Reys Beginning

As I look over at my son I am amazed at the young man I see before me. The faint lines of a mustache have appeared on his upper lip and his chest & arms have become more defined with muscles. When did my sons voice change? Its like it changed to a deep mans voice from a squeaky Mickey Mouse voice overnight. It brings tears to my eyes as I reflect on the past 12 years. Reynaldo came to us in May of 2001 as a foster child at 9 months of age. We were his 4th placement in his young life. He was removed from a foster home where he sat in a bouncy seat all day with zero stimulation. I remember thinking that he resembled a rag doll with blank eyes. There was no expression and he didn't cry. You could see the disconnection right away although I didn't have a name for it but in my Mommy's gut I knew something was off.

Right from the start we loved on him and got early intervention for him to address his hypotonic muscle tone and already noted emotional and attachment issues. It saddens me as I realize that all of his disabilities were present at such a young age.  Reynaldo's birth mother admitted to drinking and using cocaine and marijuana throughout her entire pregnancy. She didn't have any prenatal care. When he was born a month early he suffered through withdrawal with the tremors and was given phenobarbital. 

This child beat the odds and survived through all of that but was left with the lasting effects of brain damage from the alcohol crossing the placenta barrier. He was left with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (moderate) and Reactive attachment disorder. His mother never emotionally attached with him while he was in the womb. Babies sense and know while they are in the womb if the mother is attached. That is when their hard wiring is developing. Follow this lack of attachment with being moved around to four different places during the first nine months of his life and you can understand why there is a serious attachment issue. Ill write about that more lately. Just wanted to give you a glimpse of Rey's beginnings.