A couple from Wisconsin, US take in sick and dying babies so that they are given love on their final days.
Cori and Mark Salchert foster what Cori calls “hospice babies”, infants who have a life-limiting diagnosis and whose parents have given up guardianship.
Cori, who used to be a registered nurse and perinatal bereavement specialist at the Hope After Loss Organisation, started caring for these babies when she was left without a job following an autoimmune disorder.
"There was no judgment on my part that the parents should just be able to deal with the circumstances. But I thought, ‘wow, I would really like to take those kiddos and care for them’,” Cori told Sheboygan Press.
Cori and Mark, who are already parents to eight children, fostered their first baby, Emmalynn, back in 2012, and the youngster, who was born without the left or right hemisphere of her brain, passed away at just 50-days-old while in the arms of her foster mum.
Their second foster child, Jayden, overcame his medical diagnosis and, thankfully, was well enough to be adopted by a cousin of his biological parents.
Admitting that it was hard to deal with the loss of Emmalynn and sending Jayden to a new home, Cori asked her biological children if they should do it again, to which her daughter replied: "Mum, what if some kid really needs us and you're just sitting here with a broken heart?"
They are currently caring for Charlie, a little boy who has hypoxic ischemic brain encephalopathy, and knowing that he will die shortly Cori is determined that the youngster knows he is loved while he is here.
"He will die, there's no changing that. But we can make a difference in how he lives, and the difference for Charlie is that he will be loved before he dies. These children need nurses, but the overarching thing is, they need mums," she said.
"Too many people never do anything because they can't do everything and can't save everyone. For me, even though I can't help every child, I'm happy to make a difference in the lives of a few."
