Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a great story about adoption.
After helping their young son, Gavin, battle a rare genetic disorder, Karen and Adam were used to spending days and weeks in hospitals and caring for him. When Gavin lost his battle to mitochondrial disease at the age of four, this young couple mourned the loss of their son but saw themselves as following God's plan. They still had their older daughter Madison who was healthy, but they wanted to put the skills that they had developed through years of raising a special needs child to good use.
So they started the adoption process, and unlike many people, they specifically requested that they be given a child with disabilities. To me, that’s amazing. So, nearly a year after Gavin died, the family adopted Angela, a then-one-year-old who had a genetic disorder which prevented her from speaking. Angela also had crippling cerebral palsy. When Karen and Adam first met her, she was living in a foster home about an hour from their Pennsylvania house, so they would take her to a mall in between the two homes – it was a special bonding time with Angela. Karen wrote me and said, “Joni, I remember walking around the store with Angela in her stroller, and Adam and I looking at each other wondering if she was okay. Angela was aggressively stimulating herself, flapping her hands wildly. It appeared as if she were having one long seizure. Back then, it was hard to get a response from her. But now so many years later Angela is not the same child. In our home now, adopted, she is smiling, giggling, and beginning to communicate using an iPad.” Wow!
What impresses me about Karen’s words is that, this remarkable change in little Angela would have been impossible before they began the adoption process. Bringing children like Angela into the family? Well, it was life changing not only for them, but for Karen and Adam. In fact, they went ahead and adopted another special needs child—little Jayden, a boy who came into their lives when he had many broken bones after suffering Shaken Baby Syndrome. Karen said that one of their biggest achievements has been teaching Jayden what it means to enjoy the constant and unconditional love of a mother and father. That’s certainly something Jayden did not experience when he was raised in foster homes, or when the staff at his group home came and went based on their shift schedules.
Karen and Adam are amazed that God chose this life, this family of adopted children for them. It has given them the opportunity to be mommy and daddy to three beautiful, adopted children, all so very unique and all with such deep purpose for living. God has used the darkest situations to create a most beautiful situation. Adopted children with special needs? Well, friend, you just have to see it for yourself. We’ve posted a wonderful photo today on my radio page at joniandfriends.org of the children, and how encouraging it is to know that these kids are now saved, rescued, and redeemed out of darkness! Hey, and while you’re on my radio page, click on a fantastic video we’ve posted about adopting children with special needs. You will not believe how inspiring this video is. It’s all for you today posted on my radio page at joniandfriends.org. And on this, National Adoption Awareness Month I want to thank you, Karen and Adam, for making a huge difference in the lives of some very special boys and girls with disabilities! And hey, if you need some more inspiration you just have to go to my blog today at joniandfriends.org. Again, that’s my blog at joniandfriends.org.
© Joni and Friends, 2013
Compliments of Joni and Friends
PO Box 3333 Agoura Hills, CA 91376