ST. LOUIS — "I'm just blessed to have him here still," said a grateful Jekia Bland.
Jekia Bland is all smiles now and holding tightly on to her 1-year-old son, Mason.
"It feels so amazing. Yes, a lot better today than yesterday and the day before that," said Jekia.
No doubt it's been a wild and frightening few days for Mason and his mom.
"I could see the pain in his face and it was swollen and I just felt sorry for my baby," said the child's mom.
Jekia Bland told police Monday night she and her baby were at her dad's North St. Louis County home when someone fired a single bullet at their house near Duke and Empress Drives.
"He could have been killed," said Jekia Bland.
The bullet ripped through the toddler's bedroom wall and hit Mason in his left shoulder as he slept.
"It went through his shoulder and out his back. I just didn't believe it," the boy's mother told 5 On Your Side's Robert Townsend during an exclusive interview Wednesday.
Shrapnel from the bullet also flew into the child's left eye.
"I cried. Didn't nobody know he was shot until I picked him up. I didn't know what to do. I was just so scared," said Mason's mom.
The worried mom hopped in an ambulance with paramedics who rushed the child to a hospital.
"I prayed the whole way through. That's all the ambulance people kept telling me that if I heard him crying, that's a sign of him doing well," said Jekia Bland.
The child underwent surgery right away.
Incredibly, the next morning little Mason made a big turnaround no one could believe. His family took cell phone video of the tiny, shooting survivor sitting up in a hospital bed laughing and playing.
"I just had to stay positive and not believe anything negative. I stood by the bed until he woke up. He was very strong and pulled through. Yes, he's a miracle," said the boy's elated mother.
Mason the "miracle" is on the mend and that's all that matters to his mom.
"He definitely doesn't look like what he's been through. God was with him. I just don't know what I would do without him. I'm just glad he's walking, talking and now in the healing process," said Jekia Bland.
Meantime, police are still looking for the shooter and a motive.
"I hope whoever did it turns himself in. My baby could have been killed," the mom added.