When Austin Taylor turned 4, his father reminisced about the young life doctors said the boy would likely never have.
"1,461. It may seem like an odd number to post on Facebook. But this number holds more meaning to our family then you realize. This is the number of days Austin has gone beyond the doctor's life expectancy," Cody Taylor wrote on Facebook over the summer.
"1,461 days full of smiles trials and accomplishments, of progress and setbacks, of tears, fear and hope. 1,461 days of being thrown up on," he added. "All the trials seem so small when we look at what he has done. He is taking, walking and eating. 3 things the doctors said he would never do. He watches and learns, and tries so hard to normal. This has been our smoothest year yet, with so much to look forward to. Happy 4th Birthday my son, my little hero."
Austin, who was born with numerous birth defects, had struggled with stage 5 kidney failure — undergoing a kidney transplant a couple of years ago to try to save his life, according to Fox affiliate KSTU. Since then, he has been on expensive medications to keep his tiny body from rejecting the organ.
Days before Christmas, a three-month supply was delivered, then stolen from his front porch, Taylor said.
"You don't know who you're hurting by your actions. It could range from ruining someone's Christmas to threatening someone's life. You just never know," he told the news station earlier this week.
Porch pirates have been a problem for years, especially during the holiday season — swiping people's packages straight from their doorsteps.
And with more and more Americans embracing the online shopping trend, it can have a profound impact. The National Retail Federation noted that about 58 million Americans made purchases only online from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday, while 51 million made their way into the stores. An additional 64 million did both.
UPS has estimated that it will deliver a record-breaking 750 million packages to porches during the holidays this year.
But Taylor, a single father from Riverdale, Utah, said his son's stolen package was not an ordinary delivery; it was $5,000 worth of medication.
The father told KSTU that he got a notification this week that the supply had been delivered. "Usually as I get that I expect to see the boxes as I pull up, but there was nothing there," he told the news station.
Taylor said that he was contemplating taking out a loan to replace Austin's medication before the insurance company agreed to cover it.
KSTU reported that a company called the Porch Locker has since given the family a lock box to help protect Austin's medical deliveries.
Taylor called his 4-year-old his "little miracle."
"He's so strong and always fighting," he said.
"He's my little miracle. He's my hero," Taylor told KSTU. "Because of everything he's gone through, I can't complain about life."