HANOVER COUNTY, Va. — A trending video that shows an Ashland father bonding with his infant son will warm your heart on this Thanksgiving.
George Dennehy, a musician and composer who has played for governors, rock stars, congregations near and far and has appeared on CBS 6’s Virginia This Morning, posted the video to YouTube earlier this month.
The video shows Dennehy cuddling with his son, Landon. The little one stares into the camera as he nibbles on his father’s nose. Then his dad turns the tables and gently bites his son’s shirt.
But as the camera zooms out you realize just how special the video is. That’s because Dennehy, who graduated from Patrick Henry High School, was born without arms.
Accordingly, the video shows Dennehy holding Landon between his feet and hoisting the delighted child into the air before slowly lowering him back to the ground. The video also shows Dennehy using his feet to help an astonished Landon stand, then move back and forth.
The video, which has been steadily gaining views and getting picked up by various blogs and websites, had already amassed more than 100,000 views just hours after it was posted.
“In 7 hours the video of me & Landon went up 100,000 views! This is so crazy!!!!” Dennehy posted on Facebook on Nov. 17.
The video continues to climb and is nearing Dennehy’s goal of one million views.
“Hey everyone! My video is now at 909,000 views! Please share it so we might hit 1 million! That would be incredibly cool!” Dennehy posted Tuesday.
We need your help to spread Dennehy’s message of love and family. Click the “share” button to help spread the word on Facebook.
CBS 6 profiled Dennehy’s remarkable story two years ago.
“It’s a fact, if I would have stayed in the orphanage I would be dead now,” Dennehy said about the circumstances that brought him to Virginia.
Dennehy is just one of nine children from six countries adopted by Michael and Sharon Dennehy of Ashland.
The Dennehys said true richness came with sharing their home and their hearts with their adoptive children, who have joined their three biological children.
It began, Michael Dennehy said, with a conversation he and his wife had while driving back from church, discussing the sermon about “living out your faith, instead of just listening.”
His wife suggested doing something radical, something “out of the box.” Michael said he thought she meant volunteering at a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter.
Then Sharon suggested they adopt a child no one else wanted.
“I was like, ‘Whoa! I don’t know about that one,” Michael recalled.
That led to George, who was dying in a Romanian orphanage because people there thought he was cursed by being born with no arms.
“When you give up your life for others,” Sharon says, “you find who you are. You find your fulfillment.”
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