![]() “They said ‘we have a baby for you but she is very sick from head to toe. The drugs had also caused Natalie serious health problems, so the Youngs were told to prepare for a lifetime of doctor’s visits. The baby had barely been fed after her birth and by 6 weeks of age she was three pounds below her birth weight. Shelley said they were told that Natalie was born to a mother who was a daily crystal meth user. 19, 2000 - just six weeks after Valdivia had filed the paperwork to have baby Natalie put into foster care - the Youngs got the call they’d been waiting for. County officials warned them that all of the young children who would be eligible for adoption through the program would be “drug babies,” born to addicted mothers with potentially lifelong health issues. After a plan to adopt a baby from China fell through, the couple - then living in La Mesa - signed up for foster-to-adopt classes through San Diego County’s foster care program. ![]() Shelley and Jeff Young already had a naturally born 5-year-old daughter, but when they realized they couldn’t have a second child they decided to go the adoption route in 2000. “It changed my whole life and I wanted to change other people’s lives in the same way.” A slim chance of health “I grew up knowing that police officers were there to help and do good, and I knew I wanted to be in law enforcement so I could help people the way he helped me,” she said. By the time she was 8 years old, she knew she wanted to follow in this unknown officer’s footsteps someday. Natalie said that from the time she was old enough to ask her parents where she came from, they told her the story of her rescue by a police officer. On this one time where you do get to find out, it’s incredible to know that it worked out, and that this time this little girl grew up in a loving home with amazing parents and you got to be a little part of that,” he said. “You hope for the best, but it’s something you just accept. ![]() “You make the best decision you can, you hope you wrote a good report and you hope the system is going to work. But he never knew how important that decision was until six weeks ago. So, with the support of his fellow officers and a juvenile detective, Valdivia decided to file the paperwork that would forever change the life trajectory of the baby who became Natalie Young. Valdivia had never taken a child into protective custody before, but he feared that if he left the baby with her mother that day, she wouldn’t have survived. The house was also filthy and there was no more than six ounces of baby food in the kitchen. The mom admitted the pipe was hers and she showed physical signs of having recently used the drug. Inside one room, he found a dangerously underweight and sickly 6-week-old baby girl, along with her teenage mother and a used methamphetamine pipe. But what he found inside the house would haunt his thoughts for decades. That was routine duty for young officers like Valdivia, who was in his mid-20s and just four years out of the police academy. 2, 2000, Escondido police officer Jeff Valdivia was called in to help with the arrest of a parole violator at a known drug house in south Escondido.
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