This powerful, moving story-which has already touched a lot more than seven million through a viral video created from the Whittington family-is a mother’s first-hand account of her emotional choice to embrace her transgender child.

When Hillary and Jeff Whittington posted a YouTube video chronicling their five-year-old son Ryland’s changeover from woman to youngster, they didn’t expect it to be greeted with such fervor. Gorgeous and shifting, the video documenting Hillary’s and Jeff’s love for their child about Raising Ryland: Our Tale of Parenting a Transgender Kid without Strings Attached instantly proceeded to go viral and continues to be seen by more than seven million viewers since its publishing in May 2014.

Now for the very first time, they show their story in full, supplying an emotional and moving account of their journey together with their exceptional child. After they discovered their daughter Ryland was deaf at age one and required cochlear implants, the Whittingtons spent nearly four years effectively teaching Ryland to speak. But once Ryland gained the energy of speech, it was time to allow them to pay attention as Ryland insisted, “I am a boy!” And pay attention they did. After learning that forty-one percent of individuals who recognize as transgender try to take their very own lives, Hillary and her hubby Jeff managed to get their mission to aid their child-no matter what.

From the initial stages of deciphering Ryland through clothing choices to examining the difficult conversations that have marked every stage of Ryland’s transition, Hillary Whittington shares her encounters as a mother through everything, demonstrating both resistance and support that their family has encountered as they make an effort to erase the stigma surrounding the word “transgender.” In informing her family’s tale, she desires she can assist the world in accepting that even children as youthful as five, can possess profound and impactful things to say and talk about. What emerges is usually a powerful tale of unconditional love, taking others for who they are, and doing what’s right, regardless of whether those around you understand it.