Two local moms have fostered more than two dozen children and two of those children, are now permanent additions to their family.
Just being able to smile is a big milestone for 4-year-old Juan. Healthy at birth, his parents say he suffered severe trauma when he was seven-weeks-old at the hands of his biological mother's boyfriend.
"His skull was open and you could see his brain. His eyes were bleeding, his ribs were broken, his clavicle was fractured," explained Sue.
When Juan first came to live with Sue and Ann, he was having seizures, wasn't able to swallow and his prognosis was poor.
"The doctor said he would have a G-tube, and a tracheostomy and probably never walk," continued Sue.
But Sue and Ann say Juan can now walk in a gate trainer, can eat everything, as long as it's pureed, and hasn't had a seizure in more than two years.
"He is exceeding all expectations. We were advised, kind of cautioned, when we talked about adopting him, well, you know he's not going to this, and he's not going to do that, you're going to need to be prepared for this," said Ann. "And Sue and I both have personal and professional experience with people with disabilities so we said, we think we can do this, we think we know what we're getting into, we're not afraid, but even knowing that, he began to love life more than we thought he would. And he really seems to be very happy. I believe he knows we love him, I believe he loves us, which is to me what makes life meaningful."
Big sister Elizabeth just adores Juan and play with him a lot.
Elizabeth, who turns five next month, first joined this family as a foster child when she was a newborn.
"Elizabeth came to us at two days. She was born in the street at the border, the Mexican border and she was full of methamphetamine at the time. So we had about six months of withdrawals with her in the beginning," added Sue.
Efforts to reunify Elizabeth with her birth mom were unsuccessful, and Elizabeth tells me she was so excited when the judge said this to her:
"I could live here forever and ever and ever."
"We love Elizabeth with all our hearts," Sue said.
"Elizabeth was just our second or third foster child so we both have grown children and grandchildren, and they've all accepted these two just like their crazy moms are doing it all over again."
Sue and Ann have fostered more than 25 kids over the past seven years and continue to open up their home to foster children in need.
"I feel such gratitude for the opportunity to be able to make a contribution to someone else's life and humility. It humbles me to think that not everybody gets a happy, healthy start in life and if I can turn that around for somebody, what a gift that is and it's a heck of a lot of fun!" Ann said.
If you're interested in adopting or becoming a foster family, call
1-877-I-ADOPT-U. To meet other children in foster care and discover how
you can help restore their hope, please click here.
We would also like to thank Boomers in Kearny Mesa for inviting our Adopt 8 kids to spend a fun afternoon at the amusement park.
