The heartwarming moment that a disabled Arkansas boy found out he had a new family after spending nearly 17 years in a foster care facility was captured on video.
Jose, 17, who suffered from shaken baby syndrome at the hands of his caregiver, has spent the last 6,183 days in the state’s foster care system after his biological family placed him in a 24-hour care facility and began to abandon him when he was just 1-year-old, WJTV reported.
But video footage captured cheering, clapping and crying inside the walls of the Ninth West Judicial Circuit Court and the Arkansas Department of Human Services conference room after a judge finally declared his first official adoption on Thursday.
Dr. Mary Zhang initially stepped into Jose’s life with the intention of advocating for his medical needs since he suffered severe brain damage – leaving him mostly paralyzed, verbally and visually impaired and having to eat through a feeding tube.
‘He’s lived his entire life in a facility,’ Zhang told KARK 4 News in tears. ‘Like I mean, how do you?’
The touching footage showed Zhang and her husband, Patrick Sullivan, standing in front of the judge while declaring their love for Jose, noting that he was an answered prayer.
Although he will have to remain in the facility for around-the-clock care, the longest-waiting child in the Arkansas foster system is now constantly visited, supported and loved by his new family.
‘When we look into his eyes and rub his face, he knows that we love him,’ Zhang added.
Video captured the moments when Jose, 17, of Arkansas, who suffered from shaken baby syndrome at the hands of his caregiver, found out that he has a new family after spending nearly 17 years in a foster care facility
