When then three-year-old Shaylie Edwards of Reno, Nevada convinced her dad, Shannon Edwards, to take her to the nearby park after dinner on June 6, 2019, mom Erica Edwards had no idea that their lives would change forever. Not long after the two had left, along with Shaylie’s then-seven-year-old sister, Erica heard a commotion outside. “I ran out back, looked over my fence and right in my vision was Shaylie on the road,” Erica recalled. A distracted driver had come through the crosswalk, not noticing Shaylie and Shannon, who were crossing. Attempting to save his daughter, Shannon Edwards lifted Shaylie to get her out of the way but when the car hit him, he lost his grip and Shaylie hit the hood of the car before flying up in the air and hitting the pavement. Shannon needed full facial reconstruction and spent over two weeks in the hospital. He has four permanent titanium plates in his face to this day.

The damage to Shaylie was even more significant with a broken jaw, neck, femur, a fractured sacrum, and a brain injury. Despite the devastating injuries, Erica was able to remain calm and see her daughter through the worst experience of her young life. “I was a very spiritual person before this — I always believed in God, but I [wasn’t] much of a churchgoer… But I’m a full believer now… it was through this accident that this voice came to me,” Erica said. “It has to be a higher power, a God, a somebody who was just kind of grounding me for what was to come. If it wasn’t for that grounding, I wouldn’t have gotten through the last three years of fighting to get my baby back because it has been a literal fight every single day,” she added. That faith has led Erica and her family to the moment three years later when Shaylie, now six years old, graduated from kindergarten. After months in the hospital after the accident, outpatient care had determined that Shaylie, at four years old, was functioning at a 5-month-old level. Yet, at her Kindergarten graduation she is able to walk using a walker and is breaking expectations. “She’s doing great. Is she completely ready for first grade? No. But she is so so close, but again she’s blowing our socks off. She’s doing so good,” Edwards told KOLO TV in an interview about what graduating meant to the family.

Dr. Kris Deeter, the doctor who first took over Shaylie’s case and continues to oversee her recovery, agreed. “She is a miracle child, and I don’t say that too often I am very grounded in science, but as her mom mentioned, she surprised us every day, and she got through an injury that other children and adults would have never survived.” With a family supporting her through their unending commitment and leaning into their faith, she is sure to make very great strides indeed.