I want to introduce you to my little miracle. His name is Blake Isaac Henderson he was born May 6, 2009 and weighed 3lbs 2oz and was 16 in long.
Now i want to tell you a little about His story. It all started when i was pregnant and my OBGYN referred me to a specialist in Jackson, Ms because she noticed he was 2 weeks behind normal in growth. The specialist did a magnified ultrasound and looked very closely at every part of my little man. The doctor noticed 3 things that weren’t quite right. One of his kidneys leaked, he had fluid on his brain, and he had a VSD (hole in heart). The doctor told me for a baby to have those three things usually means they have Down Syndrome. So the doctor ordered me to have an amniocentesis. I had to wait two weeks for the result to come back. Those two weeks were the longest and scarriest two weeks of my life. I remember praying and telling God, ” I dont know if i can take care of a normal baby, how am I supposed to know how to take care of one with problems.?” After that i decided God would take care of it and I let him be in control. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I got the results back and they were negative. I instantly praised God. Here i was 19 years old and single and I knew God wouldn’t give more than i could handle. I had to follow up with specialist still because of his health issues. Every visit it seemed like every one of his problems healed on their own. Untill my last appoinment with the specialist. They noticed his hole in his heart was shrinking but now all of a sudden his heart had a leaking valve. My first question was ” Is he going to make it, Is he going to be ok?” Finally an answer, the doctor said ” yes, we just need to get him out early because you may have an infection in your uterus that keeps attacking him.” Well then i worried about only being 7 months and that would make him be 8 weeks premature… They ended up taking him sooner than i thought and took him the next week. 
After he was born they ran tests and everything had healed. I was so relieved now his only problem was his prematurity. He would have to gain weight and then get to come home and we could live a happy life. We were staying at a hotel down the street from the hospital because i couldn’t be away from him and home was an hour away. At four something in the morning my cell phone rang, it was the hospital. I made my mom answer, they said Blake was getting weak and his body wasn’t holding enough sodium. We rushed there immediately. The doctor in the NICU blake was in came out and talked to me. He had called Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, LA and they were going to transport Blake there. Both hospitals thought it would be better considering CH had a thousand of specialists for children and they could test him and see if they could figure out what was going on. He arrived at CH in NOLA safe and sound on May 17th.
We stayed there at the Hospital for two weeks and watched doctor after doctor come in and out. Neurologist, urologists, cardiologists, genetists all ran tests on him. Finally the genetic doctor said he went back to look at my amnio results from my pregnancy and realized Blake’s 4th chromosome was missing a piece and it attached to the 17th chromosome. So many things went racing through my head like, what does that mean?, is he going to be ok?, why didnt they see this before?, what to do now?, and i felt relieved because i thought, we finally know whats wrong now we can fix it. The doctor went on and told me all about the syndrome, the characteristics, health risks, and said we wouldn’t know the severity of the health risks untill he was older. Automatically that was a good sign he said “older” which meant he would grow and be ok to me. Immediately i looked for support groups and information about this syndrome. Read everything i could and i never found anything like this website before. I prayed to God about it and became determined that my little boy meant more to me than anything who cares what everyone else sees him as I see him as perfect but sick and i was willing to do anything for him. Blake spent the rest of his time at the hospital he had a partial cleft palate with everything else. It was hard for him to eat but they wanted to wait for him to turn one to correct his cleft palate. They put a temporary feeding tube in him and finally he reached five lbs and was able to come home. 
We made it home from the hospital for the first time, with my baby boy on August 27th 2009. I was so happy i never went anywhere home health came here for him and i stayed and played with him 24/7. I was so happy because i could finally be him mom without nurses and doctors around and life was so good.. Better yeat life was PERFECT. On September 5th i woke up to my world turned upside down, caught in a nightmare i still cant escape. Jesus called Blake home early that morning. The autopsy and death certificate says nothing. It wasnt sids it was his syndrome something all the doctors never warned me of at all. I found this website a few days ago and like i mentioned earlier i searched for things like this information and i never found one like this. I feel like if i and the doctors knew more about this I might still have my angel or at least been prepared for him not to make it. But now i have an angel and i want his name to live on. His second birthday is coming up on May 6th 2011 i want everyone who would like to, to wear something yellow on that day in memory of him. He loved yellow and ducks were his favorite thing.
Thank you for making this website and letting me have a chance to share Blake’s story. I want my angel to make a difference.
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This is my grand son and my baby daughter. We lived through this and want to give God the credit for how we have survived. My 19 year old daughter had a rough time but was such an awesome mother. I also thank you for this website. We had nothing to go to 2 years ago when he was born. The encyclopedia was about it and it wasn’t very promising or very informative.
I am so sorry for the loss of your son. I can tell this has been a very painful journey for you, and I hope that in the process of writing Blake’s story for us, you might have found a little bit of healing. You have brought him great honor by paying him tribute here. He will be remembered!
I run the web site and am thankful that you found us. I am sure that it was difficult for you to write about Blake so long after his passing. I can only wish that we were here for you when he first joined us.
Thank you for sharing his story and keeping his name alive with us. We will always remember him as part of our family…
Thank you for sharing the story of Blake’s life and his precious pictures. I’m sure you must still be trying to understand the reason he was only here for such a short time. But what a beautiful and dedicated mom you are to love him so much and honor his memory so beautifully. I will wear yellow for him and for you- in this community we understand what you went through in those months and I’m so sorry it had to turn out so tragically for you. I can’t imagine going through that at 19 because I had my son when I was 32 so you are a very special and lovely woman in my eyes, I pray you find healing from this experience and many more happy memories to cherish in family and in children.
