Beautiful Blessings

 

Once upon a time a little baby entered my life through my work.  He was three months old and a mess.  I could tell the minute I held his little body that there was someone in there fighting to live.  He reminded me of a tadpole, not quite formed into being a frog yet, somewhere in between.  He had big, big eyes, a misshaped head, and boy was he stuck, he could not move and develop like a newborn baby should.  Coming into the world 13 weeks early, with no heartbeat and not breathing, and with every major complications at every turn did not help.  When he was discharged the Neurologist told his medical foster family to take him home and love him, she thought the damage he had suffered was quite extensive and was not sure what he would become.  

With a great deal of love from his medical foster family, therapy from me and a wonderful speech therapist this little one started to grow.  He began to finally suck on his bottle, which took hours and hours to teach him.  He finally was able to move his head in both direction and even hold it up.  He was able to look at objects presented to him even though he had suffered a lot of damage to his premature eyes.  As soon as he got strong enough he was able to lie on his belly and hold up his head, finally able to tolerate being moved from position to position, and finally able to start growing and developing.  It was a challenge but once he realized he could roll or slowly, slowly pull himself forward on arms that were not functioning perfectly, he was able to move!.  As he grew and developed his personality did to.  He was so funny and loved to laugh, loved silly things, funny noises and songs, oh my this boy loved to hear music.  He began to take weight on his feet in supported standing, learned to sit up all by himself and finally was able to get up on his hands and knees!  What a miracle that day was, because he soon figured out after all that work that he could crawl, and now the world was open to  him.  Crawling is not easy for a little one whose arms and legs don't work like ours, it is hard, hard work.  It is the desire to move and explore that helped this little one go, and go, and go.

We took care of this little boy when his Medical Foster Family needed a break, when they wanted to go on a trip or two with their family.  Along the way I fell totally head over heals in love with this little one.  And the funny thing is my family did, too.  I love all the kids I work with but this one has something magical about him, his crooked smile, his desire to thrive, he is just such a fighter.  He has been up for adoption and I have been on pins and needles waiting to hear about a forever family for him.  Finally one popped up and I went to the meeting about them and almost threw up, you see they were all wrong for him.  They were my age but old if you know what I mean, never had children and just did not fit.  He needed a family that loved him, loved him and his special needs and knew what to do to help him be the best he can be.  I lost sleep, I became very, very quiet until finally the thing that had been staring me in the face became apparent.  With a lot of very gentle prodding from my husband, approval from Mr. 20 year old and my Teenager we put our names in the pot, to make this little one part of our family.  I knew if we did not try then I would regret it the rest of my life, and my husband saw this, too.  You see there is a plan out there bigger than me, and if I did not try then I would never know if he was really supposed to be ours.  I prayed and prayed that the right thing would happen for him, not for us.  

After parenting classes, background checks, and lots and lots of paper work we were finally approved to be My Little Buddy's forever family.  After weeks of waiting, waiting and more waiting he is finally living in our home.  It is not official yet, but My Little Buddy is here, in his own room with his own toys and we are all adapting so smoothly it is scary, sort of like it was meant to be.  He has been here for several weeks and that is why I have been so busy, blogging has not been the focus, adapting him to our home has been the priority.

I know we are crazy, I am no spring chicken and my husband is not either.  But as my husband said so eloquently when trying to convince me that this was the right thing to do, "Don't we have enough love in our hearts to love another little boy?" The answer to that is, yes we do.

We have been blessed, and I am not telling you all of this for you to say I am wonderful, it is not that way at all, he is going to bless us a lot more than we are ever going to bless him.  Many, many people have worked so hard on this little one to get him to where he is today, and many more will work with him for years to come.  Life is too short not to help, it is too short not to give this little one a home where he is loved, cherished and will be pushed to be the best he can be.  I don't believe this is an accident, it was predetermined a long time ago.  Hopefully he will grow to love us as much as we love him, and he won't see that he has really old parents, just parents.  He won't see our gray hair and wrinkles, just faces that look back at him with love and admiration.

Beautiful Blessings.