Natalie Young’s recent graduation from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Academy and receipt of her badge from the Colorado sheriff’s office marked a turning point in her life.
The policeman who pinned her badge was none other than the man who had rescued her from a drug home in Escondido, California, when she was a fragile six-week-old infant.
Officer Jeff Valdivia was summoned to assist with the arrest of a parole breaker at a well-known drug house in Escondido on November 2, 2000. He arrived to the house to find it in appalling condition.
He observed an underweight infant girl and a teenage mother who appeared to have just used drugs. Although he had never before detained a kid, his colleagues policemen persuaded him that it was the moral thing to do. According to Valdivia, “you hope there are no holes in the system and you hope everything works as it should.” Shelley and Jeff Young got a call about a possible baby to adopt a few weeks after Valdivia saved the infant.
“We have a kid for you, but she is completely ill, they stated. She will always be severely crippled, and it’s difficult to look at her,” Shelley said to The San Diego Union-Tribune. It was difficult. But we really believe otherwise. We were all on board since the Bible commands us to assist widows and orphans. Although we promised to take her, it was really difficult. The newborn, who later took the name Natalie Young, initially struggled, but once the Youngs moved to Colorado, she started to flourish.
Future of Natalie Natalie remarked, “I had issues as a newborn that I had to go through. “I participated in every sport I wanted to. I was adaptable and willing to try everything. I never intended to let my issues hold me back.
She decided to pursue a career as a police officer after finding out how she was saved as an infant. She aspired to be like the policeman who saved her life. The idea of saying “thank you” to him also occurred to Natalie. Shelley enrolled in the El Paso County Sheriff’s Academy five years ago, graduated, and started working as a dispatcher. She was able to track down the cop who saved her daughter’s life by using her contacts. Shelley contacted Valdivia a few weeks before Natalie’s commencement speech and explained the circumstance. Would he be willing to make the extra trip from California to Colorado?
It was a great honor, Knowing that I played a role in her past is an amazing feeling. However, I came to a choice and completed some papers. She was saved by Jeff and Shelley Young, he claimed. “Knowing that she wanted to be a police officer and that everything we did encouraged her simply validates a whole career,” she said. Everything was worthwhile. Since graduating, the two have kept in touch, and arrangements have been made for Natalie to meet Valdivia’s family.