Three years after tying the knot, Jason and Clarissa Osborn wanted what any couple wants—to start a family.
After welcoming their son Carter in 2013, Clarissa developed brain tumors that required radiation treatment and prevented her from conceiving naturally.
Still, the couple wanted to grow their family and give Carter a brother or sister.
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With the help of IUI (intrauterine insemination), Clarissa was able to become pregnant with their second child, a daughter, named Shanna.
But at her 20-week ultrasound, the Osborns learned their perfect little angel had a rare heart defect caused by a chromosomal condition called 22q11. Doctors prepared the parents for their daughter to have open heart surgery just days after birth.
All went well, and baby Shanna was brought home to meet her big brother, Carter, just one month after she was born in April 2016.
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“Carter got to love on her and was thrilled to have a little sister,” says Clarissa. “Things were going well. Then one Sunday morning, we awoke to a cry we had never heard before.”
They ran to check on their daughter, who stopped breathing moments later. Jason performed CPR on Shanna until paramedics arrived.
“They tried and tried to resuscitate her,” says Clarissa, “but it was too late.”
Shanna died from the congenital heart defect just three months after she was born.
Jason and Clarissa were devastated. There was a permanent hole in their family.