Beauty in the Unknown

March 25, 2018 adopting a boy, alpha thalassemia, Blood Conditions, Family Stories, March 2018 Feature - Blood Conditions, older child adoption, thalassemia 0 Comments

I remember the long days of waiting to be matched with our son. I remember every time the shared list would come out in China, and every time our amazing social worker would tell us we did not have a match yet, and the battle between grief and trust. Trusting that God had this.

He knew exactly where our boy was and His timing was right… no matter how much I wanted it to be my timing.

In hindsight, our son’s file wasn’t even able to be seen by our social worker for four months, because it was in an orphanage/adoption agency partnership. When we were matched it was because Noah’s file had gone to the Shared List. I came to find out that I had actually seen him before, right here in NHBO – he was called Logan.

God had bigger plans than our checklist on a special needs form, and bigger plans than our timeline and expectations.

Thalassemia was not something we checked, and honestly not something we knew a thing about. We just knew when we saw his picture, that he was our boy.

We looked at that email, then looked at each other and just began to cry.

Immediately, I was connected with a couple of wonderful women (who have been contributors here), and they are a part of a group of adoptive parents of children with thalassemia on Facebook. This group became an absolute wealth of knowledge and a place for support, encouragement, answers, and prayers. These parents know their stuff inside and out and they love their babies fiercely.

We came to have a pretty solid understanding of what we were stepping into, though of course there were many unknowns. In all my days walking with Jesus, it has been the sweetest when stepping out into the unknown. He has shown Himself Mighty enough to move what were mountains for us, and shown his faithfulness again and again and again.

My husband and our three other children traveled to bring Noah to his forever home. We met face to face with the bravest little boy I have ever known. We experienced brokenness and saw the start of the piecing together there in China.



It is like God saw a piece missing from our family puzzle, and Noah is the exact fit. He is full of energy and passion. He is an independent and strong little guy, easy to laugh and easy to get riled up. He can give the absolute best snuggles, and he can just be the sweetest thing ever (when he wants to be).

As far as his blood disorder goes, Noah has a unique makeup of thalassemia. He has Alpha Thalassemia Hemoglobin H/Constant Springs. Since coming home, almost exactly three years ago, he has had regular transfusions every month. We are currently in the process though of trying to spread those out and see how his body responds, and if it is possible for him to not be dependent on these transfusions.

I’m forever thankful for the privilege of caring for a child with thalassemia. We would love to share more of our story with any of you!

– guest post by Paige: email || instagram



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