mom syndrome: Jojo is a big brother! {well....sort of}

Many of you know that my journey to Jojo began with foster care. Well, not long after we brought Jojo home from Texas, I felt the Lord nudging me to finish my foster care licensing....just in case.

Almost exactly a year after Jojo was born, I felt like the time was right to get my license and be ready just in case a baby like Jojo ever needed a family. Babies with special needs are abandoned at the hospital often, and it is hard to find foster families who are able take them. I wanted to be available to take the hard to place kids with special needs.....but not to be a "normal foster parent" and take in "typical kids".

I turned in the final piece of paperwork on a Friday in July, assuming that I would sit back and wait until I was needed. I sat back and waited .....until Monday when I got the call!

A statewide email had gone out (meaning the county the baby came from could find no one to take him) about a 6 month old baby who was born with Down syndrome, but also had a "whole host of other medical issues". My social worker immediately thought of me. The list of his needs was overwhelming as I talked to her on the phone and tried to scribble down as many of his diagnosis as I could (on a trach, floppy airway, hearing issues, problem with his spleen, complicated heart defect, terrible diaper rash-those are the ones I can pronounce) so I could figure out what they actually meant later. But I knew then that the sick child she was describing over the phone was very different from the real child in real life. I said I needed to meet him.

So the next week Lili and I (they were in town..... halleluiah) went up to the hospital to meet this little guy. On the way she said "You know once you see him you won't be able to say no". To which I responded, "obvi".

As I held him for the first time, he was no longer a list of medical conditions, he was no longer a diagnosis, he was a beautiful child of God in need of someone who could care for him when his family could not. I told the room full of social workers, doctors and nurses that I was in. I was on board to do whatever necessary to bond with this sweet boy and do the training required to bring him home.

That was on the 23rd of July. I have been visiting the hospital, loving on and advocating for this sweet boy since then. He has been in the hospital since he was born, but has already had 1 heart surgery and is on the road to recovery. We call him "Baby Zee".

On the 28th of July, Lili and family had to go back to Texas. Later that afternoon, I got a call about two boys, ages 5 and 9 who needed a safe place to stay for 1 week.....and they are still with us today. But that is another story for another day!

Please pray today for an important evaluation that Baby Zee will have with a Pulmonologist that will likely determine how much longer he will have to be in the hospital.

Will I adopt him one day? I don't know. For now I will just love him just like I love my other kids and go where the Lord leads!

{I WISH I could post pictures of him, but since it is a foster placement that is against the rules....but here are some that I can show you}