Happy Birthday, Little Man!

Seven years ago on April 29th, my husband and I were anxiously awaiting being approved to be foster parents. We decided to foster to adopt as a way of expanding our family. We were daydreaming about what child we would get. DSS had told us that most likely we would get a toddler since we had requested under 4 years of age. We told them that, the younger the child was, the more special needs we would take. DSS said that not many babies had come in recently, but that you never know. Little did we know that our son was being born that very day into the most dangerous of situations. We got the call on May 1 in the late afternoon. We had been approved to be foster parents at 9 am that morning and already they had a possible placement for us. The social worker said that he was very small, crack addicted, and two days old. He had experienced severe birth trauma, was born at home, had other siblings already in custody. Biological mother was not doing anything on her list to get the others back so far. In other words ~ it didn't look good for him going home and he may very well become adoptable in the near future. We said YES, bring him right over. And so began our very long 2 year journey to adopting our sweet boy. He is loaded with special needs, but we are sooo blessed to have him. I stand in amazement all the time at how everything came together to bring him to us with God's perfect timing. Not only were we approved just that very morning, but DSS had called half a dozen foster parents before us who turned him down! We were the last call before he was placed out of the county. DSS supervisors had to have a meeting to decide if they would even call us with a crack baby as our first placement. They did not want to scare us off with such a high risk baby. We are so thankful to have another birthday with our sweet boy! So in keeping with our birthday tradition, here is the list of seven words to describe our son:   

1. Smart   
2. Curious   
3. Imaginative   
4. Sensitive   
5. Tenacious   
6. Strong-willed   
7. Energetic 

Our little guy at 4 days of age

And him today 

Blessings, Dawn