31 Days of CF: Love Casts a Bright Light

by Bionews Staff | May 21, 2021

Photo courtesy of Sara Popescu Slavikova

Day 21 of 31

This is Sara Popescu Slavikova’s story:

Our baby turns 1 this month! She chose to be born in May, in the month of cystic fibrosis awareness, instead of in June, as expected. Last year, we didn’t know what cystic fibrosis was.

Having a newborn was life-changing, but the first few weeks passed in a swirl of chaos. Little did we know that something bigger was coming.

After our daughter’s CF diagnosis, my husband and I had to rewire our whole being and thinking. With the old mindset, we were thinking in terms of endings: the end of life as we knew it, the end of our dreams, the end of our visions of the future we wanted to have as a family, and worst of all, the scariest end, the end of life.

I kept thinking: “Why is life so cruel? Why am I destined to miraculously bring life to this world and then witness her dying? No matter how much I will do or give. Am I really destined to watch my child die?”

But as we were falling into this bottomless dark pit, all confused, drowning in tragedy, something amazing happened. Above us shone a light — a very bright light, warming, powerful, pleasant, and cheerful.

As soon as we fixed our gaze upon it, we no longer felt like we were falling. Maybe we haven’t been falling at all. Maybe we have been rising. So strange was the sensation.

Now I know that this light is the most powerful force in the world — and this force is LOVE.

Immense love exists between us. The love of your child to you. The love you have for your child. The love you have for your partner.

Love has power beyond our understanding. We do not need to understand it. We just need to allow it to raise us up.

I have realized that it doesn’t matter how much time we have together or what is going to happen. Our daughter’s light has been with us since the time she chose us to be her guardians and that’s all we need to live for in this lifetime.

Cystic Fibrosis News Today’s 31 Days of CF campaign will publish one story per day for Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month in May. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more stories like this, using the hashtag #31DaysofCF, or go here to see the full series.

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Bionews Staff Bionews, the owner and publisher of this site, employs science writers and editors, most of whom have PhDs in the life sciences, as well as veteran journalists, who ensure stories are well-written and easy to understand. Our stories undergo a comprehensive fact-checking and editing process to confirm accuracy, objectiveness, and thoroughness in order to best serve our audience of patients and caregivers.