This month is Foster Care Awareness Month and in July of 2017, we received a phone call about a newborn baby in the NICU. He was tiny, fragile, and fighting before he even had a chance to experience the world. He stayed in the NICU for two months before he was finally stable enough and gained enough weight to come into our care. That tiny NICU baby grew into a toddler who was diagnosed with a pain disorder. At just 2 years old, he needed emergency ear surgery because his ear canals were nearly closed. He could barely hear, and it significantly impacted his speech and development. By age 3, he was enrolled in speech therapy, diagnosed with sensory processing disorder, and beginning to show some very extreme behavioral concerns. Then Covid hit. Resources shut down. Therapies stopped. The world paused…but motherhood didn’t. So I became everything he needed me to be. I became his speech therapist, occupational therapist, behavioral specialist, play therapist… on top of just trying to be “m...