Doctors said little Finley might never walk or talk, but mom Christina vowed to make her daughter’s dream come true
IN THE SPRING OF 2016, 2-year-old Finley Smallwood was watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show with her mom, Christina, when another child appeared on the screen and started dancing. A look of awe took over Finley’s tiny, angelic face. She turned to her mom and said, “I wanna stand up and dance!”
It seemed an impossible goal for Finley, who had been born with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that caused the muscles in her lower extremities to involuntarily spasm, inhibiting control of her legs. “I felt so helpless,” says Christina. “I would have given up my own legs for her in that moment if I could.”
She gently propped Finley up on the couch, turned on a video camera and made the first of what would be many “dance” videos of her daughter. In it, Finley’s smile is wide with joy as she wills her stiff legs to move to the music. Watching Finley’s delight was both heartbreaking and inspiring to Christina, who, at that moment, vowed to do everything in her power to make her daughter’s wish a reality.
BIG DREAMS
A year after their 2011 wedding, Christina and her husband, Josh, planned on starting a family. “I wanted a baby so badly,” she says.
Until this point, Christina, a hairstylist and the daughter of former Major League pitcher and Christian radio host Frank Pastore, had led a fairly charmed life. But a few months later, her father was killed in a motorcycle accident.
Not long after that, Christina learned she was infertile. “I felt like a part of me had died,” she says. “I gained weight and cut off my friends. Looking back, I was clearly depressed.” When Josh tried to comfort her, she got angrier: “How could he understand how I felt?”
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2017 من Good House Keeping - US.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2017 من Good House Keeping - US.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
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