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Part 2
KEN BECK
The Cannon Courier
Because of his facial defects, Christian was not able to say "Mama" until he was almost 3 years old. Lacey remembers that first time and says, "I just cried because I had waited so long."
She describes her oldest son, saying. "He's got a really like silly personality. He likes to make people laugh. He likes to tell jokes."
Christian shared a couple of his current favorites. He asks, "What do you call a fake noodle?"
He answers, "Impasta," with a laugh and a grin on his face.
Next comes, "What do you call a sleepy dinosaur?"
"A dinosnore!" he exclaims with more laughter.
Quizzed about what is his favorite thing to do, Christian shouts, "Play!"
He and his little brother, Chandler, share a bedroom with an aquarium and four fish. Their other pets include two Boston terriers, Steel and Kal, and a cat named Lois Lane.
Lacey refers to Christian as "our little Superman" as he has worn a Superman cape to the hospital for his last four surgeries.
His mother shares details about several more of his favorite things, saying, "He's doing karate and testing for his first belt next week. He loves wrestling with his little brother. He likes going to Chuck E. Cheese, and he likes the 'Minions' movies. He also likes 'Sesame Street' but is growing out of it."
In other words, he's a lot like every other boy about to turn 6.
She notes that he carries a voice recorder with him everywhere he goes but to school. "He records what's going on around him, and he'll listen to it later."
However, Christian's breakfast, lunch and supper are quite different from most youngsters. At mealtime, he drinks milk from his sippy cup. He receives his nourishment completely through a feeding tube.
"He has tasted some foods and licked them. He has eaten some yogurt and pudding. We're getting him comfortable to it. Tasting it, smelling it, getting used to the texture of it," said Lacey. "I never have to worry about what he's eating because it's all healthy."
Christian is fed four times a day, at 8 a.m., noon, 4 and 8 p.m. Each serving is seven syringes full. The process takes less than 10 minutes.
Tonight, he receives a pureed supper consisting of chicken breast, asparagus, green beans, blueberries, strawberries, banana, orange and sweet potatoes.
About five weeks shy of his sixth birthday, he weighs 40 pounds and stands 38 inches tall.
Lacey rises at 5:30 three mornings a week and hustles Chandler and Christian out of bed at 6. They go straight to the car so she can make the 70-mile, 90-minute-long drive to the Tennessee School for the Blind in Donelson. Christian attends class from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"He's going to kindergarten and loves school," said his mom. "He's learning to type on a Braille writer. He's about mastered it. And he's learning to read Braille. There are two other boys in his classroom."
He also is learning a few things from little brother.
"He and Chandler spend a lot of time together, and Chandler teaches Christian how to be a typical little boy. Christian learns to mimic from what he hears and feels. He's learned from Chandler how to climb up on the sink and turn on the faucet."
And Christian has taught his father to view the world through different eyes.
Says Chris, "He doesn't see fault in anybody. He sees people for who they really are and not what they look like. He's so cheerful and doesn't let anything get him down. He's pretty much fearless. He helps me look at everything in a new light."
The 32-year-old State Farm Insurance adjuster says that his favorite thing to do with his two youngsters is "wrestle together, play on the ground and get dirty. Christian loves to wrestle and roughhouse. Chandler loves to help me fix stuff. As they are getting older, I'm trying to incorporate other things. Next spring I may take them out fishing."
Asked what has been the most difficult part of the journey since Christian was born, Lacey answers, "Surgery is the hardest thing for sure. Watching him go through it, and he's hurting and doesn't know why.
"He has had seven surgeries. We don't know how many more there will be, but it could be dozens. We know other people with similar cleft who had from 30 to 50. Christian's next one will possibly be a lip revision so his lips will be more normal. That may be in the summer."
The super mom says she draws her courage from those closest to her.
"I've been blessed with a lot of strong people in my life. My parents [Wayne and Kathy Taylor] who loved me. I think that's where it started, and over the years I've know a lot of great people," said Lacey, 29, who lived in Auburntown and Smyrna before moving to Woodbury with her family when she was 10.
About her unyielding faith, she brings up the name of Mallie Taylor, her paternal grandmother, who died in 2013 at the age of 103.
"At every birthday after she turned 90, she used to say, 'The secret to a long life is to trust in the Lord.' She always went to church. I went with her a lot when I was younger [at Prosperity Baptist Church near Auburntown].
"She would tell me that when she died she wanted to donate her eyes to Christian so he could see. Of course, that was not possible, but I couldn't tell her as I didn't want to burst her bubble."
Among the other super heroes who have provided assistance above and beyond the norm in the past few years, she names her friend, Marisa Graham, who helped Christian get reconstructive surgery in Indianapolis; Dr. Roberto Flores, who performed what Lacey refers to as "miracle surgery" on Christian; and the staff at Special Kids Therapy and Nursing Center in Murfreesboro.
"Christian still goes there. He's been going almost his whole life. He now goes once a week for a 30-minute therapy. Special Kids has been a community where, when we didn't have the answers on how to help Christian, they had the answers. They are helping him learn to live in a world where everybody else has vision," said Lacey.
The rookie author began working on her book in June.
"Studying for the bar and trying to write the book at the same time, it was a struggle. It's been a roller coaster," said Lacey, who passed the bar in October and would like to open her law practice this summer in Woodbury and Murfreesboro.
"I want to do disability advising and help families who have been in positions like mine and don't know how to navigate. I want to help them navigate through it."
She said her goal in writing Through the Eyes of Hope is to help others understand "how God takes tragic circumstances and can turn them into something beautiful and how it applies to them. They're reading my story, but there's nothing really special about me. Tragic circumstances don't have to define us. We can overcome and come out better than we were before."
She also hopes that others will realize that families of people with special needs "are a lot more alike than different. We want the same things anybody wants. We want our kids to have friends, to be accepted and not be bullied. We want them to be successful in life. It just takes more work to get to their goals.
"I like to use the term different ability instead of disability. We've all got a disability. It's the same with Christian. He can do anything anybody else can do. He just has to do it differently than other people. I always say different is not less.
"When we choose to love others despite their differences, we glorify God in His creation," said the writer, budding attorney, wife and remarkable mother. "Instead of hearing people say, 'I'm sorry,' as if Christian had died, I want to hear, 'Congratulations! Christian is learning to survive and thrive in this world.'"
