ADDICTED TO LOVE

They went to an adoption agency, where they were asked if they would consider taking a special-needs child...maybe one whose mother had tested positive for HIV. An estimated 82,000 children now living in the United States were born to HIV-positive mothers. According to Colorado health department statistics, 8 children under the age of thirteen in this state have AIDS, and another 24 are reported to have HIV. Most of the children got the virus through their parents' drug use.

Isabel and Tom knew all about the obstacles such children faced. Before they'd come to Colorado, they'd volunteered at an agency that worked with kids whose mothers had HIV; they understood what heartaches came with these kids. (And because they also understand the prejudice sometimes leveled at these children, they asked that their last name not appear in this story.)

At that agency, they'd been drawn to a little black girl who was HIV-positive. But when Isabel and Tom brought her home to visit, their neighbors hauled their own kids inside. "They wouldn't come back out until the little girl was gone," Isabel recalls. "Friends didn't come over anymore."

Isabel and Tom refused to give in. In fact, they tried to adopt the little girl. Her mother was in prison and didn't want her; her grandparents never visited and made no effort to get her. Still, the courts wouldn't allow the adoption. For one thing, Isabel, who's Hispanic, and Tom, who's white, were not the right color.

They were still trying to get the court to change its ruling when they moved to Colorado. In the meantime, though, they wanted to meet the little boy they'd heard about at the Denver adoption agency. And that's how they wound up at Megan's house in Broomfield one afternoon.

"Welcome to my home," Megan said, inviting the couple and a social worker in. Her living room was crowded with dozens of dolls, many of which she'd had as a child. Boxes of toys occupied what little floor space wasn't already taken up by a Christmas tree. Buddy and Jordy wrestled and chased each other from room to room.

"It was obvious that this was one woman with a huge heart," Isabel recalls. "A woman who really loves children."

"This is Joey," Megan had said, handing Isabel the infant.
It was love at first sight. The couple went home and talked about what the next step would be. Joey had twice tested negative for HIV. Still, there was a slight chance he might have the virus. Would they be able to watch him get sick, maybe die, and still be there for him?

There was only one answer. Every child deserved to be loved.