[paige_va]

Has anyone adopted through the China Waiting Children Program? What kinds of special needs did your children have? I am open to the possibility of adopting a child with special needs, especially if my family can help the child get the medical attention he/she needs, but I'm interested in more information about the types of conditions that these children have and the treatment that might be required, should DH and I ask for a waiting child referral. Thanks!

[rubyblue]

My wife and I are waiting (and waiting and waiting) for a referral so we haven't brought a child home yet. However, my cousin and a good friend have both adopted a child with special needs.

My cousin's son had a cleft lip and palate. He had one surgery while still in China and a second after he came home. My cousin tells me as he gets older he'll need additional surgeries.

My friend's son was born with a left arm that ends at the elbow and a finger missing from his right hand. He has been fitted for a 'simple' prosthetic arm and will get more complex ones as he gets older.

I understand that China considers many things SN; Hepatitis, water on the brain, albinoism, deafness, etc...

My wife and I are considering SN but our agency hasn't received a SN list since September -- China recently changed the way the send lists out to agencies. They tell me it could be any day.

I hope this helped.

Good luck to you and your husband.

[hoping44]

Originally Posted by paige_va

Has anyone adopted through the China Waiting Children Program? What kinds of special needs did your children have? I am open to the possibility of adopting a child with special needs, especially if my family can help the child get the medical attention he/she needs, but I'm interested in more information about the types of conditions that these children have and the treatment that might be required, should DH and I ask for a waiting child referral. Thanks!

I can't tell you whether the SN is program is the right choice for you or not, but I can share my own experience. DH and I are in the process of adopting our 2nd time through the SN program. Our first adoption was our daughter who is now 3, Ella. Her SN's were listed as ASD (atrial septal defect) and beta thalassemia. The ASD was not a concern to us but the beta thalassemia sounded pretty scary when we started reading about it. We kept researching and found that there were several different forms of thalassemia. We sent what little medical info we had to a specialist in Toronto and visited our own pediatrician. Both doctors were fairly confident that Ella only had the trait for the blood disorder. So, we just took a leap of faith and it turned out wonderfully! If we hadn't done that extra research, we might have missed out on one of the most wonderful blessings of our lives. We are now in the process of adopting a 2 year old little boy with bilateral clubbed feet, and if we ever adopt again, we hope that we can go the SN route.

There are a lot of changes going on right now in the SN program. The best advice I can give is just to research, research, research ahead of time. Look at lots of different SN's, you will be surprised at how many needs you discover are manageable once you start to learn more about them. Then, talk to your agency about their policies regarding their program and how they go about working with families that are interested in a SN referral. Most agencies have a listing of the more common SN's and a brief description of them, you could use that list as a starting point.

Best of luck in deciding what is best for you and your family!

[jbzanie]

We adopted our son, Ricky, through the waiting child program. He was 16 month by the time we picked him up (12 months at referral). He had a repaired cleft lip and unrepaired palate. We traveled to pick him up in January and in April we had his palate repaired.

As far as daily life, we do not have any issues with his special need. We are working on speech with a therapist. He will probably have 4 to 6 surgeries to do in his childhood but they are typically just over night type of surgeries.

He is a joy!

[specialk4b]

My son was adopted from China through the Waiting Child Program. He was born with cleft lip and palate. His lip was repaired in China. He is scheduled to have his palate repaired in two weeks. Other than his cleft, he is very healthy and is adjusting to life here with us.

We learned a lot about different types of needs before we decided what we were comfortable accepting. There are lots of great resources out there for learning about different needs. We really learned a lot from the Manual of Special Needs published by Love Without Boundaries. It gave us a nice overview of many of the conditions that occur most often in the Waiting Child Program.

[copper653]

Dh and I are considering a second adoption and we always agreed that the second would be sn. We haven't done the research yet as I don't think we are ready as a family, but rumor queen and the yahoo groups are good for gaining information.

A question for those that have adopted sn... My MIL is an RN and when I mentioned that we would be doing the sn route if we adopted again, she asked if we would be informed of all three sn's. I've heard of it before but never thought about it when considering adoption... that once a child is found with a sn that dr's look for two others. Sn's usually occur in three's. So after my rambling, is this true, or an old wise tail or something you just have to find out once your home?

specialkb, is the manual on their internet site, or do you request it to be sent by mail?

Good luck paige_va!

[hoping44]

Originally Posted by copper653

A question for those that have adopted sn... My MIL is an RN and when I mentioned that we would be doing the sn route if we adopted again, she asked if we would be informed of all three sn's. I've heard of it before but never thought about it when considering adoption... that once a child is found with a sn that dr's look for two others. Sn's usually occur in three's. So after my rambling, is this true, or an old wise tail or something you just have to find out once you get home?

Not sure what others would think, but I would have to put this in the old wives tales category. Our doctors checked out the medical info that we had, but didn't look for anything extra.

[specialk4b]

Originally Posted by copper653

A question for those that have adopted sn... My MIL is an RN and when I mentioned that we would be doing the sn route if we adopted again, she asked if we would be informed of all three sn's. I've heard of it before but never thought about it when considering adoption... that once a child is found with a sn that dr's look for two others. Sn's usually occur in three's. So after my rambling, is this true, or an old wise tail or something you just have to find out once your home?

In the recesses of my brain, it seems that three birth defects occurring together could be considered a genetic syndrome. So if a child has one SN, doctors would look for others to determine if it could be part of a syndrome and if there are no co-existing SNs, then it was an isolated defect and not likely to be part of a syndrome.

Originally Posted by copper653

specialkb, is the manual on their internet site, or do you request it to be sent by mail?

It's a CD. You can order it from Manual of Special Needs

[jasonsmom]

We were matched in 11/06 with our daughter from our agency's WC list (Gotcha Day 2/07). She was 17 months on Gotcha Day. She has an atrial septal defect and coarctation. Our cardiologist from Boston Children's says she is in wonderful health and has no restrictions. She goes in annually for a checkup with him. From the reports we had, the IA doctor we went to said our little girl had been very, very ill before her surgery. You'd never know it now - this child has a ton of energy and is always on the go.

Paula

[copper653]

thanks specialkb and hoping44. I think I understand abit better. MIL is a great Nana, though I think some of her nursing info is abit dated and thought it would be best to make sure.

Thanks again!

It is great to hear that your daughter is doing so well Paula, sounds like she has as much energy as Lian.

[rose_red]

We brought home a little SN boy just a bit over a month ago. I think we were actually very lucky - he was diagnosed with Tetrology of Fallot as an infant, which could have significantly reduced his lifespan and caused him problems throughout his life, but his diagnosis was later changed to only a Ventrical Septal Defect. He had surgery in Beijing and is now in very good health only requiring checkups with a cardiologist once or twice a year.

He did give us a heart attack today by having a febrile seizure, but that's not connected in any way to his special needs, thankfully! (He's fine now, and on the plus side, I did get to have firemen in my house although I couldn't really appreciate it at the time.)

I think if you're clear with your agency what sort of special needs you're willing to take on, you should be able to find a good match. There are plenty of wonderful SN children out there just waiting for a loving family.