Laxmi, a child with a rare facial condition, receives kindness and acceptance from her family
Laxmi, a child with a rare facial condition, receives kindness and acceptance from her family
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People traveled from different places just to see her.
Some believed she was special.
Some believed she was blessed.
Some even came asking for her blessing. 
But when Laxmi’s mother looked at her, she didn’t see a miracle or a curiosity.
She saw her little girl. 
Laxmi was born in Uttar Pradesh, India, with an unusual amount of extra tissue around her nose.
It was impossible not to notice.
But for her family, the biggest worry wasn’t how she looked.
It was watching their baby struggle to do the simplest things — eating and breathing.
When Laxmi was only 8 months old, her family made the frightening decision to let doctors operate.
The troublesome tissue was removed, but the surgery left her nose with an unusual appearance. Her mother had already been warned that doctors couldn’t promise exactly how she would look afterward.
Still, their priority was clear:
They wanted their daughter to be healthy.
As Laxmi grew older, however, something happened that nobody expected.
People began noticing a resemblance between her appearance and Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu deity.
Soon, visitors from surrounding communities began coming to see her.
During festivals, some reportedly brought money and gifts. Others treated the little girl as someone blessed and even asked her for blessings.
Yet behind all the attention was still a child growing up.
A child who wanted to play.
A child who wanted to be accepted.
A child whose face should never determine how much kindness she received.
By around age 7, Laxmi’s mother said her daughter was doing well and experiencing few problems related to her original condition.
Doctors advised waiting until she was older before the family considered any further reconstructive or cosmetic procedures.
And perhaps the most touching part of her story has nothing to do with surgery or the strangers who came to see her.
It’s the way her mother saw her through all of it.
While the world looked at Laxmi and saw something unusual, her family simply saw the same little girl they had loved from the beginning. 
Children notice differences.
But judgment is something they can learn — and so is kindness.
Maybe one of the greatest things we can teach them is that when someone looks different, they don’t need to be stared at, feared or treated like a curiosity.
They just need to be treated like a person.
