After their Mom passed away, Rory Feek, now a single dad, and his baby daughter Indiana have gone through some difficult times.
According to Rory, following his wife’s death, he has received many messages saying his daughter was a mistake. That kind of reaction was caused by the fact that Indiana has Down syndrome. But hopefully there were a lot of supporters, too, whose kind words, advice and concern gave the man strength to adjust to single parenthood.
Finally, in order to address all that negativity, Rory started a blog and posted a powerful message to pay tribute to his adorable girl. That’s what the proud dad wants everyone to understand:
“God doesn’t make mistakes.
Indiana is not less than any other child. Different is not less. Having down-syndrome doesn’t make her life any less meaningful than someone else’s or her dreams or feelings any less important. Not as a child and I suspect, not in the years to come when she grows to be an adult.
Joey and I have since met many many kids and babies with down-syndrome and other special needs. I’ve had the blessing of seeing lots of them at Indiana’s school High Hopes in the past few months alone, and they aren’t less. None of them are. Like typical kids, they come in all shapes and sizes. Some learn faster, some slower. Some are silent and some vocal. Some crawl and walk earlier than others and some, like Indy…take their time. But they are all beautiful. All gifts from heaven above.
Over the past couple of years Joey and I have heard the statistics, and they broke our hearts. They still break mine. That somewhere between 70 – 90% of pregnant mother’s that get tested and learn that their unborn child has down-syndrome abort the baby. I get it though.
The world has told us that they are less. A mistake. But I don’t believe they are. At least I know Indiana’s not. When she was born, Joey and I said, ‘this is the child God wants us to have’, and we believed it. And we were right.
I can not imagine Joey not having those two years to be a mama to Indiana and get to experience the love and happiness that Indy brought to her. God knew that. He made it so. It was His gift to her. Like Indy is my gift now. She is the smile on the face of father who should be crying. She is the joy in the life of a family that should be filled with sadness.
And you also see a baby born near the beginning that is not the child we expected. But by the end, you – like us – realize that she’s not less. She’s more. More wonderful and more precious and even more important to our lives and story than we expected.”
