credit:www.hefty.co
It was a wonderful day for Scott Garside and Emma Newman of Withernsea in East Yorks, England, the day their daughter Charlotte was born. But it turned out to be a terrifying one as well. The baby, their third, had a condition so rare it doesn’t even have a name.
She was born with a strange case of primordial dwarfism. According to the doctors that day, Charlotte probably wouldn’t even reach her first birthday. She weighed barely one pound and was only ten inches long.
Emma, 30, had no choice but to dress her daughter in dolls’ clothes. To carry her, she'd put Charlotte in the front pocket of her sweatshirt. They made special diapers for her, each one the size of a credit card.
Then Charlotte’s first birthday came and went, and her second… There were health struggles, like the cysts in her liver and a weakened immune system. But this little girl wasn’t going anywhere.
As she approached school age, her mother had concerns: “Of course, I was worried she could get hurt by the other children, but she has her own tutor look after her and she's not as fragile as you'd think.”
Charlotte grew into a cheerful, curious child. At five and now an eager elementary school student, she’s still wearing baby clothes and measures just 26 inches tall. She’s smaller than her teddy bear — and the family’s cat!
Teachers assessed her as having the mental age of a 3-year-old but her parents can’t help being proud of her, with good reason. “Although Charlotte is a one-in-a-million baby with some health problems, she is not the sort of person who will fade into the background,” her mother said.
“There are a lot of unknowns but Charlotte has a way of surprising you when you least expect it. We didn't know if she would live this long“, Emma explained.
What a beautiful child. As the saying goes, 'Small as a mouse, but brave as a lion!' We hope Charlotte will continue surprising her parents and everyone else for years to come!
