Miracle baby finds loving foster family
Published: March 6, 2007
This is a story about a baby, a brother and the power of faith, a story about a girl born extremely prematurely, who wasn’t expected to live.
She wasn’t even expected to walk. But then again, no one expected two visitors could change that.
She was born early — way too early. She was about the size of a soda can.
“She was just barely a pound and a half, very premature, a very small fit in the palm of a hand,” said Hurley Medical Center neonatalogist Dr. Raymond Chan.
Her chances of survival were slim.
“Forty to 50 percent at most,” Chan said.
And she was fighting those odds alone. There was no mother waiting to hold her, no father tickling her toes. She was abandoned.
Then suddenly, that changed.
“I thought it was God just sent us a baby,” said Jaytoya Johnson.
It began with a visit, a touch and quite possibly a reason to hold on.
“This innocent little baby lying there,” Johnson said.
Doctors gave her a week to live because not only did she arrive 14 weeks early, but her mother did crack, so the girl was addicted.
Then Jaytoya Johnson and Roscoe Johnson swooped in and agreed to be foster parents to a girl just a few days old who shared a bond with their son.
She was their adopted son’s sister, fighting the same fight he did when he was born premature and addicted.
“I started thinking if that was my child I’d want someone sitting with my child,” Jaytoya Johnson said.
The Johnsons may have done it for their son, but over time, something changed. They named her Zora, which means “dawn.”
Just as they brought new light into her young life, they visited her several times a day.
“Me and my husband went to the hospital and prayed,” Jaytoya Johnson said. “We would sing church songs to her, pray over her.”
And they did this even after they were told Zora probably would not live. Doctors also didn’t think she would see, speak or walk.
But they were wrong.
Zora now not only walks, but she also runs. And she has plenty to say.
“I asked the Lord for a baby girl and he gave me one,” Roscoe Johnson said.
The Johnsons still call Zora their miracle baby. But it seems like they are the true miracle in this story.
“Roscoe and Jaytoya saved her life,” said child advocate attorney Karen Bunker. “As foster parents, (they are) one of best (couples) I’ve ever seen.
“They came to hospital daily, spent hours and hours with her, talked to her, touched her. It made a difference whether or not this child survived, whether this child walked, lost her sight.”
Over time the bond that came so naturally became official. Zora now lives with her brother Emmanuel. They now act like most brothers and sisters, but their bond is especially close.
Their mother abandoned them because she simply couldn’t stop. That’s what she told Jaytoya Johnson before the same drugs that separated her from her children killed her.
“She said, ‘I know you are taking good care of my son and I’m glad you’re taking care of my daughter now,’” Johnson said. “I feel very special to do something like that. It’s a joy to have them — all my children.”
And that’s all seven children.
Zora now has a family. They’re not related by blood, but they share something just as powerful. All but the Johnsons’ one biological son have gone from being abandoned abused or neglected to loved.
And each of them has found what they needed most: The dawn of a new life and a new family.
Zora is one of the lucky ones because her brother already had a foster family. The Department of Human Services was able to place her within days.
Genesee County has two times the number of foster care children as our state or national average. They take in about 30 children of all ages every week, and are always looking for foster parents.
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