There are many ways to parent a child that do not fit into the traditional biological box. One orthopedic oncologist knows this firsthand, as his journey to fatherhood was anything but ordinary. He was a single, childless man one day and the legal guardian of 13-year-old Ronnie the next.
This was all set into motion when Dr. James C. Wittig saw a Facebook post by a former patient who was trying to find a home for a teenage boy whose parents had died. James gladly volunteered and has raised Ronnie for the last seven years. He believes it was meant to be because the two discovered a unique connection.
James always wanted to be a father and believes he helped to manifest this through prayer. “I wanted a child,” he explained. "I must have been sending these messages out to God and in prayer and everything."
After living together for a couple of months, James discovered that he had studied Ronnie’s mom’s cancer treatments during his fellowship. His fellowship director had given him photos of two women who had similar diseases but opted for different treatments, with one woman getting an amputation and the other receiving limb-saving surgery. James never met the woman whose leg was amputated, but would go on to use the cases in his teaching. The woman was Ronnie’s mother.
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James is in awe of how the universe can work in mysterious ways. "I see this whole thing as a synchronicity," he explained. "The coincidence of me getting his mother's photo handed to me when I was just starting as a fellow, to me looking back at everything: It was meant to be."
James loves being Ronnie’s dad and believes it is “so fulfilling.” “He is one of the strongest and kindest and most courageous kids that I know,” he gushed. He wants others to know that it's never too late to become a parent. Ronnie is 20 years old now and studying welding. James has not legally adopted him, but that is just a technicality in their eyes.
To learn more about taking in a teenager, watch this video.
