The "April Rose" Scam

I follow a few blogs. It's kind of an addiction really. I like to see how other moms do things and I like to get ideas for activities and dinners and whatever else I can find. It's kind of fun. I LOVE Jennifer's blog, aka MckMama, and have been following it for quite a while. Back in February I was lead to Angie's blog, Bring the Rain. I seriously spent two days reading her story from the beginning and crying and wanting to get to know this loving, sweet lady. I cannot imagine knowing the child you were carrying was not going to be yours for long and would return to the Heavenly Father. So I started reading more blogs about similar situations and mothers whose babies had been diagnosed in the womb with a terminal disease and the mothers chose to carry the baby for as long as they could. It was touching and thought-inducing and I cried a lot!

There was a blog about a 20 something year old woman who was pregnant with a baby, April Rose, that was diagnosed with full Trisomy 13, among other things. Doctors told her to terminate early but she refused, wanting to put it in God's hands. She had thousands upon thousands of readers. She was always talking about her Christian faith and love for God. She had T-shirts made for the cause and people bought them to wear proudly, all proceeds I assume going to April Rose. There were addresses for donations and gift cards, gifts, whatever else. Very sad stuff, her feelings all along were heartbreaking. Fast forward to a couple of days ago. April Rose was finally born, being 41 weeks, and was only 4lbs. Updates went on for about a day, but the details were a bit off. Things weren't adding up. People began questioning her and leaving comments, some quite nasty. Then there were posts about her heart rate declining and her breathing slowing. A pic was posted of April, then removed. A letter from the baby's daddy was posted saying things about how they are hurt that so many people would be so rude and that they were going to use the blog for updates only. Then the whole blog disappeared.

So come to find out it was all a hoax. Beccah Rose Beushausen, the "mom" made it all up in a shady way of getting people to send her money and whatever else, perhaps maybe she just needed attention. I guess that she had a website for her art that has since disappeared, as well as her twitter, facebook and myspace accounts. The picture she posted that was supposedly April Rose was actually a doll!

It just breaks my heart. I read her story and felt for her. But what really makes me upset is the fact that there are actually women who experience this kind of heartache and she preyed on that to earn their trust and then exploited it. Not to mention all the people who prayed for her and sent donations and kind gifts. She had us all fooled and it makes me so incredibly sad that this all went down. I actually feel really bad for this woman, she is obviously in need of some mental help and I hope that she is able to get the real help she needs.

I guess it just goes to show that you can't always believe what you read. We need to be careful who we trust. I know I will be more careful from now on, but I will NEVER stop praying for someone who asks for prayer!