Zou Hongyan, a Chinese mother, gave birth to a much-anticipated son in 1988. The child was born with severe birth defects that resulted in permanent cerebral palsy.

The physicians and her husband persuaded the shocked mother to abandon the child. Everyone expected a person suffering from this illness to have a difficult and sad life.

Despite the doctors’ advice, Zou divorced her husband and the child’s father and made a promise to herself that she would do everything she could to care for and love her son because he had no one else.

The mother worked three jobs at the same time to provide for her son’s needs. She also encouraged the boy’s intellectual development.

She taught him how to use chopsticks despite his hands’ inability to grasp them. I didn’t want him to be ashamed of himself because of his problems.

29 years later, his son Ding Ding earned an environmental science degree from Peking University and just enrolled in Harvard Law School. Mom must be proud of her kid, I’ll wager.