Mommy & Casey

I can never get enough of those chubby cheeks!
Casey - 3 1/2 months old.

Cameron

Casey wasn't the only child for long. 2 weeks later we got a call about Cameron. Cam was a 7 year old boy who was in need of a foster home that could give him one-on-one attention...that was us, so he moved in on September 15th. It was an instant bond for all of us, including all our family as well (espeically Tom). On day 2 he was already calling us mom & dad. He LOVED Casey and was a great big brother. He helped me out all the time and fed him bottles, sang him songs and made him laugh. Cameron was so much fun, I got to be a kid again. We colored, played games and wrote each other letters. He was in 2nd grade and at his past foster home he was doing poorly in reading and they were considering holding him back a grade. While here, he made the "Principals list" and had excellent grades! He took a short karate class and was very interested in soccer. Cameron looked up to Eric very much and couldn't wait for him to come home at night, they went fishing and played video games together. He was here with us for Christmas and it was our first Christmas with a child...they aren't kidding when they say that it is majical again when you have kids, it was wonderful. Cameron came to us as a foster child, so we knew that he wasn't staying forever. At the end of Jan. he left us and re-unified with his dad. We missed him when he left, but we are so glad we got the chance to know him and have him in our life!

Then there was one...

The day we had all dreaded finally came and on September 1st Jordan & Jaden left our family. I still get tears in my eyes remembering putting them in their car seats. It has got to be one of the hardest days of my life, as I am sure Eric's as well. I didn't really believe it would happen till they were really gone....in some crazy way I thought it would fall through and it wasn't real that they were leaving- life has a funny way of being real though. Casey became the only child of the house. He stayed briefly at a babysitters while I gathered my composure enough to get through a few hours with out crying. A nice vacation to the beach with Amy also helped me sort through my feelings and reality.

When Amy was gone and I was alone with Casey, to move on...Casey and I really got a chance to bond. With 3 kids and Jordan being used to being an only child, it was a little hard to fully devote my attention on Casey. Casey soon became the new ma-ma's boy and the little miracle gave me something to focus my attention to. Casey was amazing, he never once showed any signs of cocaine effects and if anything has been ahead of his developments his whole life. He is never one to sit still , he loves to be held and always makes me laugh. Caseys story was intersting as well...and in the beginning things looked very good for us keeping him. When Jordan & Jaden left, Eric and I vowed that we wouldn't lose another one....Casey is ours and he is staying!

James "Casey"

On July 10th the new addition to the Parrott household was born. He was born cocaine positive and with under-developed lungs. He was one of those babies that we he had decided against taking...we didn't want to risk an unhealthy child, not after all of this. But, when they called it seemed right and after hesitation we said yes. He was almost 9 pounds when he was born and had a fighting chance at defeating the troubles that his birth mother had bestowed upon him. We went to visit him in the NICU and he was breathing with tubes and we couldn't hold him. A few days later we got a call that he was ready to go home, and he would be released as a healthy newborn baby...what a miracle! We picked up Casey at the hospital, Jillian, Andrea, Amy, Jordan & Jaden were all there to see him and help us take him home. Poof...we were then a family of 5 ! I still hadn't slept since December 28th when Jordan was brought to our house and Casey was going to make sure that he continued to give me what I was used to (sleep deprivation). He had his days and nights mixed up, so at night I spent the time bonding with him. During the day I took care of Jordan who was then 7 months and Jaden 2. I was very busy !! Jordan had a rough time sharing his mommy with Casey. He would sit there while I fed him and say "ma-ma-ma-ma" over and over again, it is was very hard at first.

The Bad News

A few months after Jaden joined our family, bad news hit our happy home. We were told that it was very likely that both Jordan & Jaden would be moving to live with their grandparents-permantly. At first we didn't believe it, we knew that there was talk of the grandparents-but Jaden had almost been in foster care for a year and they still hadn't met them or verified that they would do a home-study. But, as weeks and months went by it became all too clear that our babies were leaving us. It was devastating- and every day we would wake up and look at them and know that sometime soon they would be gone forever. When they had handed us our baby in December, never once had we thought they would take him or his sister away. Little did we know that there was another plan for us.

Proud Mommy & Daddy...

This is a few days after Jordan arrived, we couldn't have been happier, we finally had our family.

Jordan & Jaden

They instantly got along SO well ! Jordan looked at her with so much love and Jaden thought it was her duty to take care of her "baby".

Beautiful Jaden

Jaden opening up her Birthday presents !

