The family who lost three children in a horrific car smash where a drunk and drugged driver mounted a footpath have welcomed their eighth child, who they are calling ‘a miracle baby’.
Western Sydney couple Danny and Leila Abdallah gave birth to a healthy girl on April 20, which is their second baby since the horrific accident that claimed the lives of three of their children on February 1, 2020.
Antony, 13, Angelina, 12, Sienna, eight, and their niece Veronique Sakr, 11 were hit by a ute that careened onto a footpath and mowed the children down as they went to buy ice-cream at Oatlands, a north-west suburb of Sydney.
Danny and Leila Abdallah, who lost three children to a drunk and drugged-up driver’s horrific car crash, welcomed their eighth child, an as yet-unnamed daughter born on April 20
Astonishingly the devoutly Christian Abdallahs said they forgave the driver responsible, Samuel Davidson, who in jail converted to the family’s Maronite Catholicism and has now sent them congratulations on the new birth.
Mr Abdallah says he speaks regularly with Davidson and Davidson’s parents, and accepted the congratulations of both parties following the birth of his new daughter, who is yet to be named.
‘There are no winners in this, in any tragedy like this, so all we can do is show forgiveness, move forward in the best way we can and try to find joy in the midst of pain,’ Mr Abdallah told the Daily Telegraph.
‘Samuel’s parents gave me a call and said congratulations on the new baby and I said thank you.
‘The driver rang me from jail the next day and said congratulations and that he was thinking of us and I told him he and his family are in my prayers.’
Ms Abdallah said the unplanned pregnancy came as a shock and it was two dreams of Antony and Angelina in the same week that alerted her to the ‘miracle baby’.
Ms Abadallah presented Selena to Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was allegedly stabbed in his church earlier this month
The Abdallahs gave birth to their seventh child on March 18, 2022, who they named Selena, combining the names of the two sisters she would never know Angelina and Sienna.
The couple said with the new baby they are waiting for the perfect name, which might not be derived from their previous children.
‘It’s hard when you lose children, you remember them and honour them, but for a living child that can be a lot of pressure to live up to,’ Ms Abdallah said.
In a recent Instagram post Ms Abadallah presented Selena to Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel who was allegedly stabbed while delivering a sermon at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in the western Sydney suburb of Wakeley on April 15.
‘We are confident that Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel has forgiven his attacker, echoing the message of forgiveness that defines our beliefs,’ Ms Abadallah captioned the photo.
‘Our heart goes out to him. Let us come together in prayer for Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.’
Unlike Mr Abdallah who has developed a relationship with Davidson, Ms Abdallah has yet to see him in jail but says she intends to once the family settles again after the newest arrival.
Davidson, who was 29 at the time of the fatal crash, was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison with a minimum of 15 years in 2021.
Mr Abdallah’s children Antony, (far left) Angelina, 12, (far right) Sienna, eight, (centre left) and their niece Veronique Sakr, 11, were walking on a footpath to buy ice-cream at Oatlands, in Sydney’s west, when they were hit by a car and killed on February 1, 2020
After the birth of Selena Mr Abdallah posted to Instagram that he and his wife had forgiven Davidson ‘for the greater good of our living children’.
‘Because of our decision we were able to have another child.
‘I took my daughter out for dinner on Sunday night and spoke to her about the past 2 years and her new baby sister.
‘We can’t change what’s happened to us, but we can certainly make the right choices to minimise the trauma we have experienced passed down to our children,’ he wrote.
‘Always remember “raising kids is contagious, they do what you do not what you say”.’
Mr Abdallah said those words still applied.
‘It’s how you pick up and move forward and lead by example so your kids know how to conduct themselves in the midst of the future hardships,’ he said.
Mr Abdallah said he and his wife forgave the driver who killed their three children for the sake of their siblings
The Abdallah family set up the i4Give day foundation in 2023, with its mission statement aiming to ‘increase community awareness of the power of forgiveness to transform human relationships and to provide resilience toward human flourishing’.
The festival is due to become an annual event filled with amusement rides, live performances, and an outdoor movie showing to cap off the day.
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