Navaurius

Navaurius, Mason, Bowen & Adelaine, August 2006

Some of you may remember the foster child we brought in last August. His name was Navaurius and he was being treated for Rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a cancer of the soft tissue. His room was next to the room Adelaine was diagnosed in, at All Children’s Hospital. My first memory of him was a purple and black remote control car racing out of his room down the hallway and into ours, to avert Adelaine’s attention away from her nurse tortures.

He had been at the hospital for 9 months by himself. He was a foster child without a foster family. His diagnosis was not good. His odds of beating his cancer were no where near Adelaine’s. When I first met him I saw something special in him. Even after being a ward of the hospital for so long he still could muster an unbelievable smile. One day, our church music director, Stephen, brought his guitar and the 3 of us sang hymns in Navaurius’ room.

The day we were leaving the hospital (nine days after we arrived), we were so glad to be taking our baby home, but it was mixed with feelings of sadness over having to say good bye to our fun loving neighbor, Navaurius. He hadn’t had any visitors while we were there, other than us and our visitors, so I knew he would also be sad to see us go. Angela had been in to say, “Hi”, once or twice, but for the most part she was focused in on Adelaine. So, before it was time to leave, we went in to bid our farewells, promising to visit. I left Angela alone with him, to take a phone call, and she came out of the room with tears in her eyes. She said that she prayed with him and that she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He looked at her and said, “Do you all adopt kids?” Angela said to me, “How can we say no to that?” I told Angela that I thought we were supposed to take Navaurius home with us. It didn’t really make sense. We had a 3 bedroom house with a daughter who had just been diagnosed with cancer. The only way for him to stay was to displace Adelaine. We prayed about it and knew that it was absolutely the right thing to do.

Angela took over and got the system working and shortly after we brought our critically ill daughter home, we also brought home a critically ill 14 year old boy. Considering the circumstances, we were able to bypass the traditional red tape, so in no time here we were wheeling him down the hall and into our car. It had literally been months since he’d left the hospital. After 2 weeks Navaurius returned to the hospital. We all determined that he would be best suited to a family that would be able to focus more on him in his time of transitioning from hospital life to “normal” life. He ended up in a foster home with his sister for a short time and then with an aunt. Last we had heard Navaurius was completely cured from cancer (which was a complete miracle because he was terminal), and still living with his aunt, reeking havoc of a typical teenage boy.

Unfortunately, today we got news that on Sunday Navaurius passed away due to a Brain Bleed, a possible side effect of some different cancer treatments. He had beaten his cancer months ago and had been declared in remission. He recently had been to a camp for cancer patients/survivors at Boggy Creek . The time we had with him will always be treasured. He had a truly unforgettable smile. While he will be missed here on earth, we know that he was a Christian and we will see him again in Heaven.

Doug & Angela

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