Miss T

Tia is teasing Andrew when he is trying to kiss her cheek... so cute! Mother's Day 2008 What a sweet face!!!

Tia was eating carrots. When she eats anything it's a big deal, we get the camera. "Eskimo Kisses"

~Tia says Hi!~

I get a lot of inquiries from people about our little "Miss T". Tia was born at 24 weeks weighing 1 lb. 4 oz. She was in the NICU for 8 months to stabilize her before they could send her home. She did go home with her birth parents but was removed from them by the police and child protective services when they stopped taking her to her medical appointments and wouldn't let DCFS in to check on her. When the did get into the home (forcibly) they found that her birth parents were not giving her medication or feeding her properly. She was removed from the home and placed in the hospital for dehydration and failure to thrive. Tia was placed in a specialized medical foster home where she lived until we adopted her 2 years ago. At the time of her removal, her birth mom was already pregnant with Krista (Krista was born at 31 weeks, declared in "imminent danger" and placed in the same foster home as Tia when she was discharged from the hospital at 2 months old). Due to her extreme prematurity, both of Tia's retina's detached so she is completely blind. She also had a severe brain hemorrhage and has been diagnosed as "profoundly mentally retarded (meaning her IQ is less than 40, the jury is still out on that as far as we are concerned). Tia does not eat orally at all, we feed her with a tube that is inserted into her stomach, she "eats" Pediasure. Tia also has Cerebral Palsy so right now, does not walk independently. She will walk if we hold her hands but she makes us do all of the work :). The CP also affects the muscles in her face/mouth which is what makes eating rough. She doesn't have a whole lot of control over her mouth so the slobber flows freely :) The greatest thing about Tia is.... everything!!! She is the sweetest spirit ever born, she has a giggle that is so contagious that we have neighbor kids come over just to try to make Tia laugh so they can hear it. She knows each one of our voices, and can tell who is coming just by the way we walk into the room. "T" loves to listen to music and can be found frequently wearing her winter hat that holds the head phones for her MP3 player in place. We feel so honored to have been chosen to be the family for this angel girl, words cannot begin to express how much we adore her.