Baby Number 5

 You will start seeing an extra kiddo in all of our family pictures! She is our #5 kiddo and we love her to pieces. Miss Bella was placed in our home right before Christmas of 2018 as a newborn. We picked her up from the hospital at 2 days old. We got to spend a few months with her before she was returned to her bio mom for proving she could care for her. Bella was a very high maintenance baby. She was labeled failure to thrive at 1 month old and was placed in the hospital for about a week to figure out what exactly was wrong. She came home with a feeding tube and we continued to feed her this way until she was able to gain enough weight to have the energy to drink a bottle. When she was 2 months old she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. She needed to wear a harness 23 hours a day for a couple months and then for a while at night only. Like I said, she was high maintenance. While I was still in the hospital after having Zachary we found out Bella would be returned home soon. Within 2.5 weeks we had to say goodbye. We let her bio mom know we were able to help in any way we could, even just simple babysitting. We wouldn't be taking another foster child for a while so we were available. Luckily for us she reached out and we were able to spend a lot of time with Miss Bella. She was a part of our family again and we loved it. Around March of 2020 when Covid hit, her mom decided to move back to where her family lives and stay with them. I again told her to let me know if she needed me to come get Bella, I would drive to pick her up. A few weeks after they left, mom reached out and was in a bad situation. Wanting to keep her from being taken into foster care again, she asked if we would come get her. We said we would but it would have to be permanent because it wasn't fair to Bella to be going back and forth between houses. She agreed and signed over power of attorney to us. We are in the process of seeking custody of her now. Since she is technically older than Zachary, she is our #5 kiddo and he is #6. They are four months apart and are quite the duo. We get asked if they are twins all the time. They definitely act like twins and enjoy each other so much. They are both such a joy and huge blessings in our family. Enjoy some pictures of our Miss Bella.