Woodbury, Tennessee in America is seen cradling son Christian to her chest as she tells their story with handwritten cards.

During the seven-minute film she explains both the joy and despair she has faced since her beloved boy was born in February 2011 with a rare form of cleft palate.

One of just 50 in the world to suffer from a Tessier cleft - where the parts of the face do not fuse together in the womb - Christian could at first not close his mouth and had no eyes.

Lacey describes her and husband Chris' fear and heartache: "Our baby boy was blind. We were heartbroken.

"We didn't know what to do, or how to raise a child who couldn't see."

Faced with stares and snide comments everywhere she took him, Lacey describes how she was "miserable" to start with.

She holds up a card saying: "One girl even told me I was a horrible person for not aborting Christian in utero."

But then an amazing thing happened - Christian grew into a giggler.

Now the people he meets giggle with him. As Lacey says: "Anyone who meets Christian falls in love with him pretty quickly."

She then adds: "He is the love of my life".

Law student Lacey, 25, met husband Chris when they were 15 and the pair wed at 21.

She explains with the cards how she fell pregnant at 23 and how excited the couple were to discover they were having a boy.

Beaming at the memory, Lacey then sobers and holds up the words: "A week later, we got a phone call. Something was wrong with Christian."

Doctors feared their child had developmental problems and warned Lacey she faced the strong possibility of miscarrying.

As devout Christians, Lacey and Chris prayed their child would live and refused to consider an abortion.

On February 18 last year, Lacey gave birth at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville.

Christian was rushed to intensive care and operated on at just fours days old.

After fours weeks, he was finally allowed home and the hard work really started.

But just over a year later, Christian is thriving - "growing and healthy". Laughing at things that tickle him despite his blindness, Lacey's boy is an inspiration.

The proud mum holds up pictures of her smiling son before explaining that the family are becoming known around the world.

She says: "People started finding me on Facebook. They told me how Christian inspired them. And how beautiful he is."

Now, Lacey admits: "Those judgmental glances and whispers don't really bother me anymore. Because I know he is beautiful. Inside and out."

She then puts down the cards that tell her incredible story to turn Christian to the camera and show him off proudly to the world.

Lacey's love letter to the boy she never gave up hope on is now a global hit.

Since uploading the clip to YouTube in March, she has been inundated with words of support from around the world.

Writing on her blog, Leading The Blind, she says: "I am absolutely blown away by the response that the video has had.

"I never imagined it would be this big. Thank you so much to everyone who is supporting us in our journey!"

Lacey now plans to finish law school and specialise in disability advocacy law, because "I want to be able to help people like Christian" (thesun.co.uk)