Big Jo, Speedy Mo, and Little Missy were among the first group of children to be adopted through the Addy's Hope Adoption
Ministry back in April of 2007. They had been living at the Greater Love Children's Home for about 3 years and were ages 7,
5 and a half, and almost 4 when they left Liberia to join their new family in America. They were adopted by Jeff and Jen
who also have one biological son who was 7 and a half in April of 2007. The children have been home now for just
over 18 months and everything is going very well.
The children love their new family very much. They live with their mom, dad and brother and also enjoy their grandma and
grandpa who live next door. They love their new house that they moved into last year. The boys enjoy sharing a room. They
each have their own warm, soft bed and a pillow and blanket in their own special color. Little Missy has her own room and
hopes someday to have a sister to share it with.
The children have many clothes, shoes, books, and toys. They really love to wear jeans, but also enjoy "necktie" clothes to
wear to church on Sundays. All of them love reading the many books they have available to them at their house. The boys
love to play with building toys such as Legos and Little Missy loves her dolls and dress-up clothes. Recently, the children have
been learning how to use a computer. Some of their best friends live just down the street and they love to play outside with
them. They all have learned to ride bicycles and scooters and rollerskates this summer. The boys are learning to play the
guitar and Little Missy has been sewing with her grandma and mommy.
All of the children love to help their mommy cook food too! They love to eat everything. Some of their favorite things to eat
are pizza, sausages, hamburgers, and speghetti. They still love to eat rice and chicken with red peppers (Liberian style) and
sometimes have buckwheat and beans to remember what the food was like at the children's home in Liberia. They also all
love to eat fruits and vegetables now too. Because they have been eating so healthy, they have grown a lot.
Big Joe was a size 6 and weighed 40 lbs. in April 2007. Now he is a size 10 and weighs 80 lbs. He has very strong muscles
and he wants to be a football player someday. He is almost as tall as his mom now and he is only 8 and a half years old!
Speedy Mo has also grown so much. He was a size 4 and is now a size 7. He has also gained a lot of weight and is very
strong. He now weighs as much as his other brother (who is 9) at 63 lbs! He is a very good athlete and loves to play
everything!
Little Missy was a size 2 and weighed less than 25 lbs. She was very skinny and not too healthy. Now she is VERY healthy and
strong and weighs 48 lbs. and is a size 6!
All of the children played soccer this year. They all did very well playing soccer and want to play some more. Now it is
getting closer to winter and they are looking forward to sledding and playing in the snow like they did last year!
The children are making very good academic progress too. They are all learning to read and write and are enjoying all of the
books about history and science that their mom and dad read to them. They have been learning about where America is on
the map and they like to find Liberia (the shoe shaped country) on the map too!
Adoption has been a very good thing for Big Joe, Speedy Mo, and Little Missy. They are hoping that their family will be able to
adopt more children again someday. Their mom and dad encourage them to know about Liberia and to love Liberia and her
people. We pray that many children who are orphans in Liberia will be able to be adopted and loved by a family someday.
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Back in February, my children rudely asked a woman we know how she had cast her ballot in the Virginia primary. She named a candidate who is adamantly pro-choice. They were horrified. “How can you vote for someone who is for abortion?” one of them blurted indignantly.
“I’m more concerned with the people who are already alive than the ones who aren’t yet,” came the steady reply.
I’m ashamed to admit that an uncomfortable silence settled over the room. We were stunned and I was too intimidated by the context of the conversation to say anything more. I still regret that.
Within a few weeks of that conversation, I learned I was pregnant. I had a raging case of the flu at that time. As I fought to keep my fever down in order to protect the tiny being growing within me, I was very much aware that my baby was alive and I wanted her to stay that way.
As the flu subsided, hyperemesis set in. Now, the goal was to control vomiting and stay hydrated in order to protect the baby. I got a glimpse of her via sonogram. I was eight weeks pregnant and we could see her heart beat steadily and surely—a perfect little person who only needed time to grow.
Just as the hyperemesis began to wane, I had another sonogram. There we discovered that the placenta, the organ created by God for each pregnancy to nourish the baby, was in the wrong place and its location threatened both the baby and me. At that sonogram, we also saw her wave her arms and touch her feet to her head. And we clearly saw that she is a girl. But that placenta was troubling. Thus began the odyssey of frequent sonograms and very careful management of a high risk pregnancy. A whole team of doctors was called into to guard the life of this baby—a baby who was already very much a part of our family. A baby with a name we remembered constantly in family prayers. A baby who squirmed and wiggled and kicked and delighted her siblings with her gymnastics. A baby who could have been legally aborted.
And so this pregnancy has progressed. It began early in the election season and has unfolded rather dramatically, a parallel story to the drama in our nation. I lie here on my side now, day after day, counting every precious kick, taking care not to turn the wrong way or sneeze without protecting my belly. Just one life—just one precious child—has a whole army of people working hard to protect her very existence, while out there in the world thousands of people throng at campaign events for a man who has said he wouldn’t want his daughters punished with a baby. In the years since our country legalized abortion, nearly 50 million tiny lives have been ended. While I lie here and pray that my baby is healthy and is born well, I watch in horror as throngs of people cheer a man who would make abortion even more accessible.
I want to show them the latest sonogram. The one where you can see the tiny hairs on her head. The one that always calls to mind those words from Matthew: Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father: but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31
What treasures women are privileged to hold within them! What creatures of infinite value! Our Lord tells us to fear not. He values us and He values the tiny baby whose wisps of hair can be seen and counted by us well before she is born. Who knows the plans He had for those 50 million babies? And who knows the plans He had for their mothers, plans for their good and the good of their souls? There is a man out there being likened to a Messiah. He promises to allow harm to come to the babies. From my horizontal perspective, here in this bed, the irony is heartbreaking.
We have been using a family practice doctor for our kids. It has beenI think this is a GREAT question and probably one that many soon to be adoptive parents have. While I am sure there are differing opinions on this, my response was:
fine because they don't have any health problems. But I've noticed
that he doesn't go through the list of developmental milestones, ect.
like our old pediatrician did.
I think I am going to need a Pediatrician for our new kids. Do you all
agree? If so, do I need to find a special pediatrician that has
experience with internationally adopted children or anything like
that?
I think you should probably do whatever you and your husband think is best for your family. We tend to have more of a
natural, holistic approach to health and medicines in our family, so that carried over in our care for our adopted children
too. We got them home, started feeding them healthy foods (lots of fruits and veggies, protein and whole grains, almost no
sugar and NO preservatives and food dyes), loved on them, and watched and waited. Their little round, hard bellies that
everyone was so concerned about started softening up, they started growing, they didn't have any signs of serious illness,
etc. . . so we didn't worry. We took them in for initial check-ups but didn't do 8 million tests - just some basics. They have
had NO health problems other than an allergy which manifests itself as a raised rash around their iris in their eye which we
have to use some special eyedrops for (a few months out of the year).
For us, this works. For some of you reading this, it probably freaks you out that we didn't go to specialists and test for
everything. If it makes you feel better to get everything checked out and tested, then do it - it will make you a better parent
if you aren't stressed about health. If going to get 8 million tests stresses you out and you don't see any real reason to go,
then just watch and wait. AND, pray - God gives wisdom to those who ask!
