Blaine Hamilton’s baby cousin, Coleman, was born malnourished, underweight and addicted to opioids.
Luckily, Hamilton’s parents – from Alvord, Texas – took in the newborn and now Coleman has transformed into a healthy and happy toddler.
Last week, the 21-year-old tweeted about Coleman’s recovery and shared a series of photos of the baby, depicting his journey from a sickly newborn to a smiling toddler.
In her post Hamilton explained both of Coleman’s parents were addicted to drugs. After he was born they neglected him, and at two months old he weighed less than his birth weight.
Blaine’s mother, Kaysi, told Buzzfeed News Coleman was exposed to “harmful drugs” and was taken “by care flight to a children’s hospital at eight weeks old”.
He had a condition called pyloric stenosis, which affects a baby’s gastrointestinal tract and can cause them to projectile vomit.
After his surgery, Kaysi and her husband Randy stepped in.
“My parents were like, ‘We’ll take him. We’ll go to the hospital,'” Blaine told Buzzfeed.
While Coleman has been living the Hamiltons for 15 months, they were only recently granted guardianship. They’re hoping the formal adoption process will be finalised within the next month, so Coleman can officially be a part of the family.
Hamilton’s post received an overwhelmingly positive response from the Twitter community, and it encouraged others to also share their own stories of recovery and adoption.
Do you have a similar story? Tell us about it in the comments below.