MESQUITE — When you think about the things that weigh a pound, a bottle of Coke or four sticks of butter might come to mind.
But that's also what Brooklyn Adams weighed when she came into this world.
Against the odds, not only did she survive, she has thrived.
Brooklyn is now five years old.
"I remember in the beginning that she only had a 10 percent chance of survival, and if she did survive, doctors told me she would have life-long disabilities," said her mom, Kayla Adams. "To see her now and have her teacher calling me and saying not only is she surviving, but that she's excelling in school and scoring above average on her assessments — it is an absolute miracle."
Kayla just got the news that the baby who once struggled for survival in the neonatal intensive care unit at Medical Center of Plano recently scored above average on standardized tests.
That is a big deal considering just two years ago Brooklyn could not even speak.
"She was unintelligible at the word level when she came in," said Beasley Elementary School speech pathologist Morgan Blunt.
Blunt started working with the vivacious girl at age three. Now five years old, Brooklyn is not only singing the alphabet, but working an iPad in ways would put an adult to shame.
"I would not have expected the growth," Blunt said. "There were a lot of things that were not in her favor."
Adams said it was touch-and-go in the days following Brooklyn's birth. There were nights when doctors said the infant would not make it.
Pictures of newborn Brooklyn show her tiny body was maller than her father's hand.
Now, the prognosis is much better.
Daddy's little girl is slated to enter kindergarten next year with no special education classes.
"This sends a message of hope," Kayla Adams said. "When you are in the NICU, you are just torn with grief, and you are torn with all type of worries. This gives moms a light of hope."
Brooklyn now loves standing at the head of the class and pretending to be the teacher, and she's already thinking about her career as an adult.
"I want to be a doctor and a teacher," Brooklyn said.
She is such an example that this "comeback kid" is participating in the five-mile March for Babies walk to benefit the March of Dimes on Saturday, April 21. It starts at 9 a.m. at Norbuck Park at White Rock Lake in Dallas.
E-mail ddenmon@wfaa.com
