I was born early and was tiny. My birth mother was very sick and so was I. My birth father had a lot to take care of so he asked that I be put up for adoption.

I arrived at "Mother's Choice", a home for babies and children with special needs waiting to be adopted, after spending my first three months in the hospital having abdominal surgery to treat Hirschsprung's disease and got a colostomy. I was named Benjamin (a.k.a. "BenBen") by a women who looked after me at Mother's Choice.

When I reached 8 months, I was what everyone called "failing to thrive". By that time I had spent most of my life in the hospital. I wasn't growing or eating very much. And I was sick a lot !! Sometimes I just had little colds but sometimes I was very sick and would have to stay in the hospital for days. When I was 10 months old I went to the hospital again for a closure of my colostomy but returned to Mother's Choice with a new one instead.

At Mother's Choice I was known as "BenBen". Everyone there loved me like crazy !! I was known for my friendliness and gummy smiles ! People came and went from Mother's Choice, all falling in love with me.

At 15 months I was sitting up all on my own, for a few seconds... then... *boom*... to meet the floor. I couldn't crawl or roll over, which is sort of a problem when your 15 months old. So, when I finally realized my hands are attached to me *silly me* (they were there all a long), I put them to work ! Holding toys and dropping toys... what fun !! By that time I was also eating semi-solid mush *yummy* !! I was still full of smiles, big gummy ones that charmed all !!

However, I was 15 months old and still had the colostomy bag and still getting sick a lot ! I weighed 18 pounds and could wear 6 month old clothing with room to grow !

Things weren't looking too good... until.... the...