You've asked me for some early memories of you, so you can begin to make sense of who you are:
Before we first met you- aged one- we were warned that you always wanted to be in the one room everyone else wasn't and would crawl there at great speed. You also had a habit of climbing up bookcases, knocking books and DVDs off as you ventured ever higher, completely fearless. You had no interest in books, but loved animals.
The first afternoon we all came to meet you, I could see at once why you behaved like this. As you know, your foster parents had a severely disabled adopted daughter who took all of their care and attention. I watched you crawl over to your foster mother, who was holding the little girl, look up, wait in silence and finally realise you wouldn't be noticed. Then you took off in the opposite direction.
Your foster mother shared your evening routine with me: I watched you sit in the bath while she shampooed your hair and dumped a jug of cool water over your head. You blinked, but didn't protest. Your buggy was in your room. She would strap you into it and leave you alone while you gave yourself your bottle of milk. She said you had a sweet tooth and so she'd put Nesquik- either strawberry or banana flavour- on your Weetabix.
Your favourite toy was The Hungry Hippo that `ate' the coloured balls, if you rolled it over them. You liked to sit on that and push yourself around. When we drove from Birmingham to Bromley, there was no room in the car for it, so I had to have it on my lap all the way! You weren't interested in soft toys, just your blanket that had a house on it and has survived many a secret wash.
A few days after we arrived back home, you became very ill with a high temperature. I picked you up and held you on my lap for an hour, before I took you to the doctor's and I could see you were surprised. You slowly realised in that hour that you could get comfort from another person, when you were in pain. After that you didn't crawl into empty rooms any more. And you loved to sit on people's laps and couldn't get enough of the books we showed you.
Photo courtesy of CS Lee
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