Here is a feel good story for your weekend (well, depending on how you look at it). Little Ava Grace Milam suffered a stroke while she was still in the womb:

“They didn’t know at the time how bad, but they knew it was bad,” Milam said.

Doctors found blood in Ava’s brain and her body had stopped growing after the stroke.

“They asked for an abortion because they didn’t know if she’d be able to do much more because of brain damage,” Milam admitted.

But her parents weren’t buying it:

Instead, Ava’s parents gave their daughter a chance at life and she has beaten the odds.

“She shows emotion. They said she wouldn’t be able to do that–that she would just exist, is what they told us,” she continued.

Ava laughs, cries and eats like normal babies, even though doctors had predicted she’d need a feeding tube.

The stroke did affect her in some ways, however, and she’s showing signs of cerebral palsy. But the family is still not giving up. They are hoping that stem cell treatments from umbilical cord blood will help little Ava’s progress in the future.

In a world where somewhere between 50-80% of parents probably would have opted for the abortion (under heavy pressure from their doctors, no doubt), it is nice to see a family risk loving a child that is not perfectly healthy.

HT: Dawn Patrol