Mother of Baby with Congenital Heart Defect Tearfully Asks PICU Nurse To Adopt Son
Had baby Blaze not been born with a heart defect, he never would have known the woman he now calls mom.
Each piece of Blaze’s adoption story is beautifully woven together, perfectly ordained by God.
When Blaze was born in May 2017, he had a serious congenital heart defect. The baby needed his first surgery at just 3 days old, WBBM-TV reported.
As he recovered at OSF Children’s Hospital in Peoria, Illinois, Blaze’s mother wondered how she could care for her baby with such intensive needs.
She did not live close to the hospital and did not have the resources to travel back and forth between her home and the pediatric intensive care unit where her baby healed.
Blaze’s birth mother put her trust in the team of nurses who cared for her son nonstop, even when she couldn’t be present. One of the nurses was Angela Farnan, a woman with 32 years of experience as a PICU and NICU nurse.
Farnan has a particular love of caring for kids with heart conditions and cared for baby Blaze with her heart and soul.
Blaze would require a second heart surgery when he was a bit older in the spring of 2018.
While he waited, the baby would require intensive at-home care and frequent doctor visits, logistics that were too overwhelming for Blaze’s birth mom, who did not have the resources to pay for at-home care.
She took a leap of faith and asked Farnan if Blaze could live at home with her while he waited for his heart surgery. Who better to care for her baby than a nurse who had over 30 years of experience in taking care of babies like Blaze?
Farnan and her husband agreed to be Blaze’s guardians for a time, diligently loving and caring for his every need until the surgery date arrived.
As the date of Blaze’s second heart surgery approached, Farnan and her husband felt the sadness that comes with knowing they would have to say goodbye to someone they dearly loved.
“It was quite an emotional day because my husband and I fell in love with him and it was getting close and closer to when we had to give him back,” Farnan told “Good Morning America.”
The second heart surgery was still not going to be enough to fix Blaze’s heart. He would need another surgery between the ages of 3 and 5, and possibly a heart transplant later in life.
Unsure that she could adequately care for her son and motivated by love, Blaze’s birth mom voiced an idea she and her husband had been mulling around for months.
“She made a heartfelt decision to ask us if we’d be willing to keep him on a permanent basis,” Farnan told WBBM-TV.
The decision to place her baby in the adoptive care of Farnan and her husband came with a flood of emotions.
“[Blaze’s mom] said she and her husband were discussing us keeping Blaze on a permanent basis,” Farnan told “Good Morning America.”
“She was crying and said, ‘I just don’t want anyone to feel like I’m a bad mom.’ I said she just made the best decision as a mom and there was no question that she loves Blaze.”
Blaze’s birth parents and the Farnan’s agreed that adoption would be in the best interest of Blaze, a baby boy that everyone had come to dearly love.
Farnan and her husband filed for adoption in April 2018 and the adoption ceremony was just a few months later in June.
As Blaze continues to grow and flourish, Farnan can see the hand of God on the young boy’s life.
“The good Lord put us where we are for a reason,” Farnan said, according to OSF Health Care.
“I work in the PICU and I can tell you many stories about the many children I’ve cared for over the years. There’s an attachment to these children and their families. You become very invested in them.”
Now, coming home to Blaze is the best part of Farnan’s day, especially after a particularly stressful shift at work.
“I just need that face and that smile. I can have the worst day and all I want to do is get home and see him. It just makes it all better,” she told WBBM-TV.
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