August 23, 2019 adopting a boy, clubfoot, Education, Family Stories, feeding/swallowing therapy, June 2019 Feature - Orthopedic, Nail Patella Syndrome, Orthopedic, speech therapy 6 Comments

Life is full of things we thought we could never handle… until we have to. As we considered growing our family via adoption, one thing we thought we “couldn’t handle” was a child with limited mobility. We already had three very active children. We love to hike, bike, go to the beach or spend a …Read More

June 30, 2019 arthrogryposis, Family Stories, June 2019 Feature - Orthopedic, older child adoption, Orthopedic 5 Comments

“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.”– Bethany Hamilton Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita. It’s a mouthful; most people shorten it to Arthrogryposis. Essentially, it means multiple joint contractures that affect two or more body areas. According to the Genetic and Rare Disease …Read More

June 24, 2019 adopting a boy, arthrogryposis, clubfoot, Family Stories, June 2019 Feature - Orthopedic, medical needs checklist, Orthopedic 2 Comments

Staring at the long list of special needs, trying to decide which boxes to check we were open to, seemed overwhelming. Researching each medical condition was just as daunting. Did we check the right boxes? How can we “decide” which special need our child will have? Arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) first seemed like a big …Read More

June 17, 2019 adopting a boy, Education, Family Stories, IEP, June 2019 Feature - Orthopedic, limb difference, occupational therapy, Orthopedic, radial aplasia, radial club hand 4 Comments

Limb difference was one of the boxes we checked for our first China adoption in 2013. So when we received our son’s file, it was relatively easy to say yes. Our soon-to-be son, at 10 months of age, was the youngest child on the shared list that day. We were open to a boy or …Read More