Special needs adoptions are somthing that is very near and dear to my heart. It is in part where both Sam's and my passions lie.
3 out of our 5 adopted jewels had "identified" special needs when we adopted them. I use the word identified because very typically even when a family checks the non-special needs box in their homestudy process or agency application, they very often will still find themselves with a special needs adopted jewel. That is not just the case for adopted jewels, but often for adopted jewels as well.
I was talking with one sweet mom the other day and she was telling me about all of the different therapies she was involved with for her biological daughter, and not her identified special needs adopted daughter.
For my family, at the moment, 5 out of our 7 jewels would be identified as having a "special need." Can you tell which ones? Can you see it in their eyes and their faces? If I described each one of my children to you, in terms of the amazing ways that God made each one and wired them to be would you be able to pick out which ones have special needs?
I don't think so.
I don't think you can tell which ones have special needs.
Now if I gave you details such as doctor's visits, medications, IEP's, school accomodations ... you could probably figure it out. But the thing is those things, they are just part of who my children. Those things do not define my kids, and they are certainly not the ones that come to mind when I think about each one of them.
All to say that if you are considering adoption, consider special needs. The reality within the world of adoption is that the "orphans" that are WAITING for families, tend to be special needs jewels, or older jewels. They tend to NOT be healthy babies or healthy young children. Try looking beyond a "label" of a certain child and instead do some research about the label/special needs, and talk to families who have children (bio or adopted) with special needs.
I'm all about entering into adoptions with your EYES FULLY OPEN. So I'm by no means saying that special needs are easy, but on the other hand, they are no big deal (in the words of another dear friend whose biological daughters has some different special needs). The biggest issue that we face within our family is our MANY trips to Children's Hosptial (which happens to be 2 hours away). Thankfully they do have Financial Aid, otherwise I don't know how we would do it (even with good health insurance). It still though is a sacrifice of time and money which we happily make - as we fully realize that our Savior sacrificed it ALL for us - and we so adore our jewels and want the BEST for them and we'll do WHATEVER we need to for them.
THANK YOU JESUS that you don't see any of us the way we see ourselves, or others. THANK YOU for that you don't use any labels to describe us or any of the millions of orphans waiting, but that you instead SEE each one of us as dearly beloved, daughter or son, holy, rightous, and one or your own!
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