As some of you may know we had a placement call on January 29th and were placed with 2 small children that same day. These children were thru the foster placement.
After leaving work at 11:00 on Friday and running to the store to pick up some necessities I raced home to do some cleaning and assembling of bassinets, bedding and bottles. At 5:00 pm we welcomed Alexia 17 mo. and her younger brother Robert 5 mo. into our home.
So here we were with 2 very young children that can not tell us what it is that they need or want. That first night was a toughie. I slept down stairs on the couch with Robert in his car seat due to some serious congestion and an elevated temperature and him waking every 3 hours to eat.
To make everything more interesting this placement happened at the same time that Brian's boss decided to make a career change and leave the Rep to pursue another adventure, so that left Brian doing both his job and his bosses. Oh and at the beginning of Tech rehearsals which means that Brian is at work form 8 am to 12 am!
Saturday morning Brian was off to work and my friend Connie came over to help feed us and give me a hand. Later in the day John and Char came by with much needed toys and books. The coolest part was that my Dad was in town from Japan and was able to come by and see the kids and lend a hand as well.
After our visitors had left and the kids got dinner and baths is when things really got interesting.
We felt that Robert was not quite right and that his fever was a little higher than we would like it to be. So we called Children' s hospital nurse line to get some advise. Well the nurse went thru it all with us and the last thing we talked about was his breathing or respiratory rate. After counting it out with her she informed us that we should be heading to the emergency room with little Robert!
We both felt helpless, what do we do we have a child who is very ill while the other was sleeping so soundly. Char was able to come down and sit at the house while we took Robert to Valley Med Center. We were admitted at 8:15 pm and after blood draws, catheters, x-rays, and breathing treatments we got a room in the Pediatric Mother/Children wing of the hospital at 3 am. Robert was diagnosed with pneumonia.
Brian left me at the hospital with Robert where we would be for the next 10 days while Brian took Lexi to and from daycare and went to work and I spent all my time with Robert. I was very fortunate to receive 2 weeks off from work and the office was closed the 3rd week so it worked as well as it could.
The next month and a half was full of meetings, visits, Dr's appointments, daycare, bottles, diapers, bonding moments, many monkey stories, sleepless nights, fun and love.
Brian and I are sad to say that the kids left us on April 1st and were placed with relatives, where they are getting great care and love.
We knew early on that these children were going to be placed with family and the likelihood of adoption was slim to none. This still did not stop us from giving them all the love we were able in the short time they were here.
Both Brian and I were very sad to see them go and still are working thru our grief. We have good days and bad and sometimes the littlest thing will trigger a big emotion.
We are keeping ourselves busy and looking forward to the next adventure!
