The Bakkers were told their unborn baby wasn’t thriving in the womb and, at 23 weeks gestation, should consider an abortion. They refused, and are now celebrating their little fighter who just took her first steps.

LiveActionNews is reporting on the story of Angela Bakker who was five months pregnant when doctors informed her that her unborn baby girl would likely die due to intrauterine growth restriction. This condition occurs when the placenta does not grow properly and restricts vital nutrition from the baby.

Angela and her husband, Michael, traveled from their home in Reno, Nevada to the University of California at San Francisco to meet with experts in their baby’s condition to get a second opinion. Sadly, the original diagnosis was confirmed and the couple was told to consider abortion.

“‘Not viable with life’, they told us,” the couple wrote on their Facebook page. “‘If by some miracle she lives, she most likely won’t walk’, they told us.”

The Bakkers were people of faith and refused to abort their child. They told doctors that if their daughter was going to die, they wanted her die on her own time and while safe in her mother’s womb.

But that was just the beginning of their battle.

Angela began to develop preeclampsia, a life threatening condition which causes a sudden spike in the mother’s blood pressure. Once again, she was offered abortion and told that at 23 weeks and 6 days gestation, she was just four hours away from the abortion cut-off.

“But they told us that in cases like ours they make exceptions. They said, ‘The law doesn’t even apply to you. That’s how bad your case is’.”

Just then, her baby started kicking. “I thought, that’s her little voice. That’s all she can say.”

They would go through with the pregnancy, even though that meant risking both of their lives. And even if her daughter did survive, she risked being born blind and deaf and possibly have a lifetime of health problems.

Less than two weeks later, on July 1, 2015, little Naomi Joy Bakker heart rate began to drop and she had to be delivered via emergency C-section.

Once again, doctors were not optimistic. Naomi weighed just 364 grams and doctors said babies need to weight at least 450 grams to survive. It was a miracle that a baby this small was even breathing on her own – but she was.

And she continued to do so through a perilous journey involving multiple health emergencies ranging from collapsed lungs to hernia surgery and needing a hole in her bowel repaired twice. This was in addition to being diagnosed with chronic lung disease.

But this little girl is a fighter. Not only did she beat the odds, but at a year and a half she is meeting every milestone. In fact, on the very day of the 44th annual March for Life, Naomi took her first steps.

“Naomi has 6 teeth and has a good handful of words up her sleeve,” Angela reports. “She is delightful and at that age where she just smiles and waves at everyone. She is on track for everything, meeting her goals etc. She’s a perfect child! She’s very petite but we knew that would always be the case. I put a lot of energy into getting her to eat good and healthy high calorie meals while remembering she’s still a toddler. She takes one pill a day for her thyroid. We hope that’ll be gone soon.”

The child is also a local celebrity, appearing on the local news every few months to update the community on her progress. The Bakkers also give talks at churches and in a few weeks, Naomi will be doing a fundraising radio chat for the hospital that saved her life.

It’s a story that is already saving lives.

“I still get contacted by mothers all over the world in similar situations looking for advice. I got word another woman (this is the second one I know of) that didn’t abort because of Naomi’s story,” Angela said.

Not only did their heroic faith save their own child, but it’s saving others too!