Regardless of whether labor is long or short, whether it is hard or easy, whether a baby is born vaginally or by cesarean, most parents recall the first hours and days after birth as crystal-clear images surrounded by haze. It is in this haze that parents first take in their baby and make a giant leap from pregnancy to parenting.

However, for one set of first-time parents in Scotland, a serious birth defect, gastroschisis, threatened to rip away the “Oh, the sweet love of a baby born.”

Gastroschisis is a congenital condition where babies are born with their intestines protruding from a hole in their abdominal wall. Other vital organs, like the stomach and liver, can also be found outside the body at birth.

And the young couple in Scotland has just three little words to describe their newborn who fought through gastroschisis, “wee hardy Highlander.” Read their beautiful journey to becoming a family.

Becoming a good parent means much more than knowing a lot about babies. Ask pediatric doctors or nurses what it was like for them to be new parents. They will tell you that not all their baby knowledge was enough to keep them from being overwhelmed by their own babies.

All new parents feel the same way. All new parents work at knowing, understanding, and loving their babies. The baby will work just as hard at learning to know, understand, and love. This is the process of attachment—the work that parents and babies do together to form a deep and lasting love. It is what becoming a family is all about. And not even gastroschisis stands a chance of dividing a love like that.