A San Antonio baby girl's fight for life has come full circle with her baptismal turned adoption story. Pastor Alyssa Maldonado, initially called to provide a final sacrament for the dying infant, eventually became the child's adoptive mother in an unforeseeable turn of events, as told in a heart-warming tale by KENS 5.
"One day I receive a call that there was this little girl with no brain activity who was not expected to make it," Maldonado recounted in a statement to KENS 5. It seemed the infant's life was nearing its tragic end. "They were going to do withdrawal of care on Monday," she said. "On a Friday they asked if I could go in and to symbolically baptize her. I showed up to the baptism and did the ritual." The child, abused and neglected, was not anticipated to survive beyond that weekend, but as faith would have it, she began to show signs of life.
This miraculous recovery occurred in the summer of 2022, and the story took another remarkable turn when Pastor Maldonado and her partner, Trisha, were searching for a child to bring into their home. Unbeknownst to them, the same baby girl they had prayed over and baptized in the hospital was in need of a "Forever Home." "I immediately said, who is it," Alyssa said when the call came in about the child. After realizing the situation, she remembered that she had promised the little girl that she would not walk her journey alone.
The couple eagerly stepped up to provide the special care the little girl required. "After talking with (all parties involved) they said yes," said Maldonado. "She's just gonna need lots of love, and they told us she may not have the prettiest walk, but I told them neither did I," she added, affirming their commitment to embrace the child's needs wholeheartedly. Trisha shared in the joy, declaring, "She has a spirit that is just amazing. She's our miracle." Both had been longing for children and the coincidence was nothing short of astonishing to them.
Now, their daughter, named Mila, continues to defy expectations. "She break barriers," Pastor Alyssa told KENS 5. "She reminds doctors, specialists and those that cared for her to say watch this, and we're watching," she added. In a heartening conclusion, Trisha reflected on the incredulity of the situation, saying, "It came full circle. We had no idea that when she baptized her that she was going to be her daughter one. She baptized her own daughter not knowing it was gonna be her daughter."
