A Christian couple was told by doctors that the baby they adopted likely wouldn’t live past her first birthday, but eight years later little Daley Faith is forging on and beautifully defying their expectations.
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Ann and Dale McKinney told Live Action the moving story about how they adopted Daley after the adoptive parents who originally took her in discovered her disabilities and felt ill-equipped to deal with them. According to Ann McKinney, Daley’s birth mom was quite young and didn’t receive prenatal care that would have detected Daley’s severe disabilities.
After Daley’s birth, the original adoptive family assumed the baby was fine, but about six weeks into her life she started experiencing complications.
“Her head began to swell and she became very agitated. A trip to the ER and a subsequent MRI showed that she was missing about 70 percent of her brain,” McKinney said, noting that doctors gave Daley a dire diagnosis. “Her head was swelling because spinal fluid was filling the space where brain should have been. She had surgery to have a VP shunt placed in her brain to drain the excess fluid.”
After the adoptive family decided to stop the process, the McKinneys stepped in and immediately took in the child when she was just 4 months old — and they’ve never looked back.
Ever since, Daley has defied the odds and has survived well beyond what was expected. Meanwhile, she has inspired the McKinneys as the family has adopted a total of 12 kids, nine of them — including Daley — have special needs. In a 2012 interview, McKinney and her husband, Dale, explained how their faith has motivated the creation of an uncommon and inspirational family.
“We feel like God’s asked us to do this,” Dale McKinney told the Herald & Review. “I can’t imagine life without any of them.”
As for Daley, Ann McKinney told Live Action that she believes the little girl brings intense joy to all those she encounters, despite her severe disabilities that prevent her from walking, talking and sitting up.
“I truly believe she shares the love of the Lord [through her] beautiful smile,” she told Live Action. “I thank the Lord every day that He brought her into my life, and that I didn’t ‘miss out’ because it was too hard, too scary, or because I didn’t want to give up so much of my life. I feel so close to the Lord when I am with her.”
McKinney made similar comments in a 2015 interview after Daley received a swing from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, saying that the little girl is quite “special.”
The McKinneys are also in the process of adopting another child from China who has the same diagnosis as Daley. Read more about the incredible story here.
(H/T: Live Action)