Rachel Grace, who has Down Syndrome, recently received her letter of acceptance to East Stroudsburg University.

Rachel was considering four schools for those with special needs but liked the thought of moving out and being independent.

So she decided to apply to ESU and someone recorded the exact moment Rachel opened her acceptance letter.

Her eyes were wide while her face was full of shock and excitement, screaming: “I got in! I’m going to college!”

East Stroudsburg University was just as excited about having Rachel join in, sharing a video of her opening her acceptance letter on their page with the message:

“Welcome to ESU Rachel Grace! We are lucky to call you a Warrior!”

Excuse me while I happy-sob violently into my pillow.

Just this past week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a nationwide ban on many flavored pods in the vaping community this year.

In addition, the HHS is ordering that makers of the electronic nicotine delivery systems (including e-cigarettes and vaping products) halt manufacturing, distribution, as well as sale of these pods within 30 days.

That is, unless they start an extensive application process for authorization .

They also need to ensure that sufficient age verification is mandatory in both online and physical stores.

I’ll smoke to that!

A woman witnessed a poor younger mother at a supermarket, struggling to pay for just a single slice of cake for her son’s birthday.

She decided to help after remembering how her own mother struggled to raise both her and her brother but never let them know.

In that moment, she quickly grabbed a pack of candles, a Target gift card and a gift card for gas and ran after the young mom.

She said: “Ma’am, you dropped something,” but the mom shook her head saying it was not.

But Bianca continued on:

“Yes, it’s yours. It’s yours because I got it for you. I want you to take this Target gift card and get your son a birthday present. I want you to take this gift card and put gas in your car. Fill the whole tank. I want you to take these candles. And when your son is about to blow them out, I want you to make a wish, too.”

Bianca then left the woman her number — asking her to call her if she ever needs anything. She then received the following text:

We aren’t crying, YOU’RE crying!

As the bushfire crisis rages on — there have many calling the world to action — including those from the entertainment and sports realms.

Of them, one model has found an unconventional way to get people to donate: sending nudes.

If you do feel led to give and decide to not go with the uh…ahem, below route, you can give here.

The “Human Ken Doll,” Rodrigo Alves relieved his claim to fame for spending $650,000 on surgery and now — he has more plans to go under the knife.

Alves recently announced his decision in the Sunday Mirror to come out as a transgender woman.

“It feels ­amazing to finally tell the world I’m a girl. I’m known as Ken, but inside I’ve always felt like Barbie.”

Alves, who is now known as Roddy, uses the pronouns “she” and “her.”

She also admits how she will continue to have more surgery given her plans for gender realignment surgery.

She continued, sharing:

“I finally feel like the real me. Glamorous, beautiful and feminine. For years I tried to live my life as a man. I had a fake six pack put in, I had fake muscles in my arms but I was lying to myself. I’m a woman and have always had a feminine brain. Now my body matches my mind.”

The Pope recently slapped a woman’s hand after she grabbed him and attempted to pull him towards her during a New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Pope Francis can be seen in the footage very upset after the woman attempted to drag him over to her.

The 83-year-old was walking out in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City which led many to surround him.

In the clip, people can be heard shouting: “Pope!” and “Happy New Year!” as he walks past, stopping to touch hands with excited members of the public.

However, as he turns to walk away one woman makes a grab for his hand and refuses to let go, despite his attempts to shake her off.

His security staff don’t seem to be up to much, so in the end, Pope Francis appears to have had enough and slaps the woman’s hand away.

A man from Canada decided he wanted to shift his tragedy into a conversation starter when he decided to have his injured arm amputated and turned into a taxidermied prop of sorts.

Mark Holmgren was only 17 when he decided to borrow his friend’s motorcycle and was then involved in a crash — which left him with an injured shoulder.

Almost two decades later, he decided to amputate his non-working arm.

But while he was not ready to part with his limb — Holmgren made the choice to get it preserved so he could hold onto it. Literally.

“The highlight of the year has got to be working on this incredible project we were honored with. Our client Mark was in a severe motor cycle accident over 15 years ago and lost use of his arm. Finally this past year he was able to get it amputated and asked if we would clean it up for him. Its the oddest project we have ever had but one of the most fulfilling seeing it all come together.”

Javed Easton decided it would be a good idea to gift his girlfriend Chloe Hartshorne cleaning items for Christmas.

And let’s just say: it did not go over well.

He then filmed the entire exchange for our viewing pleasure.

Javed posted the clip to Facebook along with the caption: “Why treat the lady in your life to a Michael Kors when she can have a Michael Floors?”

You can watch the entire exchange below:

One mother has found a new hack to stop her child from crying when she leaves the room — she leaves a cardboard cut-out of herself behind, tricking the boy into thinking she is still there.