Your story about Blake was my 1st to read on this website; I had to commend you personally for sharing his life and mostly keeping your faith with God. My own experiences with my daughter whom has WHS, I know without God we would not have survived. I will always keep you & Blake in my prayers.
Thank You all so much, I have always wanted to use Blake’s life even as short as it was as a witness to others and to help others going through the same thing. This website has been a true blessing to me it makes me happy to know he can touch other’s lives as well as he did mine and the people who knew and loved him. This has helped me to heal some. I have read all the stories on here and I will continue to pray for all these wonderful children and their families. These kids are blessings and I have so much love and respect for all of you. Thank you for all of your words of kindness and prayers. You will never know how greatly appreciated they are.
Thank you for sharing Blake’s story and his beautiful pictures. I am so sorry for your loss. I am so glad that you found this site. You are such a srong, caring and loving mother. Because of you Blake’s name will live on. I will be wearing yellow for you both on his birthday. You are all in my prayers.
What a beautiful little boy. i am so very sorry for your loss and i will wear yellow on his birthday. Keep strong and i will be thinking of you and your family. God bless.
Bekah, you are so brave to share your story. Thankyou. I have been in tears reading your experience and feeling your pain. I lost my son Connor in 2008. He was stillborn at 37 weeks. I chose not to have a post mortem, but I firmly believe he had WHS like my daughter Sabrina. I was 19 like you. Blake will be with you always in your heart. And he is a real cutie too, loved the photos. Will be wearing yellow on may 6th 🙂
I am so proud of you bek, your story will touch so many lives as you and blake have touched mine. He will forever be loved and will forever live threw you.
this strong mommy is one of my closest friends i had to watch her go through this horrible circumstance i wish she had never had to go through but baby blake was one of the most precious babys i have ever see he was the sweetest thing i am so happy that bekah got to share her story here love you girl and love little blake
I know this story will touch many lives as he touched all of ours…He is your lil angel that watches over you everyday.I stand by you for being such a strong women and wonderful mother. The kids and I will gladly wear yellow on May 6th for Baby Blake.. I love you girl
Thank you so much for sharing your story. It must have been hard to write but I hope you know he will forever through the pictures and memories you share with us. I will wear yellow on his birthday in honor of a very brave family!
Thank you so much for sharing a piece of Blake with us. Taylor and I will wear yellow on May 6th.
Bekah, I never knew Blakes whole story.. I’m so sorry.. I couldn’t imagine going through the things you have. You are a strong person & Blake was lucky to have such a great mommy! I love & miss you.
Rebekah, thank you for sharing Blake’s story! You are a wonderful mom and he was just beautiful! My family will be wearing yellow in honor of your precious boy’s birthday.
Thank you all so much… I debated about writing this because it has been so long. Then as I thought about it, I realized I wanted blake’s life to have the chance to maybe make a difference in someone else’s life. Blake was special to me and changed my life and I wanted to share it with all of you. You all have amazing gifts from God and I know all the chidren I read about on this website changed me and has given me so much hope..thank you all for remembering us by wearing yellow on Blake’s birthday..
Rebekah, I just wanted to say I love you & am so sorry for what you and your family are going through.. I made it to Blakes babyshower but unfortunatly not to meet him & ONLY because I had Shawn 2 days prior.. Otherwise I would have been there loving on his precious self to.. Im always here if you need anything & May 7th we will be wearing Yellow:)
Bekah,
I am so very sorry for your loss. I am thinking about you and your little angel Blake.
I’ll be wearing yellow on May 6 too.
Thank you for sharing your story and for introducing us to Blake. I will be proud to wear yellow on May 6 in his memory and honor. My little girl is just over a year old now, and I cannot imagine how hard it would have been for me to get through the difficult and emotional first months without this kind of support system. You are an incredibly strong woman, and I wish you nothing but peace and happiness in your life. xo
Im so sorry for your loss.I too lost a baby I had a hard pregnany so they took him at 7months.then in june he was only 2 1/2 months old and I loss him to SIDS!so im so sorry for your heartache.i will as well as my family will wear yellow on his birthday!my daighters favorite color is yellow too.
Tasha that is crazy how much our precious angels have in commom:)
Girl im so sorry about your loss. He is gorgeous and looks like such a happy baby. Me and My little girl will gladly wear yellow May 6th. she acctually wore yellow yesterday and i remembered his page on fb and thought about you. Praying for you and your fam. 🙂
hi Rebekah, I have heard alot about you in the past few years; I’ve never met you, but I’ve often thought about you. I am so sorry for your loss.. I understand how you feel. I don’t share my story, it’s VERY hard.. your brave. I too lost my first son.. He was only 15 hours old, I had just turned 16yrs old. Until recently, I was a walking- depressed, miserable, unfaithful person, looking for any reason not to believe in God and question him. It has taken a long time for me to forgive myself; you are an inspiration to me. I pray that your heart is at ease, and you know that he is in a far better place than here. I will for sure be wearing yellow on may 6th… Just continue to be brave, you’ll be on my mind and in my heart.
I am so sorry for the loss I couldn’t imagine. I don’t know you personally but wanted to let you no I am sorry and tell ur angel in heaven Happy Birthday! I will wear yellow today to remember your sweet little angel
I am so sorry for your loss. I don’t know what I would do. I’m sure he knows how much you love him.