In 2016, Taneeka Ingram, a home health nurse in Texas, was charged with helping to care for a 12-month-old baby boy who had been born premature at 26 weeks and had significant health issues as a result. At the time, the infant, Jakobe, was living with his parents and siblings. Ingram says she felt a “connection” to Jakobe and enjoyed his cuddles — but had no inkling then that she would one day be his mother.
When Ingram first met Jakobe, who spent the first nine months of his life in the hospital and has special needs including autism, the boy required continuous oxygen via nasal cannula as well as a gastronomy button that fed him via the stomach; he was unable to take fluids or medication orally. She says she “fell in love with him” and would bond with him over cartoons.
Ingram eventually moved on to other patients and focused on a new goal: starting a family with Roberson, whom she married in 2018. That, however, proved to be more challenging than they’d expected. “She asked me if I remembered Jakobe and I said ‘Yes, I used to care for him,” she recalls. “She went on to tell me that she was looking for a forever home for Jakobe and would I be interested. It was a yes for me, but I told her I had to go home in talk to my husband about it.”