VIDEO: Blind Toddler Sees Her Mother for the First Time

The story, from The Miami Herald: 

Her whole life, 2-year-old Nicolly Pereira couldn’t see or hear her mother. The deaf and blind toddler from rural Brazil knew her mother’s love mostly through touch, when her mãe hugged Nicolly or stroked her light brown hair.

But last month, Nicolly gazed into her mother’s teary eyes for the first time. A wide smile filled her face and she instantly pressed her forehead against mama’s, her tiny hands on her mother’s shoulders.

“The only word that can be used to describe the feeling is ‘God,’ ” Nicolly’s mother, Daiana Pereira, 26, said Saturday at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, part of UHealth-University of Miami Health System. “My daughter is free now. She now shines more than before. She has now become a reference for people who didn’t believe in miracles.”