They are the youngest victims of an opioid addiction.
Hundreds of Missouri babies are born each year dependent on the same drugs their mothers used while pregnant.
After they overcome withdrawal, many of these babies face another battle: finding a loving home.
The opioid epidemic is well-known at the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition in St. Louis.
Executive Director, Melanie Scheetz, says 50 percent of the children served through their “30 Days to Family” program have opioids — heroin or other drugs — in their system.
The Rathjen family is hoping to make a difference in Troy, Mo.
John and Sasha Rathjen already had two children in elementary school when they first got a phone call asking for help. John said his sister, Natasha, had battled drug addiction for years. The couple knew about her struggle with methadone addiction, but guessed there were other drugs as well.
After Natasha survived an overdose in 2013, state officials contacted the Rathjens looking for someone to care for her daughter, Miami.
Miami, nicknamed “Mia,” was about 2-years-old at the time. The Rathjens didn’t know much about her health, but believed she suffered withdrawal from the opioids in her system at birth. They began fostering Mia, their biological niece, and helping her reach developmental milestones she was missing.
The family was already growing, but it was about to get another boost.
Sasha became pregnant again, with a due date for early 2015. But five weeks before she delivered, the Rathjens got another call from the state.
John’s sister, Natasha, had delivered another baby without the family’s knowledge. And shortly after his birth, the Rathjens learned Natasha had passed away.
Now, officials were looking to place this baby, a little boy named Daytona (Dayton, for short), with the Rathjens, his biological aunt and uncle. They wanted to keep him with family, and with his sister, Mia.
“We knew it was going to be a struggle but, I mean, what better off than two kids being with family?” Sasha said.
Dayton remained in the hospital for several weeks, fighting withdrawal from the drugs in his system. John spent many long nights with him at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond Heights.
“For us never experiencing or seeing anything like that, it was tough,” John remembers. “We just [had] to try to stay strong.”
“He had tremors, we did a lot of massaging,” added Sasha. “It’s a lot of work for… even for us to try to help him get through it.”
A few weeks after Dayton’s birth, Sasha delivered a little girl. Within three years, the household of four grew to seven. John and Sasha said they knew it would be a difficult, but were willing to accept the challenge.
"Just begin able to have a normal life is just [what] I’m hoping the thing we can provide the most for them,” John said. “Just having a family that actually cares for and loves them.”
