I want to share my beautiful adoption journey with you
Growing up my dream was to adopt a child one day. My father was my inspiration. He was brought up in an orphanage. His mother died at 35 years old. He was only two years old at the time; the youngest of seven children. His father had to work and put him in a local orphanage.
Thirty five years ago I had experienced several miscarriages and a ruptured ectopic pregnancy that nearly took my life. I finally became pregnant and gave birth to a son, whom we named Chris. When Chris was two years old, I had another miscarriage. I was 41 at the time. My doctor told me to stop trying. My husband and I still wanted another child but being over 40 I realized we would never be able to adopt an infant. We applied to a local foster/adopt agency and became foster parents. We did do respite for a few weekends with older children but realized we did not want a child older than three.
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A few years later we received a call telling us about a seven month old baby girl that would be available for adoption Her mother’s parental rights were terminated. We were excited to meet her, but a little nervous reading her health history. She was born 6 weeks premature with microcephaly, drug and alcohol addiction. She was admitted to the hospital at three months old with broken ribs and failure to thrive. Were we ready to handle this?? We met Brittani at her foster parents’ house. They loved her but were older, and not interested in adopting her. Brittani was a happy and lovable little baby, but she still wasn’t able to roll around on the floor, and did not seem to respond or connect with people. We made several visits, and fell in love with her, and took her home. Her bedroom was decorated with love, just waiting for her. My son, Chris, 6 1/2 yrs old at the time, was excited to have a sister. We brought her to Children’s Hospital and had an MRI done to find out she was moderately mentally delayed, with cerebral palsy. She was diagnosed with polymicrogyria. We began occupational therapy with her. At the age of two we found out she was totally deaf in her right ear and partially deaf in her left ear. She received her first hearing aid. Her world opened up to sounds around her. She was so happy, and tried to communicate. With speech therapy she began to form words. She started to walk with a walker at age three. She was ready to conquer the world.
Adopting a special needs child is so rewarding. We have received so much love, and have met so many wonderful people during our journey. Brittani just turned 30. She is a happy, social young lady, who works part time at MOD Pizza, enjoys music, basketball, swimming, bowling, dancing and hanging out with her friends.
I have always lived my life according to one of Mother Teresa’s quotes: “A life not lived for others is not a life.”
https://www.parentingspecialneeds.org/article/family-life-begins-love-never-ends/
https://www.parentingspecialneeds.org/article/i-do-not-like-being-a-special-needs-parent-and-thats-ok/
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- Coping with the Life You Never Imagined [12]
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This post originally appeared on our November/December 2022 Magazine [17]