TO US HE'S PERFECT

Their baby was born without arms and he's the greatest gift they could ever have received

- JACO HOUGH-COETZEE

THE baby boy's legs kick wildly as he lies on the carpet of his parent's living room until he manages to roll himself onto his tummy. His head swivels toward his mom and dad, who are sitting watching him.

His gaze meets theirs and from his expression, it's clear he wants to be picked up. And right now, please.

Hendré Strauss is eight months old, an age at which most infants would be able to sit unaided. But Hendré was born without arms and so has to rely on his parents, Mariaan and Hendrik Strauss, to help him up.

"What is it, boetie? Do you want to come and sit here with us?" Mariaan (25) asks before she picks him up and settles him on the sofa between her and Hendrik (26).

Hendrik puts a teddy bear in front of his son and Hendré grabs the toy between his feet, pulling it towards himself.

We're chatting to the young couple, who married in April 2011, at their home in Hennenman in the northern Free State. They were thrilled when they discovered they were pregnant with their first child.

"When the test showed positive, we cried together, Hendrik recalls.

They were just as excited when Mariaan went for her first sonar scan at 13 weeks. Little did they know how things would turn out.

"The doctor looked at the sonar for a long time," Mariaan says. "Then he said that he was having trouble seeing the second arm. He referred us to a specialist in Bloemfontein who did a second sonar, three weeks later. He told us our baby didn't have arms."

There was no definitive explanation for why some babies don't fully develop, the specialist told them. Their best option was to terminate, he added.

MARIAAN and Hendrik fall silent as they remember that day, the only sound to be heard the whooshing of a fan battling the Free State heat.

Then Mariaan picks up the story. "I did think about it," she says.