An introduction to Sarah.

Sarah is a sweet, brave girl that happened to be born with DiGeorge Syndrome and many other anomalies in June 2004.  I was introduced to Sarah when I was assigned to her as a nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital Central California in Madera, California.  She was recovering from her first heart surgery because of  Truncus Arteriosus. Throughout the years, Sarah has endured tens of surgeries, numerous hospital admissions and lots of love from her family. 

During that day, the case manager was detailing the plight of Sarah secondary to her legal and health care status.  There was a foster/adopt family designated for her but they lost interest when the DiGeorge diagnosis was placed from her genetic testing.  When she was stable, she was to be placed on a medical floor in the hospital and the legal battle would continue...all in her best interest, of course.  Without hesitation, I said that I would take her home and care for her.  Needless to say, the case manager was a bit shocked but excited and put me in touch with the unit's social worker to explore our options.

During my morning break, I called Luke and told him that I was bringing home a baby from the hospital.  He chuckled and said, " Not funny, dear", to which I replied, "I'm not joking.  I will tell you more when I get home."  This started our long and sometimes prickly battle with the state of California to be foster parents for little Miss Sarah.  Sarah was almost three and a half months old when we finally brought her home from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

When we were home, she was on approximately 15 different medications which included twice daily blood thinner injections and  Methadone, a specialized infant formula through a feeding tube, countless hours of narcotic withdrawl and a learning curve that was steeper than we thought possible.  From the beginning though, Luke and I knew that we wanted to adopt this little love and nothing was going to prevent us from the finalization.  Nothing.