Jaden

Soon, we got word that the judge wanted Jaden placed in our home, they wanted to make sure that the adoption placement was complete. We had a few visits and then poof- we were a family of 4. She adjusted really well and loved her "baby",as she would call Jordan. It was all too good to be true- we had our girl and our boy, what more could anyone want. Jaden kept us very busy, recently after she was placed with us- she became a terrible two. We gave her a princess party and dressed her up in a pretty pink dress and had family and friends over- it was the first birthday party we had given for "our children". She kept us busy and loved to test us. But, she was so much fun. She loved to sing and laughed all the time. She slowly became a girly girl and let me do her hair and dress her in cute little dresses and outfits. She played very well with her brother and loved him as much as any sibling can. She also was a daddy's girl, she loved to spend time with daddy helping him plant in the garden or wash the cars. Everytime the door would open in the house she would say "daddy?"...it was too cute. Things were so perfect...

Jordan

On December 3rd a miracle was born, and on that same day we were licensed for foster care and adoption ! On December 28th we received a late Christmas present- a call, one that I will never forget. They had a baby boy- 3 weeks old and they wanted to bring him to us at 5 that day. For those of you who know me well, I am usually organized, I have lists and get things ready way before I need to. We were getting a baby in 3 hours and I didn't have diapers or bottles or clothes, he was coming with nothing. Luckily my friend Amy calmed my nerves and took me shopping, we got everything we thought we would need and rushed home to meet my baby boy. Sure enough at 5, there he was. It was surreal. He was so small, he was 3 weeks old but he was way smaller than I expected. He came with a dirty carrier & onesie, a bottle and a diaper, and a blanket protecting him from the cold. Turns out he was so small he needed preemie clothes (which of course I hadn't bought). They brought him in and I looked at him for so long while talking to the caseworkers, they finally said "do you want to hold him?", I was nervous- afraid it wasn't real. I took him out of his carrier and held him, at that moment he was mine.

As I was soon to find out, each child comes with a past & a story that will blow your minds. It makes you wonder how someone has child after child and not want them, treat them right or even deserve them, and then there are people out there that were born to be parents, that don't have a child. But, it is for this reason that we have come to hold, love and share our hearts with all of the children that have and will be in our lives- they need us, and we need them. Jordan's story was no different. He had a 19 year old mother and a 2 year old sister who had been in foster care for 6 months as well as a 5 year old sister that wasn't in foster care. From the beginning our intentions were to adopt both Jordan and his 18 month old sister Jaden. It was going to take a bit till Jaden was placed with her brother in our home...till then we had plenty to do.

Jordan was a dream come true. I quit my job and focused 100% on him. He was such a beautiful baby and such a mama's boy. I broke all the rules I had set for myself before kids, he slept in bed with me and he rarely had a reason to cry since I was always holding him. My life became so complete by this little man, the highlights of my day was when he cooed differently or rolled over...my life was wrapped up in him. Our family was in love as well and it was great for them to experience having a first grandchild, great-grandchild or nephew. His daddy's eyes lit up everytime he came home and held him.

In the beginning...

Eric & I met in Highschool and graduated together in the class of 1995. He proposed in 2000 and we had a year engagement before being married on June 9th 2001. It was a beautiful wedding and all of our closest friends and family were there, it was amazing. We also got the chance to experience 2 honeymoons...one in Jamaica and one in Bahama's- it was awesome! Shortly after getting married we started talking about starting a family. We had always planned on waiting a year after we got married to be able to have some time for just us, but after 6 months we decided to go ahead and start trying. Little did we know that it was going to turn into 3 years that we would never forget. We tried almost every kind of infertility treatment (including Eric giving me shots)- 3 surgeries later and a diagnosis of "Unexplained infertility" we gave up and looked in to other options. After a lot of consideration we decided to do adoption, but not normal adoption- adoption through the state. We went through hours and hours of training, home-studies, criminal checks, firechecks and safety checks- you name it we went through it. When we were almost done with the licensing, we received a very unexpected surprise...we were pregnant. It was a miracle and to this day I can remember how I felt knowing that I had a baby inside of me. Unfortunally my pregnancy was high risk due to my infertility, and I spent several weeks going back and forth to the hospital...getting blood drawn and sonograms, but I didn't mind I was pregnant against all odds. 2 weeks after finding out, I was told I was losing the baby, there was nothing I could do but sit and wait. Through the help of Eric, my mom, family & friends I was able to lean on them and get through what was then the worst thing that had ever happened to me. We continued on our way to getting approved for adoption, and a few months later we ended up pregnant again. That time we didn't have time to get excited- we didn't find out till I was miscarrying. With all this pain and loss there had to be a way to get our family- foster care became our only hope...