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After Lisa moved out, things seemed to settle down a bit. We had David and Fawn. David’s family was stepping up and involving themselves in his life. The agency called again and asks us if we would consider taking in twin boys. Of course we said yes. Tommy and Vince were just as cute as could be; they were as different as night and day. Tommy was blond with blue eyes with a sweet calmer demeanor and Vince had darker hair with big black eyes, he was high strung. They were born with “FETAL ALCOHOL syndrome”. This is caused by the mother drank through her pregnancy. This was the first time we had ever heard of and seen for our own eyes something like this. These two boys were a handful. Vince was the more extreme of the two. He would go into shaking screaming raging fits, he would loose control at the drop of a hat. Tommy was as I said much calmer, more touchy, feely. You could hug and kiss him with no problem. I thought once again”Lord what have I gotten us into”? When I contacted the worker to have the boys evaluated she kept putting it off. The only relief she was seeming willing to give me was a 24-hour babysitter, “TO GIVE YOU A BREAK.” I did not need a break, these children needed help. We stuck in there as long as we could, until I finely told her that we could no longer keep the two boys together, they needed to be separated in order for Tommy to have a chance to thrive and flourish. The worker refused to even think about our proposal. I was left with no other choice but to call her after several attempts and tell her she had until 5:oo that night to pick up both boys or I would be bringing them down to her office with all their belongings. The worker had sent someone within 2 hours. It really broke my heart to see that the same system that had removed these children to save them was letting their spirits die.But I could not sit by and watch , or even seeming to me help the system dump on these poor babies. The boys left and things seemed to start settling down again. We were getting back into a somewhat normal state. Then we got another call from a worker, another little baby, Tommy, he was just a sweet a could be. His parents were mentally unable to care for him. Mom and dad were both manic. We ended up meeting with the parents through visits and, yes they did have some mental issues. But they could be controlled with meds. In the mean time we had found out about Tommy’s Grandmother, a sweet older lady. We felt that she should have time with Tommy so we made arrangement to take Tommy to her house for visits. We even went out and picked her up to come to our home. Mom and Dad were invited to our home for Tommy’s birthday. They were very caring parents wanting to care for their son. They just sadly could not handle it. We had become a kind of go between for the parents and the agency, the parents felt very threatened. But seemed comfortable with us. Until on one visit the parents decided that they would just take Tommy out of the office and leave with him. I got a phone call stating the parents had kidnapped him. OH MY GOD! With in 2 hours I had a knock at my front door, it was dad, telling me that they had realized that it was the wrong thing to do. “Here was Tommy back where he belonged. Thank you.” Tommy stayed with us for about a year, Mom and Dad were going to sign Tommy over to us,we had descustd having an open adoption with them. but then an aunt from New York came forward and said that she would take him. I feel that the parents thought she would be a better scorce for them to stay in contact with. He left our home within weeks. Never to be heard of except in our hearts. Also on dad Mikes birthday, Tommy and him shared the same birth date. Life again seemed to calm down to a “normal” going on with daily life.
Until we got a phone call; they had a little baby 4 lbs. They couldn’t find a foster parent to take her in because of just a few things. She was black, heroin addicted mother and they thought she might be deaf and she may not be able to walk. Why are you waiting to bring her? Within hours she was at our house. OH MY GOD!! This baby was beautiful. She was so tiny she looked just like a little monkey, with a full head of curly black hair. What to do with her? Oh and by the way her mother abandoned her at the hospital without giving her a name. We could give her a temporary name. What would we name her? Something Godlike Faith, Joy, Angel? We were not sure. What I did know for sure was there was a black family who my older girls played with their girls, the father was a preacher. I took this tiny baby down to their house for what I called a prayer from a black man to the black part of God. As the preacher was praying for her hearing and her life he said in the same sentence.... FAITH,JOY. So that was her name Faith Joy. We would come to love this baby very much. Faith Joy was just the tiniest thing, it was hard to find diapers to fit. Not to mention clothes that would stay on her. Mom was nowhere to be found so we had all the openess to love this baby. We had even thought strongly about adopting her. It turned out that she had a cousin, of mom’s who wanted to take her into her home. She was a very wonderful woman, a single mom with 2 boys. I sent message for the woman to call me and we would talk for hours. I had even taken Faith over to the womans house and met her children and her. We would talk abut her boys and our Faith. We talked about God and all the important things that Faith need in her life. She felt the agency would frown on her being a single parent, So I called the worker and let her know how I felt. There could not be a better mommy for this baby. The worker agreed and Faith's mom said she would sign papers to allow the cousin to take Faith. When it came time to send Faith Joy off I pack all of her belongings, including her crib, seat, and highchair. We kept in contact for quite sometime, it turned out that Faith’s mom straightened out and let the cousin keep her. The most heart-grabbing thing was that the mother told her new mommy to keep her name Faith Joy. OH yeah, just an up date, Faith cannot only walk just fine she can also hear very well! The last time we saw her she was a jumping singing two year old, just as happy as could be. God knew where she belonged. So once again we settle in and become a “norm