Parents Acacia Hunia, 30, and Joseph Hunia, 29, from Wellington, New Zealand, were concerned about what their future would look like after their daughter Nova was born with severe hearing and breathing difficulties.
However, watching an inspirational documentary about vlogger Marimar Quiora produced by Barcroft TV changed their outlook.
They realized that Nova’s facial differences need not define her.
Watch the story of Nova in the video below.
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Video credit: Rumble
Acacia said: “It was really overwhelming at first because you have this idea of what your life is going to be like with a child. Then Nova came, and everything is just completely different.
“For us, it was kind of like, where do we fit in?, how am I going to know if Nova is going to have a good life? I needed to find somebody that was similar.
“I found myself on Barcroft TV and there’s this one woman with a facial difference and she’s just living her best life and she doesn’t care.
“Seeing a video like that for me was just amazing and I was like, this could be us, this could be Nova.”
Having Nova taught both parents about what it means to care for and raise a child with a disability.
Acacia said: “Having a child with a physical difference has taught us to be kind. Be kind to others, be kind to ourselves.”
“This is probably a motto of ours now, it’s just be kind,” added Joseph.
“The biggest lesson we’ve learned with Nova is patience. It’s a massive one for us, we are always waiting in hospitals, waiting on information, waiting on just learning new things.”
While Nova may be slightly behind others of her age group, the couple is still impressed with the way she’s been improving and celebrate every milestone. When Nova recently started to walk, her parents were overjoyed.
Joseph said: “One area we’ve seen huge leaps for Nova is her motor skills.
“She really developed her walking; she’s always had really good fine motor skills. But lately, it’s just been running, trying to jump and lots of new signs.”
Acacia added: “I think because she took so long to crawl, she went straight into bum shuffling but that was only after her first birthday.
“When we finally got her to walk, I was amazed.”
The film about the beauty vlogger convinced them that anything is possible for Nova and this has given them hope for a brighter future with much laughter.
Joseph said: “Our hopes for Nova’s future is that she just lives life to the fullest.
“She is confident in who she is and just embraces life. She meets new people, learns life skills and just really gets on her with her full enjoyable life.”
Acacia added: “I want Nova’s story to inspire others because although her facial difference may describe her, it doesn’t define her.”
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