Sam Rader made the happiest announcement of his life on a viral video. Three days later, he made the saddest announcement the same way.
Rader and his wife, Nia, became viral video stars on August 5, when the 29-year-old did a pregnancy test on his wife's urine, which he took out of the toilet.
When he surprised her by telling her that it came back positive, the couple was ecstatic.
But on Saturday, they announced she had a miscarriage.
The heartbroken couple grieved in an online video entitled, “Our Baby Had a Heartbeat,” uploaded to YouTube on August 8.
“It just hit us like a bomb,” Nia said.
She wished she had known of the pregnancy earlier, so she could have had more time to bond with her unborn child, she said.
Nia, 26, said that her experience made her feel greater empathy for other parents who had lost children. “The Bible says to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn, and I am mourning with those of you who are feeling this,” Nia said. “I have felt my womb empty out.”
Nia revealed in an August 9 video that a had friend contacted her to tell her she, too, had miscarried. (Sam announced in the same video that he had quit his job as an E.R. nurse to pursue “this new career we started” online.)
The Texas couple said they will never forget the few days between the announcements.
“She [the baby] came and just made the biggest difference in our lives,” Sam said. “It's made me appreciate my children more.”
Nia agreed, saying that she went into her daughter's room and held her sleeping daughter, Symphony. “I felt her heart beating so immensely. And it was just like, 'That is the same heartbeat that was inside my body,'” she said.
“We're so hurt, but we're so thankful that God used us like this,” Sam said. “I just hope that this video continues to be a way for God to shine His light to the world through us. This is a time when especially the U.S. needs that light.”
