Former pro-life Congressman Sean Duffy and Fox News contributor Rachel Campos Duffy welcomed their ninth child into the world with great joy last week.
Valentina StellaMaris Duffy has Down syndrome, but her pro-life parents did not see her condition as any less of a reason to celebrate her life.
“Valentina was also born with an extra chromosome, which means she also has Downs Syndrome. That extra chromosome certainly made her EXTRA cute. Life is wonderful!!” her mother announced on Facebook.
Valentina was born on Oct. 1, a month early, and has two holes in her heart, the Wausau Daily Herald reports. The family said she still is in the neonatal intensive care unit, and she will need surgery to repair her heart within the next several months.
The Duffys thanked everyone who has been praying for Valentina since they learned that she would have special needs.
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“Thank you to everyone who prayed for Valentina all these months – your prayers were never felt more than in the crazy hours before her emergency birth,” her mother wrote.
Sean Duffy resigned from his Wisconsin congressional district in September because of Valentina. He said he made the decision because she would “need even more love, time, and attention due to complications, including a heart condition.”
The Duffys have been strong, proud advocates for life and family in America.
Announcing the pregnancy earlier this year, Sean Duffy wrote on Twitter: “God isn’t done with our family yet! Baby number nine coming to the crew this fall! @RCamposDuffy said it best – we aren’t crazy, we are just full of hope for America’s future!”
Then in September, Campos Duffy spoke more about their unborn daughter’s condition on The View.
“It’s pretty easy for us in the sense that we’re lifers. We believe in life, and whatever gifts God gives us, we accept them. And this is gonna be a great gift,” she said. “Yeah, it’s gonna be a little more stressful, but this little baby will have eight other siblings to wrap their loving arms around her, and we’re gonna do it as a family. We’ll figure out a different way to balance our lives.”
Valentina is their ninth child, and Campos Duffy said her older siblings could not be happier.
“When we visit with her at the hospital, the kids fight over who can hold her – I don’t blame them! She’s the sweetest, most perfect angel we have ever seen,” she said.
