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CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

A family portrait shows mother Janaya Moscony and father John Lukan holding Makoa John Lukan-Mosconyfor the first time, on Feb. 11, nine days after Makoa was born. Today, he is healthy and weighs nearly 11 pounds.

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Delivery unit at Children's Hospital saves newborns' lives

Would her baby live? Should she end the pregnancy? Could her baby have a normal life?

Helpless

Janaya couldn't sleep.

Instead, she sat at her computer, searching for information, studies, anything that might help her understand what was going on - and decide what to do.

Research was something she was good at.

She discovered that most gastroschisis cases involve younger women - those in their late teens or early 20s.

So maybe it wasn't that.

Older mothers were more likely to carry babies with omphalocele. But those babies were at higher risk of having other birth defects.

She was overwhelmed. Could the baby have even more problems?

Janaya had never contemplated any of this when she and her partner, John Lukan, decided they wanted to have a baby.

It was a remarkable leap, considering their rough start.

They'd met in 2003, when the finance business John ran hired Janaya's newly formed consulting firm to perform a "mock" audit. He wanted to make sure his company was complying with federal securities law.

John insisted on quick black-and-white answers. But Janaya, who lived in Hawaii at the time, explained to him repeatedly that there were only shades of gray.

Janaya thought he was a jerk, just a pushy CEO. She knew what she was doing.

The next year, John hired Janaya again. By then, Janaya, who had grown up in Drexel Hill, had moved back to the area. Again, they didn't get along. But at a business dinner meant to smooth things over, John's interest moved from the professional to the personal.

He had separated from his wife in 1999. Janaya was single.

Six months later, they went on a date: dinner at Buddakan. The relationship grew from there, and when Janaya bought the house in Phoenixville in November 2005, John moved in.

John, 11 years her senior, reversed his vasectomy in January 2007.

When months passed and they still didn't get pregnant, Janaya got a prescription and took a fertility pill.

Problem solved.

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