I love to answer questions about our adoption, talk about our little life and ultimately, I LOVE to share our story. If you couldn't tell by now, I love my little family!! I think that God has put me in the place I am in and I want to share about it. He has been what gets us through and He deserves that glory.
Q: What brought you to the point of wanting to adopt and then deciding on adopting children with a disability?? I was surprised you decided to adopt. I figured you have 3 more of your own!
A:First of all, thank you for asking. I feel like a lot of people are fearful of asking and I definitely do not want it to be off limits. (Although when they come home, we'll be very careful about what we say in from of them)
Anyway. Adoption has been on our hearts from the beginning. I have wanted to adopt as long as I can remember wanting to be a mom! Jeff and I talked about adoption before we were even engaged. I think that God truly laid it on our hearts. It's been a journey though. We always thought it was "someday". Someday when we are "done" having biological children. Someday when we have the money, etc. After losing Thao though, several things changed for us. For one, we saw many children in the hospital that didn't have parents with them. ever. We knew that we could love other children, and we knew there was a need. I also realized how un-important my material goals were. I guess they just changed for me. I no longer want to move, I am more content, etc. Before I went back and forth. We really wanted to move to the country because Thao wanted it so badly. He loved animals! We also feel like we can understand a little of what loss these children have gone through. We know that the circumstances are different but these children have gone through abandonment, loss. We understand there is grief. We have seen Christ meet needs through this. We've seen his timing, specific answers to prayers. It has all been a God thing. We are very excited!
As for disabilities, our children are actually healthy (in 3rd world Africa standards). Crusoe was severely malnourished but he is recovering and gaining strength. We went to visit them and file paperwork in November. They are sweet, amazing kids! They understand about as much as a 2 and 3 year old understand.
About more biological children...We know that God can change that but for what we are planning, it's just not in the plan. Thao was a seemingly healthy child, but some of his genetic testing came back to say that it was possible that he had Familial HLH. There is no way to really know, and the testing for it is inconclusive (as it would be if we were to test the other children). There are things we do to try to stay healthy and therefore hopefully lowering the risk. We pretty much do what we did for Thao to keep him as healthy as possible. We try to eat healthy and boost our immune systems. Thao over reacted to all immunizations and had several serious side effects to medications. This was another indication that it was genetic. Whatever it was, his body did not like the foreign substances, so we are very careful about this with our other children.
Q: I wondered if maybe the decision to not have more biological children lay in the mystery of what exactly happened to Thao....so did they ever really nail down what it was that caused his sickness?
A: It did give some finality to our decision. When I had Liam, in many ways I felt like he was my last, although I wanted more children. Then, after losing Thao, despite the fact that his health issues very well could have been genetic, I cannot imagine going through another pregnancy and birth with out him here. I know that sounds funny, but he was so much fun during my pregnancy with Liam. I think part of it is I enjoy those memories a lot. Also, I've been pregnant 6 times. I had 3 miscarriages and lost one child at 5 years old. So, maybe a big part of my part of the decision was fear. But still, Jeff and I have prayed about it. We are ready to move forward into a new phase with our family. We are so ready to bring our beautiful adopted children into our crazy lives!
If you have any more questions on adoption or anything else, feel free to email me tiffanyandjeff@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you!
Q: What brought you to the point of wanting to adopt and then deciding on adopting children with a disability?? I was surprised you decided to adopt. I figured you have 3 more of your own!
A:First of all, thank you for asking. I feel like a lot of people are fearful of asking and I definitely do not want it to be off limits. (Although when they come home, we'll be very careful about what we say in from of them)
Anyway. Adoption has been on our hearts from the beginning. I have wanted to adopt as long as I can remember wanting to be a mom! Jeff and I talked about adoption before we were even engaged. I think that God truly laid it on our hearts. It's been a journey though. We always thought it was "someday". Someday when we are "done" having biological children. Someday when we have the money, etc. After losing Thao though, several things changed for us. For one, we saw many children in the hospital that didn't have parents with them. ever. We knew that we could love other children, and we knew there was a need. I also realized how un-important my material goals were. I guess they just changed for me. I no longer want to move, I am more content, etc. Before I went back and forth. We really wanted to move to the country because Thao wanted it so badly. He loved animals! We also feel like we can understand a little of what loss these children have gone through. We know that the circumstances are different but these children have gone through abandonment, loss. We understand there is grief. We have seen Christ meet needs through this. We've seen his timing, specific answers to prayers. It has all been a God thing. We are very excited!
As for disabilities, our children are actually healthy (in 3rd world Africa standards). Crusoe was severely malnourished but he is recovering and gaining strength. We went to visit them and file paperwork in November. They are sweet, amazing kids! They understand about as much as a 2 and 3 year old understand.
About more biological children...We know that God can change that but for what we are planning, it's just not in the plan. Thao was a seemingly healthy child, but some of his genetic testing came back to say that it was possible that he had Familial HLH. There is no way to really know, and the testing for it is inconclusive (as it would be if we were to test the other children). There are things we do to try to stay healthy and therefore hopefully lowering the risk. We pretty much do what we did for Thao to keep him as healthy as possible. We try to eat healthy and boost our immune systems. Thao over reacted to all immunizations and had several serious side effects to medications. This was another indication that it was genetic. Whatever it was, his body did not like the foreign substances, so we are very careful about this with our other children.
Q: I wondered if maybe the decision to not have more biological children lay in the mystery of what exactly happened to Thao....so did they ever really nail down what it was that caused his sickness?
A: It did give some finality to our decision. When I had Liam, in many ways I felt like he was my last, although I wanted more children. Then, after losing Thao, despite the fact that his health issues very well could have been genetic, I cannot imagine going through another pregnancy and birth with out him here. I know that sounds funny, but he was so much fun during my pregnancy with Liam. I think part of it is I enjoy those memories a lot. Also, I've been pregnant 6 times. I had 3 miscarriages and lost one child at 5 years old. So, maybe a big part of my part of the decision was fear. But still, Jeff and I have prayed about it. We are ready to move forward into a new phase with our family. We are so ready to bring our beautiful adopted children into our crazy lives!
If you have any more questions on adoption or anything else, feel free to email me tiffanyandjeff@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you!