Meet Micah!!!

     On August 13, 2013, 6 months ago today, my second nephew was born. He was born at 27 weeks & weighed 2 lbs 8 oz. While we were happy he seemed as healthy as a 2 lb. 8 oz baby could be & had 10 fingers & 10 toes, we couldn't help but face reality.  The reality was that he wasn't born into an ideal situation & didn't have a mom & dad that could give him the life he deserved. My mom & step-dad, Randy, were too old to 'start over' & raise a child & Micah's other grandparents already had enough on their plate since they were raising Micah's older twin siblings, Destiny & Des, who will be 6 years old this month. DHR was on the case from day one & we all knew he would ultimately end up in a foster home. Although none of us had the means to take him & raise him, we knew we wanted a better life for him. We wanted him to have a Mama & Daddy that would love him, take him to church, teach him right from wrong and even give him his very own nursery in a nice, warm house. I knew that a lot of foster children didn't have fairy tale endings & as much as I wanted Micah's story to be the exception, I was afraid it wouldn't be.
     Since Micah was in the NICU at UAB, we had to be on a list to see him. If you weren't on the list, you didn't get in the unit. Randy's sister, Betty Carol, was the only person that Micah's biological mom would put on the list. Betty Carol went to UAB on her lunch break nearly every day for 2 months & updated us. Against all odds, he seemed to be trucking right along! On September 3, 2013, I was at work & Mama called me. She told me that she had seen on Facebook that Bill & Alyssa Short were doing all kinds of fund raisers to adopt a child. Bill's daddy & Randy are first cousins & we thought that adopting a blood related child might be a tiny bit easier than someone that wasn't related to Micah at all. It was a VERY long shot but Mama went for it. She messaged Bill & explained the situation... 'I know this is completely out of the ordinary but I want to give you some information & you can do with it what you will...our wish & prayer for him is for some family to adopt him & give him a good home...I know you & your wife are in the process of adopting a baby already but I wanted to let you know about this baby, too....We pray that he can be placed into a good, loving, Christian home. Take care!' Woah! Can you imagine getting a random message like that? Apparently Bill didn't mind a bit because 20 minutes later, he replied with, 'That would be a blessing! Please call me.' Before long, Bill & Alyssa were involved in every aspect in Micah's life. DHR got custody of him & Bill & Alyssa were placed on the visiting list in the NICU to visit. Bill updated us daily with Micah's progress. Mama & Randy got to visit him in the NICU, too. At first, I don't think Randy wanted to even see Micah & I think it was because he felt guilty that he couldn't take him home & raise him. After he saw that Bill & Alyssa were serious about trying to adopt him & he knew that Micah would have awesome parents that would take care if him, he finally held him. Eventually Bill & Alyssa got temporary custody!
     On November 9, 2013, almost 3 months old, Micah was discharged & went home with Bill & Alyssa! Not long after he was home, I FINALLY got my hands on him! Such a sweet, tiny little thing! Earlier this month, Bill & Alyssa got full custody of him & now they can start the process of legally adopting him. It was an absolute miracle that Micah was a healthy baby & it was all in God's timing that Bill & Alyssa finally have the child that they prayed so long & hard for! Since they have full custody, we can now post pictures of him, hence the reason for this blog post!!! Meet Micah!!!