Fuki Sato along with her husband, shared two photos on Twitter and many were impressed. In both photos posted, their son is having fun in his playpen. One cut-out version of her is in the kitchen, while the other picture of her is her crouching down as if she is about to play with him.

It should be noted however that both replicas are just out the baby’s reach so the jig would not be up.

The dad also noted that at no point was their son left alone completely as both parents are not far away and check on him every 20 minutes.

Okay parents, time to find the nearest life-size-card-board-cut-out store by you, am I right?!

The “Folding Man” is now standing up straight thanks to doctors at Shenzhen University General Hospital who broke and rebuilt Li Hua’s entire spine over the course of four operations this past year.

Lia’s condition, ankylosing spondylitisan, is considered an aggressive form of arthritis — which left his face pressed against his thighs for over two decades, causing him to be hunchback.

The teach hospital medics’ described the severe spinal deformity as “three-on,” which is chin on chest, sternum on pubic, and face on femur.

Images post-operative show Li’s whole body having been opened up which allowed him to lie flat, sit up and stand straight for the first time in just 28 years.

Now, he is able to move around thanks to the help of a walker but Professor Tao states he will regain normal movement with just two to three months of physical therapy.

The medic said:

“Of course he won’t be able to do anything too extreme like boxing or playing tennis, but all regular bodily movements will not be a problem.”

While Li shared:

“There would’ve been no cure for me without Doctor Tao. He’s my saviour, and my gratitude to him is second only to my mother.”

When describing Li’s case, the hospital compared it to the surgical equivalent of Mount Everest as it was the first time in history such severe spinal deformities have been corrected in China.

If you and your kids adore Elf on the Shelf, then you will NEED this amazing new hiding place that everyone is talking about.

One mother has discovered a way to infuse technology with Christmas magic by having Elfie gets stuck in an electrical device.

If you have an Alexa or Amazon Echo, you are in luck!

In a video on Facebook, the mother explained how to execute the clever idea.

She captioned it:

“FYI to all parents using the elf this year. If you have an Alexa go to the app. Settings>my profile.

Change your name to the name of your elf. Then go to messages (communicate).

Type a message from the elf. Then ask Alexa: ‘Alexa play my messages’. The elf talks to your kids.”

What are you waiting for?!

A builder from across the pond found himself with £105 million ($138m) thanks to EuroMillions but that’s not the whole story. Allegedly, he refused to accept payments from his clients as he wanted them to save their money for the Christmas season.

Steve Thomson, 42, decided to continue on with his life after winning a record EuroMillion jackpot just last month.

The father of three has since refused to charge multiple clients for jobs he has completed. One customer shared after Thomson finished his work:

“He didn’t charge. It shows he’s a top bloke, a decent man. We didn’t ask him about the win because he’s probably had enough of talking about it. I think it’s quite nice for him to be able to work still because it takes his mind off the pressures of what to do with the money.”

She went on to share how he is still using his old yellow work van, sharing:

“He’s not buying a new one as he intends to complete outstanding jobs and stop working. He doesn’t see the point if he’s not got long left [working].”

Describing the moment he realized he had won, he said:

When asked to describe the moment he had won, Thompsan shared:

“I am not sure I even looked at the first two lines, the third one just jumped out and I could instantly tell they all matched. I started shaking a lot. I knew it was a really big win but didn’t know what to do. I went out to my van, walked back in, thought about knocking on a neighbour’s door, went back to the van – I think I was on the verge of having a heart attack.”

A couple from Australia was distraught after learning their diamond wedding as well as engagement rings were missing.

The couple, who requested to keep their identities hidden, were renovating their home in the Melbourne area when they dropped off a load of garbage at the nearby waste collection center and drove home.

It wasn’t until later they realized they had accidentally thrown away a small jewelry box that contained an “impressive engagement and wedding ring,” Carden said.

They quickly called the collection center but it was closing and they were told to return the next day. Return they did — at 4 a.m. after a “sleepless night.”

The trash collectors as well as city workers opened the truck which contained 30 tons of trash. Thankfully, the couple finally located the pink trash bag with the jewelry box and the rings inside.

Carden said the recovery was a “a little bit of Christmas magic,” and thanked the workers for going “above and beyond” to help the couple.

A couple was attacked on a wedding shaming group on Reddit for not quickly sending out thank you cards after their wedding.

The couple posted a picture of the note, along with a caption that read:

“I still have the list and cards to send out of thank yous that unfortunately have been set aside, so to the both of us working 100+ hours a week, coaching a softball team from the second the wedding was over, raising our girls and trying to stay afloat in every day life.”

“I apologise we haven’t sent  them, I had every intention of doing so but unfortunately life hasn’t been kind to our family since our wedding day and your cards got a back seat.”

The newlyweds then posted the message to Instagram to find the person who sent it and talk it out but so far, no one has come forward.

AWK-ward…..