The Hospital Had Never Seen Anything Like This Baby, But One Woman Was Desperate

The hospital had never seen anything like this baby, but one woman was desperate to fight for him. Chelsea Zelaney Floro had hoped to end her time as a foster mom until she saw a Facebook post about an abandoned baby. He had a rare condition, but she knew she had to try and help. Chelsea Zelaney Floro saw a post on Facebook that made her stop scrolling.

A hospital was struggling to find a home for an infant with a particular set of problems. He’d been in their care for over 2 months, and if a suitable home couldn’t be found soon, the hospital would be forced to discharge him. Zelaney Floro had no plans to adopt an extra child up until then, that is. Hailing from The Woodlands, Texas, Chelsea Zelaney Floro never wanted to become a foster mom for an extended period of time.

Instead, she and her husband hoped to take in one baby who they’d eventually adopt and raise alongside their biological kids. And thanks to a little girl arriving on the scene, that dream came true in 2016. By the time Zelaney Floro’s adopted daughter was 10 months old, the parent had seen another long-term foster child move into a new home.

At that point, she told Love What Matters:

“We had told everyone that what we really wanted was to step down from being foster parents, go back to our normal life, and quit.”

But Zelaney Floro went online, and a glance at her Facebook feed gave her pause. As a member of a fostering group on the site, she regularly saw posts about children in need of homes.

“I normally scrolled right by those kind of posts, but this one I couldn’t ignore,” she said.

According to Zelaney Floro, the post read:

“Child waiting in hospital for 2 and 1/2 months. Can’t find placement, has no femur bones, and is considered medically fragile. The hospital says he has just a few more days until they have to discharge him due to space.”

The plea was enough to pique Zelaney Floro’s interest. She commented on the post, but her request for more information yielded a daunting response.

“After hearing the extent of his medical needs, we decided it was just too much for us to take on the addition to the three other children already in our home,” she wrote.

But then Zelaney Floro saw two more posts imploring someone to consider taking the baby in. With that, she couldn’t scroll by anymore. She called the hospital to find out the truth about the tiny tot.

“I wanted details, the good, the bad, the ugly,” she said.

What Zelaney Floro found out was that the hospital had never seen anyone quite like him. She said:

“The baby had a serious condition, bilateral proximal femoral focal deficiency class D. In general, PFFD causes the femur bone to be malformed or missing. But class D is the most severe version and the baby had it in both legs. Not only was the baby missing both bones in his thighs, but he had no hip bones either. And if that weren’t enough, doctors believed that he might have had fetal alcohol syndrome, too.”

This occurs when a mother drinks with a fetus in utero. It can result in the child being born with brain damage. As Zelaney Floro spoke to the child’s nurse, she assumed she would try to talk them into taking this baby, whether it was the right choice for the family or not. Instead, the nurse simply provided plenty of information and encouragement. She had, after all, adopted three children of her own. And those words were exactly what Zelaney Floro needed to hear.

“The nurse talked me into saying yes that day, but she didn’t have an agenda. It wasn’t just because it was what he needed, it was because she took the time to make us feel comfortable and capable of being what he needed,” she explained.

Before Zelaney Floro knew it, her foster baby arrived on her doorstep. Upon first glance, he was adorable, but many things stood out about him. First off, the baby had a misshapen head since he laid in a hospital bed for his first months of life. Second, he was minuscule. Third, his legs lacked bone structure in their upper half. The infant appeared fragile, so Zelaney Floro feared everything.

“Was I holding him right? Was he in pain? Could I really do this?” she recalled.

But there was light at the end of the tunnel. One of the baby’s relatives was in the midst of a home study and would be able to take him home themselves upon approval. But it wouldn’t be that easy for Zelaney Floro. In the meantime, the baby was the hardest baby they ever had. He cried a lot, was sick all the time, never slept, and had constant appointments with limited resources. In the midst of all this, though, something unexpected happened. Zelaney Floro and her family began to fall in love with their foster baby.

“Our commitment grew. Our hearts opened,” she said. “He was our son, and we made the decision that we would give all we could physically, mentally, and financially for however long he was with us.”

With that, Zelaney Floro had hardly any hesitation when she found out that the baby’s family hadn’t completed their home study satisfactorily. She recalled her case worker asking:

“Would you and your husband be willing to adopt him?”

Zelaney Floro said that they would. So, on November 15th, 2017, which just so happened to be National Adoption Day, Zelaney Floro and her husband officially adopted their baby. They made his moniker official, too, selecting Charles as a tribute to a late family member.

Of course, adopting Charlie wasn’t the end of the road for Zelaney Floro. She still had to work with her son and fight for his health developments every day. There was one silver lining. Doctors determined he did not have fetal alcohol syndrome. Meanwhile, after Charlie’s adoption, he began to move in ways Zelaney Floro had never seen before. He came up with a new way of crawling before fully standing up on his own. He rode a scooter. He took steps with a walker and made his way upstairs. Then one day, he walked six steps without assistance. All of these developments gave Zelaney Floro hope for her son’s life.

She said:

“I know there will be more hurdles to cross in the future, but for now he is my sweet, sensitive boy who walks on his hands, who rides a scooter better than any other kids his age, who loves his mama, and who will defy every single odd given to him.”