Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] This little girl was left at a Phoenix fire station. Investigators have no idea who she is. I was at work, and a friend had said, "Oh, my gosh, your niece is on the news." At this time, this little girl is in custody with CPS. And police are asking that if anyone has any information, that they contact them directly. I was livid at my sister. "This is your child. What parent would leave this kid like this?" Tiana was born four and a half months early. A lot of her vital organs weren't truly, fully developed at all. Her normal was breathing out of a tube out of her neck. Her normal was to be fed out of a tube in her belly. Her normal was to go to the doctor and to be poked at. She's mute; she can't talk. All she can say is "mama." I called the police department and I said, "Look, this is her name, this is what she looks like, this is her medical concerns, and this is what's going on with her. When can I see her?" A week had gone by when they told me that I could actually go see her to take her home. I walked into her room. I called her. I said, "Tiana." She turned around and she looked at me, and she just smiled and she just smiled. This was an easy decision because it was either Tiana be placed with me, family, or she'd go into foster care. And I had said, "That's not happening. If anyone is going to foster her, it's going to be me." [CHILD CRYING] The first three months, she was waking up at 2:00 in the morning, screaming and crying. It was rough. And I'm thinking, "What's going on? Is this my reality now? What did I just do?" I just felt truly robbed of being single. I'm no longer single. Well, yeah, I'm single, but I'm single with a kid. That's a different story. I remember Tiana is lying on my chest. And she had woken up for the third time in the middle of the night, and I'm trying to pat her back to sleep. I just start crying. My roommate turns on the light and was, like, freaking out. She goes, "Are you OK?" And so I just simply looked at her and said, "All I want to do is sleep." That's it. It was just simple as that.

So after that, it was, "You can do this. But remember," Heavenly Father was saying to myself, "you need to ask for help. You're never alone." I always thought that I was alone when I first got Tiana. It was my responsibility. "She's now my responsibility, and I have to do this all by myself." No. I'm never alone. Physically I'm never alone because I have my roommate, I have friends, I have my ward family. Spiritually I'm never alone because I have my Heavenly Father and I have my Savior. Say thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone. For the birthday wishes. Birthday wishes. Have a good day. Have a day. Those are important lessons that Tiana helped me to remember. And I'm not less of a person when I ask for help. And it's just as simple as that.

Serving as a Caretaker

Description
When Shermeka heard that her niece had been abandoned at a local fire station, she made a choice that would change her life forever.
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