Fortunate Dads : 2 New Parents Followed Hard Path for Joy of Celebrating Father’s Day

In years to come, when their sons are old enough to come home late, slam doors and talk back, there are two San Fernando Valley parents who might gain patience by remembering their long routes to fatherhood.

For one of the new dads, even the idea of having a baby was beginning to seem improbable, if not impossible, until his wife finally got pregnant. She had twins, but they were born premature and spent their first weeks in the hospital rather than the nursery. The two boys slept in their own cribs for the first time one week ago.

“I’ve waited my entire life to be a father and celebrate Father’s Day,” said Joshua Pine, 29, who one week ago brought his sons, Nathan and Jacob, home from their one-month stay in a neonatal intensive care unit. “I had to struggle to get them. It makes me more appreciative.”

The other dad, Joe Foster, calls his son a miracle baby.

After his wife was diagnosed with cancer, parenthood seemed sadly distant. The best they could hope for, they thought, was adopting a young child several years down the line. But the Fosters got their 5-month-old son just weeks after listing themselves with an agency.

For thousands of dads, especially for those who may have received one too many ties or silly mugs filled with golf tees, Father’s Day may be just an annual event. But for these two men, it’s all new and a true celebration, not of themselves but of the sons who seemed so unlikely.

Joe and Constance Foster decided to adopt a child after Constance, 40, had surgery for cancer.

Ironically, Joe said, he had always assumed he would take in at least one child who was not originally his own. There are so many children in need of loving parents, it just seemed inevitable somehow, said Joe, 39.

Just after the couple finished their 10-week parenting class as part of pre-adoption requirements--and almost exactly one year after Constance found out she was sick--the city told the Fosters last August that there was a baby boy waiting to meet them. They named their son Cameron.

“I never gave up hope on that,” Joe said, watching his 14-month-old son chase a beach ball around the family’s Van Nuys living room. “I knew I’d have a kid if it was meant to be.”

For now, Joe delights in his fatherly routine. Sunday mornings, while Constance sleeps, he wakes Cameron and makes him breakfast. Joe makes certain to include one sweet thing that Constance would never dream of feeding their son.

“Mothers sometimes,” Joe said, shaking his head and laughing with his wife. “If he wants it, I don’t mind.”

After listening to his father’s voice, Cameron reached out to Joe, a sign he wanted to be picked up. Once on daddy’s lap, he babbled as babies do, and Joe nodded along as if he understood perfectly.

“Uh-huh,” Joe said soothingly, rubbing the boy’s back. “Uh-huh. Yeah.”

Cameron looked at his father, brown eyes bright and wide, and smiled a toothy grin.

Cathryn and Joshua Pine had been trying to have a baby for three years. After a miscarriage a year and a half ago and another round of attempts, the possibilities did not look good.

Finally, Cathy, 30, became pregnant. But word that the 4-foot-10-inch woman was carrying twins brought all new worries.

The couple endured eight months of long, hard waiting. Cathy was bedridden for the last 12 weeks of her pregnancy and hospitalized twice, trying to forestall labor.

When the boys were finally born, one month early, they were unable to feed and had trouble breathing. The two were placed in intensive care and the couple was told the babies would stay after Cathy was released.

“When you actually finally leave the hospital without them, it hits you like a ton of bricks,” Josh said. “I’m leaving without my babies.”

The worst part, he said, was that they could not hold their children. The boys had intravenous needles in their heads--the best place to find a vein on a baby--feeding tubes in their throats and were under ultraviolet lights. The only time the parents were allowed to pick up the children was during attempts to bottle-feed them.

“That’s when I got real emotional,” Josh said. “Knowing my kids were there and I couldn’t even touch them.”

It was 12 anxious days before the babies came home. Josh would leave his Agoura home every morning for a quick visit at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center before a commute to his Burbank job. After work, he would drive back to Agoura to pick up Cathy, who could not drive while she recovered from her Cesarean section, and head back to the hospital.

One month after their birthday, the boys were allowed to go home. On Saturday, their parents prepared for their bris , the Jewish ceremony celebrating circumcision and a boy’s entrance into the faith.

It was both a relief and joy for Josh--the bris, this first Father’s Day and finally being able to show off his children to all his friends and family.

“I want to make it a point every so often to look back and remember what it took to bring these kids into the world,” Josh said. “We have been really waiting for this day. It’s been a long road.”