Tomorrow will be Caleb’s birthday. The first child that came into our home will be four. We will celebrate his Gotcha Day on February 5. He spent the first two weeks of his life in a hospital and the next two weeks in a shelter. He came to us from there.
The circumstances of his birth were very grim. He was taken to a hospital six hours or so after he was born. According to the hospital records, the first doctor who treated and examined him was unable to predict whether or not he would survive.
When we received him into our home, he was not well. He was very pale. He did not respond much at all to external stimuli. He could not focus on the person holding him when he was given a bottle. We took him to our family doctor’s office. The doctor wept as he examined Caleb.
As I was thinking about what to write today, I noticed a tragic story in the news. On New Year’s Eve, a newborn baby was found dead in a dumpster in an apartment development in Dallas. The child’s mother, who had apparently kept her pregnancy a secret, put her baby in a plastic bag and placed him in the trash. The cause of the little boy’s death has not yet been determined.
One cause could be that our society has become apathetic in regard to human life. One look at any big city newspaper will reveal that we are not a very civilized people.
I am so thankful that the Lord was looking out for my son on the day that he came into this world. The womb had not been a safe place for him. Neither was the place that he was born. Against all odds, my boy made it.
Someday, I will probably have to tell him the whole story. But, tomorrow there will be celebration and rejoicing in our home.
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Child Neglect: A Growing National Problem