Isaac is 8!

When I wrote back in the first days of my blog about having 2 miracle children, I wasn't kidding. I'll share the story of one of them today, on his birthday.

On April 15, 1999, a baby boy was born to a young woman who had been through some difficult circumstances in her life. Since her baby was born at 29 weeks gestation, at 2 lbs., 14 ozs., he was admitted immediately to the neonatal intensive care. Amazingly, he was strong for his size, only needing oxygen for 8 days, and besides having clubfeet, was mostly healthy overall. After 10 weeks in the NICU, he was released to my parents (at a whopping 4 lbs., 10 oz.), in the custody of DHR. My mom took him to regular orthopedic appointments as his feet were prepared for surgery through many sets of casts and splints, as well as other check ups to make sure his vision and weight were normal for him. That first year was an amazing experience, as we all got to know this little bundle of joy. When he reached any milestone, we celebrated that he was surpassing any expectations the doctors had for him. Throughout that time, there were visits with his birth mom and family members, but they became less regular, and it become apparent that things may not be progressing so that he could go home to them. Around the time of his first birthday, and another surgery, his birth mom told my mother that she wanted our family to "have him," knowing that DHR was not keen on giving her custody, and figuring she had enough other issues to deal with, that it would just be the best thing. The baby wasn't attached to her, and had never been in that home environment, so she figured it would just be best to give in and make it easier on everyone. This wasn't expected necessarily, especially since my parents' goal had been to temporarily help children - not adopt and start raising more kids. However, when Mom shared the conversation with James and me, it was obvious this baby couldn't just leave our family, to go to some other adoptive family. We loved him and wanted him to be part of our lives permanently, and James rather quickly said that we would pursue adoption. We hadn't really even discussed it before that point, but it was so clear that it was the right thing to do that we were totally peaceful about it.

Within weeks we were setting up training to be foster parents ourselves, so we could transition him into our custody while working on the adoption. DHR was very accommodating during the process and it went by very quickly. At the end of the summer, his birth mom's rights were terminated, we had a room ready, a couple of baby showers, and transitioned Isaac to our home by having him spend a night or two at a time, until gradually he was with us more than with my parents. He slept through the night the first night here, and never seemed to feel that things were any different. He'd gotten very comfortable with us, since we spent lots of time visiting in Mom and Dad's home, going on vacations with them, and I had tried to make it to as many dr. appts. as possible too.

The entire adoption process did drag on for a while, actually not being completed till over a full year later. Within the same week though, on October 22, 2001, we became legal parents to Isaac Michael Vines, and found out we were expecting another baby in the summer! It was a big week! :-)

Isaac has truly lived up to his name, as a source of joy and laughter in our lives. He has overcome many obstacles in his life, and is a courageous, tenacious, loving, and lively boy. I can't imagine life without him and am so honored that God chose our family to go down a path we hadn't necessarily imagined.

I'll post some pictures later. Happy Birthday buddy! We love you so much!