The adoptive mother of a 21-year-old son, who was given a bleak prognosis after being shaken as a baby, is over the moon as he landed his first job. Her son, she says, has made himself and the whole family proud with his new feat.
Heather and Luke Bell of Michigan are parents to eight children. They started fostering after learning they couldn’t have kids of their own. Joshua was the first child they adopted through foster care.
“Joshua was shaken at two weeks old and he suffered brain damage, which caused some physical and cognitive issues,” Heather explained to The Epoch Times. “We saw the doctors regularly, and they were just unable to give us specific answers concerning whether he would live to be an adult or what his prognosis would be.”
However, Joshua’s parents just didn’t want to give up on him.
The Bell family rallied around toddler Joshua, who initially couldn’t walk, talk, or eat, and suffered from seizures. They supported him in every way as he learned to overcome daily obstacles. Despite frustrations, he “always smiled, even when he was struggling,” said Heather.
At 21, Joshua is doing everything doctors believed he never would, including working. In January, he interviewed for his very first job at one of his local grocery stores, Super One Foods, and aced it.
“He interviewed with the manager and he got the job right away,” said Heather. “He was really proud, and he was excited to tell his dad that he got the job. He started the next week.”
His duties, she told The Epoch Times, include bagging groceries, helping clean the sidewalk outside the store, and helping those customers who can’t push carts and unload groceries into their vehicles. Joshua really likes his job, said Heather, because he is in charge of clocking in himself, making his own lunch, and making sure he gets to work on time by checking his schedule.
“He’s doing a great job ... he tells everybody who we meet that he has this job,” said Heather, who has even received personal messages from customers commending Joshua for his hard work and positivity.
Heather and Luke, who co-own a masonry company—BSB Masonry—and a small poultry farm selling eggs throughout the upper peninsula of Michigan where they live, first saw Joshua at one of their foster care classes after they had received their license.
Heather recalls that, on laying her eyes on Joshua for the first time, “He was absolutely adorable.”
“I saw him and immediately fell in love with him, and wanted to see if he was able to be adopted.”
After learning of Joshua’s history, the couple was unfazed. “We knew that Joshua could be anything and do anything he wanted to do,” Heather insisted, “so we worked really hard with him for years to help him overcome a lot of obstacles, and to help him the best we can to have a great life.”
Brave Joshua, according to Heather, was just excited to be alive and stay in a house where he felt safe. The family really invested in him and helped him overcome many obstacles along the way, such as being able to crawl, walk, talk, and feed himself. In each milestone achieved, Joshua was so “proud of himself.”
Additionally, he also began communicating about his needs with the family instead of getting frustrated and screaming.
Today, Heather describes Joshua, who recently celebrated his birthday with a “hockey skating party,” as a funny, fun-loving kid who loves his family and smiles all the time.
Joshua is his father’s “second man” on the farm, said Heather, and her favorite shopping buddy. He loves his siblings, especially his brother Robert, and his siblings, too, love and care for him.
Joshua perseveres through his frustration with difficult tasks, saying no to help from family, to prove that he can help take care of people too, said Heather. He loves singing, hockey, watching movies at night with the family, and also helping around the house. The young man has an infallible long-term memory.
“No matter where we’ve been, he can tell you years ago where we were, what we did,” Heather marveled. “He just struggles with some short-term memories ... but for the most part, if you met Joshua, you would have no idea the struggles he went through and that he still struggles with some things.”
Heather and Luke, who fostered for 10 years, were able to adopt six of their eight children through foster care. Heather truly believes that the sky is the limit for Joshua, their “fighter,” if he continues to overcome his obstacles and work hard.
The couple owns a rental next door to their home, and hopes that Joshua will move into it, for a chance to live an independent life while still being close enough for his parents to help him out.
“I just want everybody to know how proud I am of Josh,” said Heather. “He was born healthy, and then he was shaken at two weeks old and has had to fight for everything and every accomplishment ... I truly believe that Joshua is thankful for every day he has.”
Equally thankful, Heather reflected: “I really do feel that Joshua has changed each one of us in our family, just because of how he’s overcome so much ... he’s just a blessing to our family.”
