Every day Jill and I would sign in to the unit and go to various rooms to see the children. I have to say we had our favorites, but would go to where the nurses said we would be needed. On this one particular day, around the second week of June, the nurse told me a new baby had just been sent from Children's Specialized Hospital in Mountainside. I approached the room,(which was one door away from where Jill lived for five weeks) and walked into the beginning of my new life. There sleeping peacefully in her crib was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. She was wrapped tight in her blanket, and a single birthday balloon was attached to the end of the crib. She had just celebrated her first birthday a week before, alone in a hospital. The nurse said she was sent here for rehab, and then would be able to go home. The only problem was that her mother never came to see her, so her home could be in a long term facility. Now that I was a full fledged volunteer, I went over to try and talk to her. I felt like I was looking at a newborn baby, her eyes not focused and her facial expressions nondescript. Here this baby was a year old, but could not even hold her head up or see who was so interested in her. I picked her up and held her, but there was no evidence that she was aware of what was going on. Well, needless to say, I went back everyday to hold this little girl, hoping to get some kind of response out of her. Jill had a favorite little girl she would go visit, and I kept trying to tell her about the "new" girl. I told her she was small so she would be able to hold her and I finally convinced her to come take a look. Jill walked in the room, started talking to Jasmine, and the response that I had been waiting for finally came. Jasmine smiled at Jill!!! I really couldn't believe it. It was like she came alive for the first time. Now I had some stiff competition because every day we went to volunteer, we would almost knock each other over to sign in and race to her room. We couldn't get enough of this little girl who would gaze up at you while we cuddled her in our arms. We didn't want to show favoritism, so we would switch off with the other kids who desperately wanted the attention too. We started buying Jasmine clothes and pajamas and even little converse sneakers to match Jill's.(her stuffed animal is sporting them to this day) We had a wonderful summer with her, and thoughts were going through my head.(How would I react when they sent her home or somewhere else?) I couldn't imagine not being around her, but it would be impossible to think that I could take her home with me. I had a full time job, and was not a foster parent, especially not one for a special needs child. Then one day in October while we were planning Jasmine's costume for Halloween, the nurse dropped a bombshell. She wasn't even supposed to tell me, but she knew how attached we were and wanted to prepare me. Jasmine was going to be transferred to a long term care facility in Wanaque, two hours away in a few days. She was done with rehab, her mother was not coming around , and they had no room for another long term child there. We were so upset we didn't know what to do. I decided to talk to the social worker to find out what if anything we could do. She told me that Jasmine was available to foster, and that the only way I could bring her home was to go to the fostering classes. I went home and talked to my husband about this. I think he thought I was crazy but he told me to look into what we had to do. I made some phone calls, and we set up a time to start the foster parent classes. At least this was a start in the right direction. (the pictures here are a couple of pictures we took before they moved her to Wanaque)
