“‘Would you be interested in a 15-month-old boy with medical issues?’ I stammered out, ‘H-h-hang on, lemme call Emily!’ A tall man turned around, holding a beautiful, dark-skinned little boy. The toddler was completely passed out, wearing a too-small onesies. I took him into my arms. The moment his skin touched mine felt like electricity flowing through my entire body. I didn’t care that he smelled like cigarettes. In a split second, this 15-month-old stranger became part of me.”
‘Don’t worry, little man. I’ve got you,’ I whispered. His amazing brown eyes locked onto mine.’: Foster dad’s ‘knees hit the pavement, sobbing’ after son returned home, ‘I could still hear him screaming’
‘Almost there, almost there.’ I watched him struggle. I knew something was going on in his heart.’: Adoptive mom reminds traumatized son he isn’t ‘alone’ anymore
“That first summer he came, all I can remember is the rash that covered my body for 6 months. It was my body’s way of telling me it was too much. I didn’t know how to be a mama to a then 7-year-old. As I walked beside him, I told him he never has to do that alone anymore. He looked up at me with his chocolate brown eyes. ‘Mommy, it sure is much easier to carry things together.’”
‘The director met us at our car. ‘Are you able to come meet mom? She would like to meet you both.’ We froze, not knowing what to do. We didn’t want to be rude.’
“I fell instantly in love with the beautiful little bundle laying in the bassinet. His brown buttery skin, his dark hair, his squishy lips and cheeks. ‘Would you like to hold him?!’ He only had a diaper to his name that the hospital provided.”
‘Yes of course, bring our boy home,’ I blurted out quickly. I started to panic. ‘Now is there one baby or two babies?’ He moved the probe and we saw it. ‘You’re pregnant, with twins.’
“My phone began to ring. My eyes rolled. I was still very bitter. ‘Hi Mrs. Amanda.’ Wait what? Is this for real? I looked down at my belly – I had two babies in my tummy who needed me, and now this? Really?”
‘This might sound like a weird question, but is he your son?,’ asked the gas station attendant, gesturing to my 24-year-old. We were in a town 3 hours away from where we live.
“I was surprised by her question, wondering how she would have been able to guess that. ‘Yes he is,’ I answered the young woman. ‘How did you know?’”
‘The phone rings. You recognize the number. Each time it calls you feel a mixture of excitement and fear. Being a foster parent is strange.’
“You never shake the desire to want to help them all. Stepping into this world shows you things you only had heard about in the news. The victims of those new stories suddenly begin sleeping in your home.”
‘Who do you belong to?,’ asked the wedding photographer, to our 19-year-old foster son.
“’He’s ours,’ I said. His eyes met mine for just a second. He smiled.”
‘You have no idea how good it feels to be part of a family. Thank you for letting me be here.’: Foster mom grateful her children are learning ‘what it means to love’ by welcoming strangers into their home
“My husband and I woke up to find this note on our counter one morning, written by the 12-year-old boy who was living with us. I have carried this note in my purse for a long time, so I could take it out and re-read it on the hard days. There’s also a letter with ‘Youth Correctional Center’ in the return address, tear-stained, begging us not to give up.”
‘Never would I have imagined I would be not married at 28 years old, and a mom to 9 babies!’
“Toliver was placed into foster care at birth after being born dependent on methamphetamine and heroin. He in 3 different foster homes before we found each other.”
‘She handed him over to me, barely looking up. She knew I was coming, aware she would leave the hospital empty handed.’
“When I walked in, she began to cry. The cry of a child, just 18, who was losing something she wanted.”
