Snips Snails and Pigtails

Today is a special day.  Exactly 2 years ago I brought you home from the Hospital.  I will never forget this day as long as I live.

It was a Sunday.  (We had been notified on Friday that a baby girl was born, that might be coming into care.  We had agreed to pick her up from the Hospital when she was ready to be released.)  Late morning, the nurses called and told us you were ready.  I jumped into the car and headed to Denver Health Medical Center.  A Hospital that I had never been to before.  I parked and began to walk into the building with the empty infant car seat.  I remember looking around anxiously, were your birthparents watching?  I’ll never understand the feeling of having your baby taken away.  I can’t even imagine the pain they must have felt. 

I got to the Labor and Delivery floor.  The nurses rushed me to a private room.  Apparently your birth father was visiting with you and saying goodbye.  While there, I signed the appropriate paperwork. They told me your feeding history and I finally learned your name.  Until then, I had only known you as “Baby Girl (last-name).  After what seemed like decades they led me to a back office.  There, surrounded by Doctors and Nurses doing paperwork, were 2 isolettes.  I couldn’t help but wonder why you and other baby were not in the regular nursery?

I reached down and pulled the blanket back.  There you were, dark peach fuzz on your head and delicate, soft pink skin.  You were so beautiful!  I began to unwrap you from the swaddled blankets.  When I finally got all the blankets off I saw how itty-bitty you were.  The Doctors tell me you were born at barely 5 pounds, and are now just 4 pounds something.  You were so tiny and fragile; I had never handled a baby so small.  I got you situated in your car seat and took you home to meet your new Foster Brothers.  Never, in a million years could I imagine that you would still be with us today.  You’re the light of our lives!  We love you sweet baby girl.