A New Year

I reconnected with a very special person in my family today. I think our busy lives have impacted the amount of time we had to spend together just talking and hashing out life in general. I realized today how much I have missed those conversations as well as how much this person means to me. During that two hour phone call-we talked a lot about my little families pending adoption and the choices we have made to bring a child into our lives who may or may not have a "disability." After the conversation ended I made the desicion to share our Medical Conditions Checklist with people, which we have not done until today. Not out of a desire to keep secrets, just simply because these are personal decisions that we made as husband and wife.
Our decision to adopt a child with or without a disability is born from our desire to grow our family. We wish to make a difference in a child's life and be the family that a waiting child needs. What we know is that there are children who are considered "unadoptable" in China's eyes because they are termed less than perfect. I thank God that in our family we view human life with more respect. We did not arrive at any of these decisions lightheartedly. A lot of thought and research was done prior to filing our Medical Checklist. I feel we have been led to this point in our lives and guided in these decisions. I know as a family we will all come together and embrace this new child in our lives and I am so thankful for the love and support we have been given. So here is our checklist.
We have said Yes to the following medical conditions: Congenital heart disease-minor; club foot/feet; malformation of the fingers/toes; missing fingers/toes; hypospadias; anemia; birthmark/hemangioma-non facial; eczema; extra fingers/toes; hernia-umbilical/inguinal; malnutrition; physical development delay; premature/low birth weight; scar/burn-non facial; torticollis; undescended testicles; vision-strabismus. We have said Maybe to:Imperforated Anus; hearing loss-partial to moderate; vision-cataracts.
So there it is, I think this sums it up pretty well and I quote (from two exceptional teens in our life) "thats it-they really give kids up because of those things..."
If any of you would like to do your own research on these Medical Conditions there is a "Waiting Child Adoption" CD available for purchase from Love Without Boundaries. I would loan out ours but it is inexpensive and purchasing it goes to help save the lives of medically fragile children in China. Feel free to check out their website: www.lovewithoutboundaries.com Also, if you have not viewed the videos from LWB at the bottom of our blog-please do so, they are very informative. I couldn't decide between them so I included them all.