This post is well overdue since so many have been asking for
an update on how everything has gone with all of our testing/medical
appointments over the last two months. We are hopeful that you can excuse the
lateness, as we just might have had our hands just a little full the last
several weeks settling into life as a family of three, juggling new schedules,
numerous medical appointments, and work schedules. We know that so many have been asking the results of everything
with our little one, so we’d like to take a few minutes to share some moments
that we’ve had in the last 8 weeks. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a one and done type of appointment,
so much of this has been ongoing.
Upon coming home from China, there were many medical
appointments and processes we had to go through for Little Miss. We just finished one of our last ones a
few weeks ago, and will at least get a short respite for a little bit. A child that is adopted internationally
has to be examined for a multitude of things, not just the medical needs that
we knew our little one had. We had to go through rounds of blood work and
testing for infectious diseases (it’s standard, even though this has been
tested in China, it gets re-tested stateside), parasites, thyroid issues,
standard blood panel, TB (tuberculosis), hearing tests (which is coming up in
May), lead levels (since often buildings in China may have higher lead levels
which can be very dangerous to a young child) all the while meeting with our pediatric cardiologist,
international adoption pediatrician, and an occupational therapist for
evaluations and next steps in a treatment plan for our daughter. Whew—makes me tired just remembering
all of the back and forth to these appointments and re-reading this list.
During all of this, we quickly learned that “B” doesn’t have
exposed veins from which nurses can draw blood, which they said is in part due
to her heart condition and the way her blood pumps throughout her body, as it
makes her veins very restricted and difficult to access. All of her blood draws
were the most difficult thing to watch as the first round they probably pricked
her about 6 times in one arm trying to get blood before they realized the issue
they were dealing with, tried the other arm and then realized they had to get additional
assistance to come in and try to figure out where to draw it from, which ended
up being from a vein they had to “push up” in her hand. It was painful for us
to watch and hold her and know that it’s for her good, but that she was
traumatized a bit by this whole process.
After our initial consultations and testing which was about
4 weeks after we returned home from China, we were given the news that our
cardiologist wanted to continue to wait and watch her heart for the next few
months and see if she could continue to gain weight and grow. She’s still a
tiny little thing at right under 20 pounds (which she’s thankfully gained about
3 pounds since Gotcha Day in China on February 2) We will go back to cardiology
in June for a re-evaluation and to see how things are going. Her cardiologist was very positive and
is hoping for continued progress with hopes that we may avoid surgery. Time will tell.
During all of these weeks of testing, we did come across a
concern and some results that came up regarding her liver, which was a bit
frightening, so the doctors wanted to do some further testing. We are so
thankful to report that after further testing, everything appears to have checked
out just fine and all of her other tests came back with wonderful results as
well. She did test positive and was diagnosed with a parasite that generally would make a child her age sick, but God protected her and she didn't and hasn't had any symptoms which surprised doctors. God is good. There were even some initial concerns about some things we knew could be
possibilities once we got her home, but God took care of those entirely and
there are currently no additional issues at all.
Since coming home about 10 weeks ago, we have learned a bit
more about our little one thanks to two wonderful non-profits that provided
care for our daughter in her orphanage care center. Oftentimes when an
organization is working with orphans in China, they do not have the ability to
share all of their information in advance to parents until the family finalizes
their adoption. It’s a hard
dynamic to explain as to why this is the way it is, but we knew that once we
returned from China, we were going to receive a lot more information on “B”
than what we had received when we said “Yes” and she became ours. We just weren’t sure how much info or
what exactly we would receive, other than we knew we would receive some
additional photos they had taken since the time she came into the orphanage at
a month old.
We will still never forget that moment when we visited her
orphanage...
...the medical staff handed us a piece of paper with New Hope Foundation letterhead on it and shared some notes and provided us with the name of the doctor and his contact
information that had treated our daughter while in China. I literally almost
fell in the floor as that sort of thing just doesn’t normally happen in
international adoption. This one piece of paper held so much value as they
shared that our specialists in the U.S. were welcome to communicate with this
doctor at any time with questions.
Wow.
Just wow. There were no words...and trust me, neither of us are usually speechless very often.
