My name is Amy.  Never mind my last name; I am not giving it out for security reasons.

I am a foster parent; have been one for the past five years; and I must say I loved the children who came to my place these past five years.  I wish I could adopt every one of them!!

My latest charge is an eight year old boy, older than most of the kids I've fostered; yet he's still as needy as the others.  He was in the hospital after being abused; he's now about recovered, and he's slowly returning back to where he was prior to his last hospitalization.

Little Trinh Vu Hoc was adopted from Vietnam by his former family; his parents are now in jail, where they are serving time for a variety of crimes against the boy, among them being neglect, child endangerment, abandonment, and physical abuse.  When found by police earlier this year, Trinh was found, lying in his own body filth, barely alive, barely breathing.  That he was found alive was nothing short of a miracle; there was no telling how long the abuse had been going on.

He was in the hospital for over a month, where he recovered and then received speech/occupational/emotional/physical therapies.  He's now walking, but he still has some residual signs of brain damage that will take years to undo.  He will continue to need extensive counseling; he is prone to flashbacks or nightmares of the past abuse he suffered.  He is a really sad case.

Trinh is walking unaided, without any support; however, he has a noticeable limp to his gait, and his one side is partially damaged.  He also has problems with short term memory and with learning; he's been diagnosed as having serious learning disabilities.  He will have to be placed in a class for students with special needs when school starts up again in less than two months.

Despite his background, Trinh i sa very sweet, loving boy, if rather shy.  It takes him a very long time to warm up to strangers, and he acts scared whenever we raise a hand. I guess he thinks we are going to strike him, which is often not the case.  He hardly smiles; to see him break out into a grin is a rare thing.

My husband and I  have fallen in love with Trinh, so much, in fact, we would like to adopt him.  He needs a lot of support in so many different areas, and we feel we are qualified to give him just that. 

We feel that with the right kind of help (and help from above), Trinh will break from his cycle of abuse and become the normal, happy boy we desire him to be.  We have already started the pre adoption paperwork, and only time will tell if he becomes ours, legally and permanently.

*to be continued.*