Season for Caring, Leslie Romero: Mom dreams her miracle baby will walk and talk
Amari Lira loves to roll his toy cars across the couch and watch animated sharks dance on the TV screen.
His own mobility, however, is a work in progress.
Amari, who turns 3 in January, has been cycling through surgeries, casts, braces and therapies to gradually reshape his feet. He was born about four months premature with numerous health issues, including a rare condition known as rocker-bottom feet, with both feet bowed outward like the curved base of a rocking chair.
“I hope for him to get stronger and be able to walk,” said his mother, Leslie Romero, as Amari cheerfully babbled his version of the “Baby Shark” theme song.
Amari’s developmental delays have affected his ability to speak. She hopes he’ll someday talk. Or at least become more communicative, able to use an iPad to point out what he wants or whether he’s having a problem.
“It’s a struggle for a parent to see your child going through that,” said Romero, 33. “But he’s a very happy person. I’m glad it doesn’t bother him.”
She considers it a miracle that Amari, her fourth of five kids, is even here. Romero's amniotic sac ruptured just 12 weeks into the pregnancy. “The doctors told me that he wouldn’t make it,” she recalled. They recommended termination.
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“But I was like, no, if something happens, then I know that at least I tried to save him,” Romero said.
She continued with the difficult pregnancy, and she delivered Amari through an emergency Cesarean section at 25 weeks gestation. He was just 1 pound, 13 ounces, purplish and not breathing. Doctors immediately worked to revive him.
"It was one of the scariest days of my life, not knowing if he will make it or not," Romero said.
Amari spent his first four months in the hospital, and his first year wearing a plastic tube that delivered oxygen into his nostrils, helping his underdeveloped lungs breathe. Surgeries repaired his left knee, both hips and a hernia.
That once-fragile preemie has grown into a boisterous toddler who has figured out how to crawl. Amari’s preferred mode of transport, though, is rolling. He pulls his arms in and spirals across the floor, often in search of the lower kitchen cabinet where Romero keeps Amari’s snacks.
Caring for Amari would be enough to keep any parent busy, but Romero also works a full-time job and raises five kids as a single mom.
Most weekdays that means whisking her sons Anthony, 10, and Adrian, 7, to elementary school; running daughter Anayah, 12, to the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders; rushing home to meet up with Amari's physical therapist; carrying Amari and Abraham, 1, up two flights of stairs back into their apartment; then working from home all day as a health plan liaison, helping customers sort out issues with their health insurance.
“I’m getting used to it,” Romero said. “But I have my days where I’m overwhelmed.”
Single parenthood is still new to her: Romero and her longtime partner, the father to all of the children, split just a few months ago. Sometimes he visits from San Antonio, but she is parenting solo.
It’s been a challenging year. Romero feels like she practically lived at the hospital for a stretch of time, between Adrian having a ruptured appendix, Amari contracting COVID-19 and Romero needing her own surgery over the summer.
Now they’re all home, but home is a compact, three-bedroom apartment for a family of six. Abraham has outgrown his bassinet, but there’s no space for a larger crib.
“We’re so crowded in here,” Romero said. “I need more room, especially for Amari to be able to do his daily activities,” including his physical therapy exercises.
She dreams of a bigger place, but money is tight. The sofa set is on a payment plan. The chairs around the dining room table, where the family gathers for meals and card games, are patched together with superglue.
Romero focuses on her blessings. A box on the kitchen counter, labeled "Thankful and grateful," is filled with folded papers bearing warm wishes from Abraham's birthday party in August. Closer to the window, a soft navy blanket sits atop the couch, quietly attesting to the parental devotion behind each sacrifice.
The inscription says: “I love you to the moon and back.”
More:Read more Season for Caring stories
The Romero family's wishes:
Assistance finding affordable four-bedroom apartment; help with rent and utilities; sensory toys, specialized iPad and therapeutic equipment for Amari; toddler bed with railings; new dining room table and chairs; kid’s dresser; computer printer with scanner; pots, pans, food storage containers, silverware and cutlery; mini fridge; art supplies; Nintendo Switch and games; virtual reality headset; assistance paying off car and sofa set so family can put money toward larger apartment; gas gift cards; gift cards for food, clothing and shoes to H-E-B, Walmart, Target, Ross, TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, Burlington or Buy, Buy Baby.
Wish list available on Amazon.
Nominated by: Any Baby Can, 6207 Sheridan Ave., Austin, TX 78723. 512-276-8199, anybabycan.org.
Its mission: Any Baby Can partners with families to build stability, develop skills and unlock each child’s full potential.
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Season for Caring, Any Baby Can, Leslie Romero
