By Dave Andrusko
We do our fair share of work to figure out who our readership consists of. There are many, many young people (more females than males, BTW) but also a lot of readers of an age to have children and even grandchildren.
So when Walt Manis who is part of a filmmaking ministry in Austin, Texas called Moving Work, emailed me asking whether I might be interested in a short film titled “Darcy,” I said “Yes,” as soon as I learned it was the story of Tracy and Jason Ramos, who’d been told that their unborn baby had Trisomy 18.
Many of us in the pro-life community know that Trisomy 18 is a very severe genetic anomaly. Many of these babies die in utero. Those who survive until birth typically do not live very long.
Thus, as we immediately learn in the video’s opening interview, once Tracy and Jason learned of their baby’s condition, they expected doctors to present the same “option” as had most of the specialists they’d consulted: abortion.
After all, their baby, whom they named Darcy, also had cysts not only in her brain but in parts of different organs-and holes in her heart as well. And in moments like this even devout believers like the Ramoses ask themselves questions. This back and forth exchange is riveting:
[Tracy] Should I continue to go through this pregnancy as though she is going to live?
Plan a baby shower?
Or do I just go and live as if she won’t?
[Jason]We just knew that Darcy was God’s.
And we just trusted in His Sovereignty with whatever he was going to do with that time.
[Tracy] I always relied on that, “He will never leave you nor forsake you.”
And every time we hit a bump in the road, God was there.
He would send somebody, some thing.
The film is only a little over 11 minutes long, and it would be utterly unfair of me to rob you of the power of watching the film, difficult as it is to watch. Let me just add two things.
First, they asked for prayers-for healing-and received them from around the world. Within a month, almost all the related conditions, including the brain cysts, “were gone.” All that remained were the holes in Darcy’s heart and, of course, the Trisomy 18.
Second, this is a story first and foremost about love and faith and what the Ramoses remind us of over and over and over again: God’s faithfulness. Their tenderness to Darcy, and their desire to pack in as many experiences for her as possible as quickly as possible makes you want to get to know them as people.
You can watch “Darcy” at youtube.com.