In June of 2005 Mathieu, our oldest son, came to be a part of our family. Through the process of adopting him we came to learn of fostering. Immediately after bringing him home we knew what God wanted us to do. Fostering was just another way we could help care for children who didn’t have a family of their own. We signed up for the foster training course right away and began to learn even more about the many children right in our own backyard that were dreaming of having their own family. By April of 2006 we were officially opened as a foster home and started bringing in children. After having 3 separate children come and go, we decided to become a safe baby home.
A safe baby home is basically a foster home that has been specially trained in caring for infants under the age of 1 who have been prenatal exposed to drugs and alcohol. We had already done the training because our son Mathieu had been exposed, so it wasn’t long before we were opened as a safe baby foster home. We had our first baby placement, a little 2 month old baby girl, then not long after, on July 14th, we were phoned to take another placement. The social worker asked if we could take a little baby boy who had just been born the day before, and was still at the hospital. I was a bit nervous, and a bit excited! We had never had a newborn baby before; the youngest we had ever cared for was 2 months old!
As I drove to the hospital, with 16 month old Mathieu in the back seat, I realized I didn’t have a way to carry everyone out of the hospital, I needed a double stroller! I decided to make a pit stop at TJ’s the Kiddie Store. I traded in the single stroller I had in my trunk so I would have room for the double, and purchased a floor model double, so it would already be assembled! Talk about last minute! I arrived at the hospital, walked into the NICU, and was brought over to a tiny little hospital crib. Inside was a teeny, tiny, adorable baby boy! He was so small; I couldn’t believe they were letting me take him home! I buckled his tiny little body into his car seat, waited for the nurse to inspect him, then put him in the new double stroller (thank goodness I stopped to get it!) and headed back to the car.
The next few months were some of the most challenging we had ever gone through. The first 2 months Robby spent his days sleeping, more than I had ever seen a baby sleep. When he was awake, he was spitting up…a lot! Then, right around his 2nd month, he started to cry…a lot! We realized we were being hit hard with a double dose of colic and acid reflux. If Robby wasn’t crying, he was spitting up. Most days we could barely keep him dressed without him being sopping wet. At night we would put him to sleep on a wedge, and after every meal he had to sit upright in a bouncy chair. Even once he hit solids, we had to leave him in his high chair for a minimum of 30 minutes, or everything would come right back up. It was exhausting!
Around the time he hit 4 months old, we were told the ministry was going to try and get CCO for him. CCO meant he would be a permanent ward and would then come up for adoption. Up until that point he had still been visiting with his birth parents and the plan had been for him to return home. The second we heard he might come up for adoption, however, we knew we needed to make him a part of our forever family. How could we not? One thing we believed in was making the least amount of transitions as possible for children in care. Rather than have a foster child move from one home to an adoptive home, it would allow for the child to stay in the only family he had ever known.
The following months were difficult. Coupled with Robby’s extreme health issues, we battled the ongoing court proceedings and constant battles with the birth parents. We also started to notice more issues with Robby. He had extremely low muscle tone, was extremely delayed, and was showing facial features of FAS. After an extremely long year, however, in June of 2007, the judge awarded CCO to Robby, and we were given the go ahead to adopt him! It was the biggest relief we had ever felt. All those months of fearing we would lose a baby we had come to feel as our own, had finally come to an end. Only 4 days after the judge granted Robby’s CCO, his birth mom announced her pregnancy. We prepared ourselves to welcome Robby into our forever family, and to welcome another little baby that would be born in January the following year. (The plan was to remove Robby`s sibling right away and attempts are always made to place siblings in the same foster home)
Although it took more than a year later to go through all the paper work and home study updates, Robby was finally made an official member of the family when he was two and a half years old! We had been blessed yet another time by our amazing Father! Robby is our goof ball, our affectionate cuddle bug, and another joy to our life!
