Who is Sweet Pea?

Back in October we finally decided to pursue our decision to adopt. Why, you might ask? And people do ask. Usually, I divert attention by saying, " It's something that we talked about for a long time." That seems to satisfy most people. What a cop out! That completely does not answer the question.

It took 18 months for us to conceive our first child. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't so bad. We faced a little testing and treatment of Clomid. During this time I really believed that I would never conceive a child. I remember looking at adoption agencies and magazines. Since then we have had three wonderful children, but that was when the seeds of adoption were planted. The fact of the matter is that there are thousands of children who need parents and we want more children.

At first I thought we would adopt from the US foster care system. These kids are frequently call "waiting children." We felt that at this time it was not a good match for our family. We were told that most of the children in our area were over the age of nine. That would make any new child quite a bit older that Wonder Boy. Then I began to wonder if there were "waiting children" in international adoption. Yes! Most had special needs or a medical condition, some of these very serious, some correctable problems, some with problems that would be insurmountable in their birth country, but manageable in the US. But could we be good parents to a child with special needs? I read. I researched. I prayed. I learned more about disabilities than I ever wanted to know: FAS, RAD, PTSD, spina bifida, nystagmus, cleft palate, limb differences, cerebral palsy, ptosis. You name it, I learned about it's cause, treatment, and outcomes. Finally we saw a little girl on a waiting child list and requested more information about her.

Sweet Pea is the beautiful little girl we are adopting (assuming all goes well). She is in Russia and we are impatiently waiting to meet her. Sweet Pea is the same age as Pookie and we hope to bring her home late this year. She is missing part of her legs, but once home she will be fit with prosthetic limbs.