Mom gives birth to a baby and notices that he looks strange the hospital didn’t know what to do but one woman was willing to help a child can completely transform your life someone who knows all this is chelsea zelani floro and she’s telling us about her experience no one like him had ever been seen before at the hospital parents adopt kid with special needs after being told he
Wouldn’t walk and may potentially have fetal alcohol syndrome he needed a home and he needed it now the mother says as a foster parent i believe it’s impossible to fully comprehend the responsibilities that come with the position it was our expectation that we would have one perfect baby we already had two biological children a girl and a son with autism who we
Adopted from foster care we had intended to adopt quickly in order to get out of foster care as quickly as possible and so in 2016 when we welcomed our wonderful baby daughter into our family we had no idea that our hearts would soon be willing to open again this time to a child with primary medical needs pmn who we had heard about on social media a continual stream of messages on our
Local facebook page asks if anyone has a spare bed for this youngster or if anyone can make room for a sibling pair normally i would have skipped over these kinds of messages but this one couldn’t be ignored child has been waiting in hospital for two and a half months has been unable to find placement has no fever moans and is deemed medically frail the post stated according to the hospital he only has a few more days until they’re forced to
Discharge him owing to a lack of available room in any case i commented in order to obtain more information but after learning the degree of his medical requirements we decided it was simply too much for us to bear in addition to the three other children already in our care i was confident that someone else would step forward and they had to the next day another post rolled through
My account and then another the day after that all from different people saying the same thing this baby needs a home today and there isn’t one available for him it was a never-ending cycle so it was time for me to call and make everything official i needed more information the excellent the bad and the downright ugly what’s the prognosis at this point
What’s the point of doing this is it possible for me to achieve this there was nothing good about what he said on paper and the hospital had never seen somebody quite like him before they claimed he wouldn’t walk and that he might even have fetal alcohol syndrome but he needed a place to call home and he needed it now after contacting our agency we discovered that with a small amount of additional yearly training it was
Feasible to upgrade our license to accept children with primary medical needs then his cps nurse got in touch with me again i was expecting her to try to persuade us into adopting this child regardless of whether it was the best choice for our family or not she spoke with me for what seemed like an eternity i appreciate you providing me with information and addressing all
My questions she inspired me with her personal story of adopting three children the improvements that children with physical disabilities are making and the incredible medical technology that’s currently available she persuaded me into saying yes that day but she didn’t have any plans for me after that the reason for this wasn’t only because it was what he required it was also because she took the time to
Make us feel comfortable and capable of providing what he required our choice had been reached now the question was what would the reactions of our friends and family be we had recently adopted our 10 month old and said goodbye to a long-term foster placement both of which took place in the previous month when we first started looking into becoming foster parents we told everyone that what we really wanted was to step
Down from the role and return to our normal lives we were ready to give up on the visits the paperwork the rules and the uncertainties nevertheless this small baby boy made us understand that we couldn’t give up just yet on a tuesday he walked in through the front door and into the house even though my heart raced in anticipation of the arrival of a new baby into our
Family it was also racing with enthusiasm at the prospect of bringing a new baby into our house he was endearing yet there were certain things that struck out about him because he was born at 32 weeks he was quite little and he lacked both of his femur bones and both of his hip bones his head was deformed from lying on a hospital bed for two and a half months and he had twin amniotic bands around both feet which added to his sense of
Insecurity even further i was terrified of everything was it correct that i was holding him was he in any discomfort is it truly possible for me to achieve this the caseworker left after informing us that his family was in the process of completing a home study and would be ready to accept him soon our hearts were immediately guarded and we felt a tiny sigh of relief knowing that this youngster would soon be
Returning home to be with his or her family when my older children returned home from school i introduced them to the new addition all of my concerns about how they would react to him were alleviated at the moment of course they were interested in his thighs and calves they asked a few questions for him but overall they were enamored with him each of them took turns embracing him pleading with him to stay with them
Forever and arguing over whose room he would sleep in that evening my five and seven-year-old children did not see a physical impairment instead they saw their brother if only for a little moment as the months passed we discovered that he was the most difficult baby we’d ever had he sobbed uncontrollably he was unwell all the time couldn’t sleep had appointments all the time and had minimal resources
Each doctor presented a different prognosis for the patient who had bilateral bffd class d one stated he would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life another offered surgery in conjunction with prosthetics and a third claimed he had a comparable patient who was a high school football player in his own way of course it didn’t matter how perplexing it all seemed at the time well we waited for
Medical appointments therapies and caseworker visits we found ourselves falling in love with this boy despite our reservations about our capacity to care for him our commitment deepened and our hearts were opened he wasn’t only a patient in need of a bed he was also a medical needs placement he was our kid and we made the choice that we would give him everything we had physically mentally and financially to him for as long as he
Was with us no matter how long that was there will be no success with the kinship arrangement in the course of our monthly visit the caseworker inquired as to whether you and your husband would be interested in adopting him the answer was a resounding yes despite the fact that i was facing the unknown and the reality that this would not be an easy road to walk down i didn’t have to ask myself could i do this we were prepared to commit to a
Journey that would last a lifetime alongside our son he’d reached milestones that he was not meant to have reached by the time he’d been in our care for one year he was crawling in his own unique way and fetal alcohol syndrome had finally been ruled out as a cause of his birth we were able to witness the transformation of this small ill infant into a healthy joyful toddler the boy chatted he laughed he had
Tantrums and he engaged with all the other activities that other children his age engaged in with the exception of walking after 522 days in foster care we were able to adopt our son on november 15 2017 on national adoption day the name charles was chosen in honor of my husband’s grandfather and it was a name we had chosen years ago but had imagined we would never have the opportunity to use
He had become our son as far as we were concerned his status as a case in the system a medical condition or a prognosis had eventually been downgraded to that of charlie following his adoption he began crawling in a different manner up on his own feet and using his hands for balance then he began to stand up on his own without assistance he was resolved to follow in the footsteps of his peers he learned how to
Ride a scooter walk with a walker climb the stairs and generally adjust to a world that was not designed for him to live in following charlie’s second birthday he got up and took six steps without the assistance of a walker that’s six steps with fewer than half of his legs at his disposal that’s six additional steps beyond what he should have taken those six steps were the first of many
To come and any anxiety we had about his future vanished almost instantaneously he opened our eyes to the power of love devotion and desire to make a difference in the life of a child also we’ve learned that we should never define someone by their condition or place them in a box of things that they supposedly should be able to perform charlie is two years old today he enjoys swimming eating hot dogs with ketchup playing outside with his buddies and is
Slowly but steadily learning to walk with the help of his parents i have no faith that he’ll grasp the situation and that he’ll not simply walk away his activities will range from running to playing football or soccer as well as whatever else he desires there will be more barriers to overcome in the future but for the time being he is my sweet sensitive boy who walks on his hands who rides a scooter better
Than any other kids his age who adores his mother and who will defy every single disadvantage placed in his path i would encourage parents of children who are able-bodied to have a conversation with their children regarding impairments discuss how we’re all unique and how just because someone doesn’t look or act like you it doesn’t imply that they shouldn’t be treated any differently than you i also want to assure you that it’s
Quite acceptable for you and your child to ask questions when people are pointing or staring i take advantage of the opportunity to educate them the majority of the time after answering their questions and interacting with charlie they come to the conclusion that he couldn’t possibly be any cooler than they are we have a phrase in our house that goes no femurs no issue and charlie has certainly demonstrated that this is true
The stigma associated with being a disabled person is being broken down by him thanks for reading.
