His Name Is Julian

I scrambled thru the junk drawer looking for something to write on and write with and found nothing....I thought...Are you freaking kidding me right now! I finally found a note book and a pen and when I got back to the phone Leyla was giggling at me because it had taken me so long to get back to her! And then I said....okay is it a boy or girl?

As she started to talk I could barely hear her over my heart pounding. I could feel my face getting flush with every word she spoke...and then I heard her say...this case is about a little boy. He is 5 months old. And with those words I let out a huge breath and said...a little boy? She began to briefly tell me about his case. I wrote every word she said so I could give my husband every detail he needed. It turned out that the little boy was taken from his biological parents at 3 months old because of physical abuse. For the past two months he had been in a receiving home while the county tried to figure out what had happened and what needed to happen for this baby.

She began to tell me that his biological parents were illegal immigrants from Honduras and only spoke Spanish. At that time I wondered about what he looked like...so I asked her...She said he was a beautiful child but had so far lead a pretty tough little life. She explained that he looked more African American. I was surprised by that because being from Honduras I had a picture of a Latino baby. But I loved that he was different from my husband and I and I was dying to see his little face.

Leyla told me that the biological parents had not been showing up to court for the first two months the baby had been in the system and so far the case was looking like it was going toward the parents rights being terminated. I was so relieved by this news. She said that even tho weekly visits had been set up for them to visit him the biological parents hadn't been to one visit yet.

She then explained that because of the abuse he had some delays in development. He wasn't moving much and may need physical therapy. She said...I would rather you come in and read the file for yourselves so can learn everything about him that we have been able to find out and she wanted us to review his medical file to make sure we were up for the challenges he may face. I asked if his social worker would be there for the file review and she then said that his social worker was out of town on vacation so this decision to move him into our home had been done by her supervisor and the adoption team. So Leyla would be the one to go over the file with us if we decided to come in.

I was overwhelmed with emotion. I told her I needed to talk to my husband and I would call her back if we wanted to come in and read the file. As soon as I hung up the phone I ran upstairs and woke my husband up. I jumped on the bed like a little kid would Christmas morning and said they called...he popped out of bed and said...so tell me everything. I said well...IT IS A BOY! And he said the same thing I did...A Boy? Although we were open to a boy or a girl it was at that moment that I realized we had both envisioned a little girl....but apparently God had another plan. AGAIN!

I told my husband what little information I had been given by Leyla and I asked him if he wanted to go read the file. He said...heck yes! Lets see if we can go today! Within a half an hour of my last phone call to Leyla I was on the phone with her again...asking to come in that day! We had our appointment schedule for that afternoon! Then before I got off the phone with Leyla I said...uhhh Leyla...whats his name? I had been so excited the first phone call I had forgotten to ask....and I could hear her smile over the phone and she said...Julian!