Lilo and Stitch to Calvin and Hobbes

      When I left off with Hannah's World Blog we were becoming foster parents. Hannah had just turned 5 and was patiently waiting to love on babies. She would sit in the empty nursery, pile her dolls in the crib and play pretend with her play foster sisters and brothers. She was waiting, and so were we.

       Little did we know, just 2 months after my last blog post a baby would be born, on Valentines day. He was a very sick little boy. He had a birth defect called a TEF/EA where his esophogus wasn't connected to his stomach. He had microcephaly (A small head). His ears weren't the same, and he was Deaf. We didn't even know he existed. He lived in the NICU for 3 months while he grew and tried to learn to drink from a bottle (this never happened). He was given a Gtube so he could get the nutrients he needed to live. He also had a very small jaw and required oxygen 24/7, as well as monitor for his heart rate and oxygen levels.

       The little boy went home with his birth mother at 3 months. But things just didn't work out and he was taken from her after 3 weeks. The details of this have been shared with family, but aren't something I really want to share with the world. We still didn't know he existed.

       Now here comes the amazing part....
       Ready?
       These are some amazing things to know before I tell you about this little boys home coming.

• The month the little boy went home with his birth mother, we were doing respite and were able to care for a little boy with a gtube (God was preparing us).
•  I had also taken 4 years of American sign language in high school, just because I found the language fascinating. 
• The Foster mom that introduced me to our agency, was also a nurse, and had a little one that was reunified the month before The little boy was removed from his birth mother's care. 
• The week before we got the call for The Little Boy, we went to a foster parent event, and I won an infant car seat, this was the last thing we needed before we could take our first placement. 
• Everything in our family happens on the 23rd. Birthdays, anniversaries, big events, etc. 

These are all important things to know. Now for the magic....

June 17th 2013 I got a phone call from our agency about a 4 month old baby boy. He had multiple medical needs. I called Michael and we both agreed to say Yes! (In foster care, you can choose to say yes or no to a call for a child). I called my friend (The nurse) and talked to her about his needs with permission from the agency. She said she had gotten the call for The Little Boy first, but they just weren't ready to take a placement yet, so she had recommended us. (Such a God thing, she knew we were meant to have this little boy, and was ready for my phone call) She was my mentor and God Send from then on.

So I called the agency back and said yes! They told me he was in the hospital and that I couldn't take him home just yet, but gave me his information. I left as soon as I got the information to go meet this little boy.

I walked into the room to see a tiny puff of platinum blond hair wrapped in a purple gown hooked up to every wire possible. He was fussing and the lady was trying to calm him without holding him. I swooped in and picked him up, practically climbing into the crib to hold him without pulling any wires.
Nurses came in and helped me get comfortable and he fell asleep in my arms. My little purple boy was called "Stitch" for the rest of his time as our foster son.

Stitch had to have multiple procedures. I wasn't able to know much because I was "Just the Foster mom". This phrase came up many times, and it made my heart hurt every time. Don't ever say "Just the foster parent" to anyone that is fostering. That is like saying a mom is just a baby sitter. We are there for everything, we aren't JUST anything ,we are everything for those children.

June 23rd, 2013 (yes! The 23rd!) I snuggled Stitch up in his little blue outfit with trains on it, put him in our newly won car seat, arranged wires and tubes and left the hospital with our Stitch.
I brought him home to a waiting little girl and Daddy who were so excited to meet him.

Stitch grew quickly, recovering from the past month of his life quickly. We started signing to him and he lit up when we would get his attention. He still didn't look our way when we were talking, so he wasn't engaging much. This was very hard, having a child who wouldn't react to you. 

Stitch learned to sit up around 8 months old, he had a hard time learning to crawl, he was 11 months old when this finally happened.
When he was still small we went to a geneticist and were told "He will likely never walk, talk, or live a normal life. You should consider adopting him very carefully". Those words still hurt today.

At 11 months old Calvin got his first hearing aid. His world and personality opened up. He was able to engage with us, he signed "Milk" for the first time shortly after this, at my brother's graduation party in May of 2014 Calvin said "Mama" for the first time!! My heart melted. At 20 months he finally walked, and by then had almost 100 signs.

July 3rd 2014 we adopted Stitch, who then became Calvin Dean! That was a beautiful day, Hannah was most excited to be an "Official big sister".

Calvin now runs everywhere, although his stamina isn't where it should be and he requires a wheel chair for long distances, like the zoo or aquarium. He has over 250 signs, and multiple verbal words. He loves Mickey mouse and Pj Masks. His favorite person in the world is Hannah (He calls her Nana).  Take that Dr. guy.

We found out around 2 that Calvin has a rare (108 in the entire world) Genetic Condition called Mandibulofacial dysostosis with Microcephaly (MFDM). I started a support group for this condition and it's the only one in the world! We have found over 20 children out of the 108 and the number keeps growing weekly as more children are tested. There are 4 cases in our City alone, which is really rare.

So that is the story of how Stitch became Calvin and we became a family of 4!