GRAND RAPIDS — Seniors all across West Michigan are celebrating, even it doesn’t look like it normally would, they're celebrating their accomplishments and hard work. But for Malorie Fox, this accomplishment is actually miraculous.
Malorie was born with spinal muscular atrophy or SMA, doctors told her parents she wouldn’t live to celebrate her 2nd birthday.
“She has far exceeded our wildest dreams. I mean, we didn't for a long time there in the beginning, we didn't dare dream this far. So this is miraculous, amazing. All from God's grace to us,” said her mom, Michelle Fox.
Malorie is now almost 18 years old and getting ready to graduate from Northpointe Christian High School. “It makes me feel proud. I am proud that I’ve beaten the odds,” she said. “I’m really stubborn. I like to not let people tell me what I can and cannot do. So just remembering what the doctors told my parents, I had to prove them wrong.”
And she has certainly proved them wrong. Malorie has played nearly every sport, gone downhill skiing, zip lining and was the first Miss Wheelchair Michigan. In high school, she was also a part of the National Honor Society. Never making excuses, and always pushing herself to her greatest potential.
“Even if it took her a week longer than everybody else. She's going to do it. She doesn't want any special accommodations or favors. If kids her age are doing it, she wants to do it,” her mom said. “We have always made it our goal to give her as normal of a life as possible, get her involved in as many things as everyone else her age is doing. And I think just setting goals and going for them and doing whatever we can to make her life full of joy, and full of experience.”
Malorie plans to attend Cornerstone University in the fall to study psychology and child development with the goal of working as child life specialist in the future.
“It just shows how good God is, not only have I beaten the odds that doctors gave us, but I’ve done so much more and I hope that gives other people hope,” she said.
