All to often, well-meaning friends family members, or even strangers tell Katie Crenshaw they’re praying for her daughter.
Crenshaw wants them to stop. Her daughter, Charlie Crenshaw was born with a capillary hemangioma on her face, which Crenshaw says is the first thing most people notice about her baby.
“We don’t need to talk about it every time you look at her. We see past the color of her face. Charlie is Charlie and it’s part of who she is. It doesn’t need to be constantly commented on, critiqued, or questioned,” Crenshaw penned in a blog post.
Charlie’s hemangioma looks like a giant strawberry birthmark across her right cheek. Crenshaw says it’s a tumor, but removing it would be purely cosmetic.
“She isn’t in pain or ill. She simply has an unusual quality about her appearance. The most common sentiments are ‘I’m praying that it goes away.’ Or ‘Bless her poor little heart.'”
The mother begs those well-intentioned individuals to stop.
” … What if I came up to you and loudly asked ‘What’s wrong with your baby’s weird ____ ?’ Or, ‘I will pray for your child that her (genetically unusual quality) goes away.’
“Just consider that. Consider that you are offering to pray away one of my daughter’s beautiful features that makes her who she is.”
But Crenshaw isn’t against prayer entirely. Rather, she wants offered prayers to focus on developing Charlie into a confident woman rather than someone focused on outward beauty.
“I encourage you to, instead of praying it will disappear, pray that she grows into a confident girl who loves herself no matter what she looks like. Pray that constant comments and opinions from friends, family and strangers will end before she’s old enough to overhear them. Pray that she will be a strong person in the in an age where we are bullied for any number of reasons,” Crenshaw says.
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