Here is a short video that highlights the work of New Hope Foundation:
https://vimeo.com/115624870
We will forever be indebted to the wonderful work of New Hope Foundation in Beijing and Show Hope in Nashville for the wonderful work
and financial support that made it possible for our daughter to be cared for in
a way that far exceeded anything we could have imagined. In partnership together, they provided
specialized medical staffing and care for our daughter’s Special Care Center
that was housed in her orphanage.
As you may know, Christian music artist Steven Curtis Chapman and his
wife Mary Beth Chapman founded Show Hope.
The Chapmans saw the needs in China a number of years ago and adopted
several children from China and then expanded to create an amazing non-profit
that now has care centers in China for medical/special needs children, provides
adoption grants to Christian families, provides foster care/adoption
conferences and training for foster/adoptive families and more.
About a month after we had come home from China, we received
an email from Show Hope that said they had finalized all of the additional
items from China for “B” and were sending us that information. About five
minutes later we were both staring at our computer, mouths wide open, looking
at a screen which now held file after file of new information and additional
photos.
- Almost 150 new photos from each month she was living there
- Photos of our daughter from the very day she came into the orphanage at 26 days old
- Photos of her “ayi” (nanny) and other nannies that worked with her
.JPG)
- Photos of the children that were her “crib mates” in her room
- Photos of her with her little friends
- Photos of their version of Christmas (which they did have Santa hats & cake-LOL)
As if the photos weren’t a blessing enough, we then received
a large excel document that were medical charts on our daughter with notes from
almost every day or every other day or so where they charted her progress, her
medical issues, each/every sickness she had, every medication she was given and
more. We were blessed to receive important growth measurements for every month
she was there, which was an incredible asset to her physicians here in the
states. Our International Adoption Clinic and doctors were all stunned, as they
had never seen anything like this provided on a child they had cared for upon returning from overseas. We had
told them that they weren’t going to believe it until they saw it.
Through this amazing information, we learned a great deal more
about our daughter’s health needs, medical issues she had experienced during
certain months while in China, and also learned about some additional medical
needs that we were weren’t aware of when we first reviewed her file and made
the decision to adopt her. All of these wonderful notes just helped us piece
together some of the missing pieces that were helpful to doctors and to us in
general and will hopefully help us to continue on the best path of treatment
for her in the days to come.
We know that the dynamic surrounding our daughter’s situation
is unique and not what is commonly seen in China. It was without question- God
ordained. The prayers of many were answered in a way that is “Above and Beyond” anything we could have asked for
on our own.
We realize many a parent adopting internationally would give
anything to receive the kind of information God so graciously bestowed upon our
family. We know without a doubt
that God ordained the exact place where she would be born, where she would be
found, where she would be taken for care and placed her in a special care
center where she would receive more one on one care and medical attention to
help her survive her current circumstances and better grow and develop. As if this wasn’t enough, to think that
both of these organizations that helped provide treatment and care for our
daughter were Christian organizations.
If that’s not the cherry on top, I’m not sure what else could be?
We want to thank each of you who have prayed for many months
for our daughter, for her care, for her medical appointments/tests and for this
entire process in general. This
very post would not be possible without numerous prayers from so many and we
want you to know that it is because of the power of prayer that we are able to
sit here and write this incredible praise report of all that God has done and
is continuing to do in the life of our little one. She still has a ways to go
in many areas and there are still more medical appointments ahead, but we are
thankful for where things are right now and how God has truly had His hand on
her life.
If we learned anything out of the new information we
received, we learned that this little one is quite a fighter and the outcome
could have looked a lot different had God not intervened. As her doctor in
China noted to us several weeks after we returned home, “You have a very special daughter. After seeing so many other children in China not recover
from some of the issues your daughter experienced early on, we do not take that
for granted and we tried to optimize her chances to do well…” We know
without a doubt that our little one is thriving and doing as well as she is
today thanks to the wonderful care she received in her care center.
We prayed from the beginning of this process that God would
use her life and story to reflect praise to her Heavenly Father…that her life
and story would bring honor to God and point to moments and details that only
an all-wise loving Father could orchestrate. It’s not at all about us, but ALL
about Him. May God continue to
write her story in a way that only He can write.
“To Him who is able to do exceeding and abundantly above all that we
ask or think…
to Him be the glory…forever and ever.”
– Ephesians 3:20-21
