End these here or write 3030 N ROCKY POINT DR W STE 150 Tampa FL 33607-7200 Suzanne Roberts the girl s pediatrician at Children s Hospital Los Angeles. Neurosurgeons removed the protruding brain tissue shortly after her birth but much of her brain remains undeveloped. She has been in Bzeek s care since she was a month old. Before her he cared for three other children with the same condition. These kids it s a life sentence for them he said. Bzeek 62 is a portly man with a long dark beard and a soft voice. The oldest of 10 children he came to this country from Libya as a college student in 1978. Years later through a mutual friend he met a woman named Dawn who would become his wife. She had become a foster parent in the early 1980s before she met Bzeek. Her grandparents had been foster parents and she was inspired by them Bzeek said. Before she met Bzeek she opened her home as an emergency shelter for foster children who needed immediate placement or who were placed in protective custody. The key is you have to love them like your own. Mohamed Bzeek Dawn Bzeek fell in love with every child she took in. She took them to professional holiday photo sessions and she organized Christmas gift donation drives for foster children. She was funny Bzeek said during a recent drive home from the hospital. She was absolutely terrified of spiders and bugs so much that even Halloween decorations creeped her out but she was never scared by the children s illnesses or the possibility that she would die Bzeek said. The Bzeeks opened their Azusa home to dozens of children. They taught classes on foster parenting and how to handle a child s illness and death at community colleges. Dawn Bzeek was such a highly regarded foster mother that her name appeared on statewide task forces for improving foster care alongside doctors and policymakers. Bzeek started caring for foster children with Dawn in 1989 he said. Often the children were ill. Mohamed Bzeek first experienced the death of a foster child in 1991. She was the child of a farm worker who was pregnant when she breathed in toxic pesticides sprayed by crop dusters. She was born with a spinal disorder wore a full body cast and wasn t yet a year old when she died on July 4 1991 as the Bzeeks prepared dinner. This one hurt me so badly when she died Bzeek said glancing at a photograph of a tiny girl in a frilly white dress lying in a coffin surrounded by yellow flowers. By the mid 1990s the Bzeeks decided to specifically care for terminally ill children who had do not resuscitate orders because no one else would take them in. There was the boy with short gut syndrome who was admitted to the hospital 167 times in his eight year life. He could never eat solid food but the Bzeeks would sit him at the dinner table with his own empty plate and spoon so he could sit with them as a family. There was the girl with the same brain condition as Bzeek s current foster daughter who lived for eight days after they brought her home. She was so tiny that when she died a doll maker made an outfit for her funeral. Bzeek carried her coffin in his hands like a shoe box. The key is you have to love them like your own Bzeek said recently. I know they are sick. I know they are going to die. I do my best as a human being and leave the rest to God. I know she can t hear can t see but I always talk to her Mohamed Bzeek says. I know she can t hear can t see but I always talk to her Mohamed Bzeek says. Genaro Molina Los Angeles Times Bzeek s only biological son Adam was born in 1997 with brittle bone disease and dwarfism. He was a child so fragile that changing his diaper or his socks could break his bones. Bzeek said he was never angry about his own son s disabilities. He loved him all the same. That s the way God created him Bzeek said. Now 19 Adam weighs about 65 pounds and has big brown eyes and a shy grin. When at home he gets around the house on a body skateboard that his father made for him out of a miniature ironing board zooming across the wood floor steering with his hands. Adam studies computer science at Citrus College driving his electric wheelchair to class. He s the smallest student in class Bzeek said but he s a fighter. Adam s parents never glossed over how sick his foster siblings were and they told him the children were going to eventually die Bzeek said. They accepted death as part of life something that made the small joys of living all the more meaningful. I love my sister the shy teenage |
