‘I knew he was my son’: Medical Foster Care leads to Adoption
Gives dying child a second life
Marcus was 13 months old, lying in a bed inside a medical facility, struggling to stay alive.
His tiny body was racked by fevers and infections due to severe heart and lung defects. A ventilator and trach tube were the only things keeping him fed and breathing.
Marcus was motherless and alone. He was born three-months premature, weighing 1-pound, to a heroin addict, and then abandoned at the hospital. No one was coming for Marcus.
And that’s when he felt a kiss on the cheek, and heard a voice whisper in his ear.
“My name is Kelly. I want to be your mom. Would you like to come home with me?”
….
Today, Marcus is a happy, healthy 3-year-old obsessed with reading. He still has a trach and can’t speak, but he can say more than 100 words through sign language. He’s smart, observant, a little shy and very ornery.
But before he came to live with Lively, doctors had said Marcus only had a 30-percent chance he would live to see his second birthday. If he did, they said he’d never walk or live a normal life.
Lively said the doctors were wrong on all counts.
“He’s beat the odds,” she said. “He’s been so successful. Marcus is truly a miracle. The doctors have said the same thing. They said, ‘Whatever you are doing for this child, keep doing it.’ They can’t believe it.”
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