Last night (April 9th, 2011) Bethany and I sat down and filled out the application to start the special needs adoption process for our second time. Together we went through the special needs checklist selecting what needs we were prepared for. It sounds shallow but it is important for adoptive parents of a special needs child to agree on what needs they can care for. Settling in, getting the child home, and acclimation is an already difficult process for everyone involved. If you fail to agree on the nature of the needs your child has then you may have a problem or conflict between parents when the needs of your special needs child begin to affect your daily life.
A perfect example is our precious Peanut (L). When we adopted L we knew she had a cleft lip and Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002089/. VSD is basically holes in your heart. Little did we know that Peanut was in Congestive Heart Failure, had a collapsed lung and was preparing to fight for her life. What started as an awesome journey after coming home from China quickly became a test of faith. There were times where we thought we would lose Peanut after her heart surgery because she contracted a bacterial infection called Abiotrophia. This infection went way beyond our little checklist but in the end Bethany and I both knew we were adopting a very sick little girl and together we were prepared to dedicate ourselves to getting her the best treatment possible.
Getting back to our application....we filled it out and identified the special needs we were ready to face. We know there is a little boy out there waiting to celebrate Gotcha Day with his Forever Family. It will be going into the mailbox first thing Monday morning on April 11th. I think I will drive it to the post office just to get it there quicker!
With Joy,
Tom
P.S.
Son, I don't know where you are, what you look like, or what you will become but I already have a spot for you in my quiver.
Love,
Dad
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