LOUISA COUNTY, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- Imani Brackett was given to her guardian, Geraldine Ellis, at 18 months old. Brackett suffers from cerebral palsy and sickle cell anemia.

When she was young, doctors said that Brackett would not live past the age of five. Now, she's 19 years old and is a graduate of Louisa County High School.

For Ellis, she was filled with nothing short of excitement.

"I had mixed emotions. My heart was overwhelmed," she said. "To think God had gotten her to the point where she had reached this major milestone in her life, so on the inside I was crying with joy, but on the outside was the biggest smile and the biggest yell and screaming because she was able to cross over and graduate."

Going through school was not easy for Brackett, because she is nonverbal.

So, communication was one of the biggest challenges, but forming relationships with her teachers and peers came naturally.

"In elementary school, she had numerous teachers, and with a child with special needs, you have to build a relationship with them and get to know them," said Ellis. "And she only had one teacher through her whole elementary school career that she really built a relationship with."

But not everything was a test as Brackett has plenty of activities she loves to do.

"There are a lot of things she likes to do, including church," said Ellis.

Brackett loves church and she is known as "Bibleway's number one praiser." She was also part of other things such as basketball and track and field during her high school experience.

Now that she has graduated, she will be going to the ARC of the Piedmont.

"A lot of her peers from school she knew. When she walked through the door, they yelled and were elated and she just screams like, 'Hey these are my buds.' I know them so she is going to go there a couple days of the week to give her some social interaction," said Ellis.

Brackett will not let her disability define her because she is determined she going to meet that challenge and overcome it.