Mia

November 30, 2008 brachial plexus palsy, Family Stories 0 Comments

By Lisa, mom to Mia from China with Brachial Plexus Palsy

Our story about adopting Mia started out with our decision to adopt a second child; we had friends who had adopted SN kids and they were realistic but encouraging. I am a nurse practitioner and felt that because of my 30 years of experience, we would be able to get our daughter, whoever she was, and whatever her SN was, the best of care in a loving home. We felt we went into the choice of SN adoption with open but well-informed minds and hearts. There was a real sense of rightness, hope and challenge going in. Once we let the wonderful facilitator of the China Program at our adoption agency know we were interested in a SN child, she sent us the file on our 2ddaughter and we fell in love with her. We felt able to deal with her diagnosis of brachial plexus palsy-in fact, her level of function is much higher that we were led to believe based on the reports we received from CCAA! I think that’s at least in part due to the prayers.


It felt very weird to ‘pick’ a waiting child after our experience with our first daughter who was NSN and is now 9. In addition, we had 3 pictures of her compared to Mia’s hundreds! We watched Mia grow and develop while we waited to bring her home. She was fostered by the China Care Foundation in care homes and was very well-loved and cared for, even getting some physical therapy and acupuncture. We had the opportunity to meet her foster mom, which was very moving.

We have been home for a year now and Mia is now 3. She has ongoing weekly occupational therapy and some speech delays as well. Her arm function continues to improve and her speech is catching up rapidly. Her medical care has been stellar, and our community has a lot of support for her. The preschool we chose has some mainstreamed kids with SN and she’s doing really well there.

She is funny, happy and a total gift to our family-we cannot imagine life without her. Her older sister is fiercely protective and has become a compassionate advocate for her sister.


I would hope that anyone who is considering adoption to also search their soul, do the research, and consider SN adoption.



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