My Little Soldier

Chapter 3

Early morning, Sam was finding that he was researching more and more about helping traumatized children. And more about development delays. James definitely had a language delay and a growth delay. But he was more worried that he had an underlying problem that nobody was seeing yet.

But he did receive good news from the hospital. James was well enough to leave the hospital tomorrow.

Then there was a knock on the door. It was the social worker.

"Good morning, Mr. Wilson."

"Good morning, come in." She came in and glanced around.

"This is a beautiful home and I'm sure you've heard the good news."

"Yes, he's being released tomorrow."

"I'm happy for him, I'll just have a quick look around." She began looking around, pointing out little things that needed to be covered or locked such as the plugs and cabinets. "Where is he sleeping?"

"In this room." Sam directed her to the bare bedroom. "I'm going to go to the store with a friend today to get the bed."

"Are you putting him in a normal toddler bed?"

"No, I'm going to do a 4-in-1 bed. So I'll start him in a crib that's set low then as he becomes more comfortable I'll move him to a toddler bed. I know he doesn't have the strength to start climbing or anything but I want to make sure that he doesn't get any ideas."

"Okay, good plan. And what if he can't sleep by himself?"

"I'll move his bed into my room, but I don't want him sleeping in my bed."

"But you do understand that some children will sleep better if they sleep with an adult?" Sam nodded. She inspected the backyard and was satisfied. "Okay, Mr. Wilson, I'm satisfied with everything and confident that you'll have everything ready when he arrives. His doctors will tell you how to care for him medically. You told me you were going to look for his therapies, how is that going?"

"I found a speech and language therapist and also a physical therapist. I did background checks on them, they look like they can handle him."

"Good. I'm glad you're taking the time to do this for him."

"I just want him to be okay."

"I'm sure he will be in your care." The social worker left. Sam was glad that was over but just as he was about to sit down, the door bell went. He opened the door to Natasha and Steve.

"What's our first stop?" Nat asked, coming in.

"Um, hi, I want to go a baby store."

"Before we even get into all of this, Sam, you do realize you are just fostering him so what are you going to do with all that stuff once he's adopted?"

"Maybe donate them."

"Only if you are sure." Steve smiled at him. "Alright, where's his room going to be?"

"In here." Sam led them to newly cleaned room. "I'll put the bed by this wall so he won't be so afraid of the window."

"Okay, I'll make a list. We need a blackout curtains, a crib with mattress, blankets, toys, clothes, white noise machine and some food utensils for him. And whatever else we find along the way. Alright, let's go." The nearest baby store was almost thirty minutes away. Buy Buy Baby. Sam just wanted this to be a quick in and out. The store was filled with screaming and crying children. Why was no children store filled with happy children?

He got a gray oakwood crib and a soft mattress. He got blue black out curtains and a few toys that he thinks James will be interested in. Clothes were probably the hardest to buy. James's body was not up to the size of a normal three year old, he probably had the size of a two year old. He got a few onesies and other day clothes. Natasha was having too much fun picking out clothes for him. Sam got the last few things on his list but Steve mentioned that he should probably get a baby monitor in his room just to make sure James didn't have a sudden medical emergency when he wasn't in the room.