We didn't pay any attention to "The Chair".
We knew that Danny, our son, had cerebral palsy (the adoption caseworkers plus the agency itself had informed us of that fact), but all we saw was a little boy from California who desperately needed a family ... and a home ... he could call his very own.
Daniel (Danny) was beautiful, almost angelic. We fell head over heels in love with him the moment we saw his picture that the adoption agency had sent us. He was gorgeous!
Daniel Stephen was seven years old. Born with brain damage, he was left with cerebral palsy. He could not walk, but he could talk up a storm, according to the caseworker working on the case. He wasn't as badly affected with the cerebral palsy as he could have been: so many other children had it far worse, to the point to where they could not do anything for themselves and depending on others for their every need.
Daniel's parents did not want him; they felt that he was too much of a "burden", so they, more or less, gave him up for adoption. He was immediately placed into the foster care system when he was three; he had been in "the system", shuttled from one foster family to another, for six years now. His was a tragic situation.
We first met Daniel over a year ago when we expressed interest in adopting him. He was a very delightful little guy with a shy smile, big, knowing brown eyes, and thick, dark hair done in a modified page boy hair style. He looked like a throwback to the 1970's: in fact, he could have been the twin brother of the little boy who had played for a time on the sitcom, "The Partridge Family". Daniel was absolutely adorable!
He was somewhat spastic in his arms, but he could not move his legs very well. This was why he could not walk: his little body was far too weak to be able to support his weight, so he needed a wheelchair to get around. Other than that (and a slight speech impediment), Daniel was remarkably healthy.
We told the adoption agency that we wanted Daniel as our son. They told us they would do all they could to make that possible. Until then, all we could do was visit him from time to time when his foster parents would bring him over for a visit and write letters to him and see that we truly cared about him and wanted him. We knew it would not be easy, but we were more than willing to take that chance.
Six months later, we got the Call, the Call, that would tell us that Daniel would be our son. The adoption had been APPROVED! It was a miracle, a huge answer to all our prayers! We cried with sheer happiness!
Two days later, we were at the airport, picking up our son. When he was wheeled over to us, we cried and cried. Betsy (my wife) picked him up into her arms and said, "Oh, my child! My precioius, beautiful boy!" I could barely see myself for all the tears falling from my own eyes. It was an extremely happy moment, almost like Christmas, our birthdays, the Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving all rolled up into one.
After we got Daniel's things, we headed over to the car, where we loaded up the wheelchair (and Daniel's things) into the trunk; we then loaded up our brand new son into the back seat, buckled him in, and maneuvered our Soul out of the parking lot and onto the road, where we were soon on our way. We stopped at Dairy Queen, where we had a celebratory lunch; Daniel loved everything; he ate everything right up. He was very hungry.
On the way home, he fell asleep in the back seat. We ended up having to carry him inside. Betsy placed Danny (as we would call him) onto the couch while I brought his wheelchair, clothes, and other possessions inside. We would deal with them later: all we could do now was look and marvel at our sleeping son and thank God for bringing him into our lives ... and our home.
