Emma Newman and her husband Scott Garside already had three healthy daughters when she became pregnant for a fourth time. All of her ultrasounds were coming back normal, so Emma did not think anything was wrong with her unborn baby.

“I was massive,” she remembered, “so we didn’t think there was anything to be worried about.”

It wasn’t until Emma went into labor four weeks early that the first signs came that something was indeed very wrong.

“They examined me and said I was only 24 weeks pregnant but I’d already had scans and knew that wasn’t right,” she said. “I started to panic.”

Emma was stunned when she gave birth to her daughter Charlotte and learned that the baby weighed only two pounds.

In an incredibly rare twist of fate, both Emma and Scott carry the dwarfism gene, which led to Charlotte being born with Primordial dwarfism. The condition is so rare that only around 200 people on earth have it, and Charlotte’s variety did not even have a name yet when she was born!

Primordial dwarves are born incredibly small and grow very little as they age. Their appearance is also said to resemble that of a human doll, and Emma said that Charlotte looked like a “porcelain doll” when she was born.

At two pounds, Charlotte was born the size of a 16 week old unborn baby, and she was too tiny for her parents to even touch her. She spent the first few months of her life in the hospital, and doctors warned Emma that she likely would not live to see her first birthday.

The older primordial dwarves get, the bigger the risk is that they will die of a sudden aneurism, and almost none of them make it to their teenage years.

However, Charlotte has beaten the odds so far, as she is now 5 years-old! Her parents insist that she has many years left because she has flourished thus far in life and is truly a “one in a million baby.”

These days, Charlotte is just over two feet tall and still eats with a feeding tube. However, her older sister Chloe said that while the little girl looks like “she could break in half,” she’s surprisingly tough!

“When people first meet her they are afraid she might break if they touch her – but she’s quite scrappy and doesn’t sit still for a second” her older sister Chloe explains. “She loves tearing around the house and being thrown in the air.”

One of the challenges that Charlotte has faced head-on has been attending school, where she was determined to succeed.

“She is not the sort of person who will fade into the background,” Emma said. “She may be small but she has a massive personality and wants to do everything a normal five-year-old does.”

While she has excelled socially, she has struggled academically because her brain is developing slower than other children her age.

“Charlotte has come along leaps and bounds when it comes to her social skills and learning a routine,” Newman explains, “but she’s behind in lessons. She still has the mind of an 18-month-old.”

Despite all the challenges she has faced, Charlotte and her parents just want her to live a normal life.

“She is such a driven, determined person,” said Emma. “We’ve stopped thinking about the what-ifs, now we’re having the best time we can.”

It’s so inspiring to see a little girl beat the odds the way Charlotte has! SHARE this story if you will be praying for her!