An encouraging story of a 4-year-old girl with spina bifida, taking her first steps with cheering classmates by her side will warm your hearts today.
Kenydii Parker of Durham, North Carolina, was captured on video by her aunt who posted it on her Facebook and has garnered 4 million views and shared by almost 100,000 people.
Today starts Day 2 come on my luv you got this#Never say never#GOD has the last word🙏🏾🙏🏾This is truly the happiest day of her life💯❤️#Spina Bifida
Posted by Yvette BlaqueVette Parker on Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Her dad, Kenneth Parker said, “We were surprised by the views, but we weren’t surprised by the love,” he adds, “We always knew she was a special child.”
Kenydii’s parents, Kenneth and Terry Parker, said that when they learned their seventh child would have spina bifida, they were taken aback.
This debilitating condition, where the baby’s spinal cord fails to develop properly, can cause physical and intellectual complications depending on the severity of the child’s case.
Kenneth continued, “It felt like our world crashed down because the way [doctors] described it made it seem like the end of the world,” he said. “We prayed about it and stood strong. We knew that whatever this child would go through, we would go through it with her.”
Although she has had five major surgeries, two on her head and three on her legs, her dad said, some of his hardest moments as a parent were when Kenydii told him that she wants to walk like the other kids.
He says, “Sometimes I have to leave the room and get myself together when she says things like that, I never want her to think she’s a pity child.”
And Kenydii has a constant smile through it all.
“Anybody that encounters Kenydii falls in love with her at first sight. She is always smiling, talking and laughing,” Parker said. “To some she may not seem like a perfect child, but she is perfect to us.”
Her parents enrolled her in a developmental needs pre-K class in November at W.G. Pearson Elementary School in Durham. Her two teachers, Katie McGonnell and Kim Tisdale, said Kenydii is “a blessing” to the class.
Tisdale said, “Kenydii is such a cheerful little girl — always so happy. Her personality is so big. Much bigger than her wheelchair.”
With a never-say-die attitude, Kenydii was using a wheelchair for months after a major surgery, but then came a day when she decided she was going to walk.
“She began walking in the hallway so we brought her outside so her classmates could cheer her on,” McGonnell said. “It was a really big day and so amazing to watch. It was her first day walking and you would’ve thought she’d been doing it her whole life.”
Her amazing support system at school and home is the reason she will thrive said her dad. “Anybody who encounters Kenydii wants to help her because she has a good heart,” Parker said.
“The day after she walked in front of her class she was asking to do the stairs,” McGonnell said. “She has so much grit. She’s such a special little girl.”
‘Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.’ Philipians 1:6.