Perfect Timing

One thing you don't know about our little boy is that he has congenital heart disease.  We don't talk about it too much because we don't want it to define him and we don't want that to be the thing people think about or focus on when they see him.  We knew that he had this the moment we were told about him.  We communicated with our pediatrician through phone calls and emails.  We had our first face to face meeting with her on Tuesday night.  Below is what I wrote on Wednesday.

We met with our pediatrician last night.  It went really well and I like her a lot.  She is from the Ukraine and she has worked with lots of adopted children.  First off she told us that we had wonderful information on him.  She said she never sees that much on a child.  She doesn’t think they are hiding anything from us.  I guess they could be, but we really don’t think so.  We have records of every time he has seen a doctor or been in a hospital.  We went through all of the paper work together (she didn’t have a chance to look at it beforehand).  The first thing she told us was that his organs are on the reverse sides!  His insides are basically a mirror image of everyone else.  She said this isn’t a problem, just something we need to be aware of and notify any doctors of.  She said all of his organs are working properly except his heart.  His first open heart surgery was to put shunts in on both sides of his heart.  2 months after that surgery they found out they had damaged a nerve and his diaphragm was not moving.  It should move with his other organs.  So they had to go back in and repair it.  He also had to have another open heart surgery to adjust the shunts at the end of 2008.  That was his last surgery.  Since then he has had bronchitis twice and was in the hospital 5 days with pneumonia.  He might have some asthma because of this.  She said the oxygen level in his blood still appears to be low.  She said that if he was in the states, our doctors would suggest another surgery and we will probably have to look into that when he gets here.  Basically he isn’t getting enough oxygen to his brain.  This could affect his IQ later in life or it might not.  She said she has seen children adjust to their levels.  Still, we will want to get a doctors opinion here and discuss fixing that.  He had an upper respiratory infection most of last year, but she said that was just because he was in a day care 24/7.  He is currently on 4 different kinds of medications, but he will not have to be on those for the rest of his life.  She normally recommends people waiting a couple of weeks before they bring the child to see her, but she wants us to come in the day after we get home.  She needs to do an entire work-up on him so she can make sure the reports are correct and the medicines he is on are what he needs. 

We went into the appointment knowing that nothing she said would change our minds on adopting him.  There were definitely times in our meeting where it was a little overwhelming.  It is hard to sit there and think about what all he has been through.  She was very encouraging though.  She said he has been through so much for a little boy, but he has been through the very worst.  Nothing should be as bad as what he has already been through.  Brian asked her how our life will be different with him as compared to a child who does not have these problems (great question I think).  She said that he cannot play contact sports (so ice hockey is out).  We will have to monitor him during activities, but she doesn’t think he will be a sickly child who just lies around the house all the time.  She said he was perfectly fine to go to school and be involved in pretty much anything he wanted to.  She thinks he will definitely become healthier when he gets here, but his doctors have done a great job.  She said it is very impressive.  He will have to have another open heart surgery at some point.  As he grows, his shunts won’t.  So they will have to be adjusted again.

We left the office with nothing but joy.  We weren’t discouraged in the least.  In fact, for the first time I heard Brian say “I’m proud of my son”.  He is a fighter…that is for sure.  I started thinking about God’s PERFECT timing last night and it hit me.  The day Brian confirmed to me that we were supposed to adopt from China , was the day he was born!  Pretty amazing!!!  There were so many times where I wondered why I had to wait so long before I had children.  Well, it wasn’t so much giving birth to children, just having one of my own.  I would cry on the way to work many mornings.  I would first throw myself a pity party and then I would focus on God’s love for me.  He just loves me so much (“Oh how He loves me”)!!!  I would feel His presence and then I would focus on praying for my child.  I look back and wonder if MY little boy was going to sleep in pain right then and he needed me to pray for him.  I’m so thankful for an omnipresent God who could be comforting me and my child at the same time even though we were on opposite sides of the earth.  And to think about how I could have entered the adoption program back then (you only have to be 25 to adopt from Hong Kong ), but God told me to wait until I was 30.  If I had not waited, I might not be able to get this little boy and I would definitely not have had all of these experiences that have made me realize how (just to name a few) awesome, mighty, loving, forgiving, patient, all-knowing, sovereign, peaceful, perfect, and comforting my God is.  He continues to pour His mercy, blessings, and joy on me even though I don’t deserve it.

My God REIGNS!

Katie