"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance.The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break." -Chinese proverb

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Did I hear you say "special needs"?

So, I'm sure you're wondering...why was Liana on a "special needs" list?  When we were researching international adoption and learned about the special needs program with China, we just knew this was the right fit for us.  It's not as scary as it sounds.  Most of the needs are mild to moderate correctable needs.  Our adoption agency had us fill out a form of what special needs we would be okay with to help them match us with a child.  We felt pretty comfortable with a lot of the things on the list but we definitely didn't check them all.  One of Liana's "special needs" is a patent foramen ovale (PFO), which is a small hole in the heart that didn't close right after birth.  Our agency assured us that Liana's was mild and would most likely resolve itself.  We had checked this on our list of needs that we would be okay with.  Her other "special need" is something that we hadn't checked because it wasn't on the list.  She had a hernia on her esophagus, which was surgically repaired when she was 2 weeks old.  Our agency requested an update on that before they even called us with our referral and they told us that she would require another surgery.  Fine, we can definitely handle that.  After getting our referral, we sent everything we had on Liana to an international adoption doctor to look at.  This doctor has a reputation of being thorough and to the point, if not a little on the pessimistic side.  We knew that we would be adopting Liana, but we also needed to know as much as we could about her medical history.  The doctor told us that the PFO has already resolved itself, based on 2 echocardiograms that she's had since they first found the hole.  Amazing!  And as far as the hernia on her esophagus, she's not convinced that she'll need another surgery.  Maybe someday or maybe she'll need some other kind of intervention but the doctor was very encouraging about it and really, everything!

Erik did some research on Liana's Chinese name and he learned that the "Jing" part means crystal or perfect.  When I heard this, I thought that was so fitting because that's what I thought when I first saw her picture.  Perfect.  Special needs or not, our daughter is perfect!

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