Ok, we wanted to start out the new year
with new news & be very open about our adoption plans. Some
people know but many do not. Please read through this entire post
before making any judgments & don't stop half way through. This
is very important for all who are involved in our lives! I have
mentioned in previous posts that we decided to adopt a child with
special needs. Well, what does that mean. In China most special
needs are physical deformities with many children missing limbs,
cleft pallet, etc. In Africa that is not the case. What is the big
problem in Africa? HIV & AIDS. YES, we are adopting a child
with HIV! Like I said, please keep reading!
When I first started reading about
others who had adopted a child with HIV I thought “That's awesome
for them to do such a great thing but I could never do that.” It
was still such a scarey thing for me. I knew that you couldn't just
catch HIV by being by someone but I didn't really understand much
about it. Much of the information that people have about HIV is from
the 80's.
What you need to know:
HIV is considered a chronic but
manageable disease with proper treatment.
Children who receive treatment are
expected to live a normal lifespan.
HIV has never been transmitted in
normal family living conditions.
You NEVER have to fear contracting
HIV through casual contact with an HIV+ person.
HIV is spread in three main ways:
sexual contact, IV drug use through the sharing of dirty needles,
mother to infant (pregnancy, birth or breast feeding.)
All around the world orphans are
overlooked for adoption because of their HIV+ status
Medications called ARVs can mean
the difference between life and death.
The combination of three or more
ARVs is called HAART. (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy)
With medication, HIV can be
effectively managed to the point that the virus is undetectable in
laboratory tests.
There is a term for the miraculous
transformation HIV+ people undergo when they begin receiving the
medications they need
The Lazarus Effect is a term commonly
used to describe people who were once on the brink of
death who have been restored again to
health through medication.
Yet still, why would we CHOOSE to care
for such a serious illness? Regardless whether we adopt them or not,
they already have HIV. If they remain an orphan in Ethiopia, they
could die of the illness without medication. We started this
adoption process to bring a child into our family that needed us.
There are so many people on the waiting lists for a “healthy”
child. There is nothing at all wrong with adopting a healthy child
but that is not what we felt God was calling us to do. Just to sit &
wait forever for this perfect healthy child (which there is still no
guarantee they won't have any issues when they come home). There are
so many children being passed over just because of those 3 letters
HIV. It is so sad. From what I've heard from other people who have
adopted HIV children, their children were made to feel “less than”
or told they are “yucky”. I want our child(ren) to know that
they ARE loved & they are not “yucky”. That is why we have
chosen to not keep their HIV status private. We don't want them to
feel like there is something wrong with them & that they have to
keep it secret. They will take 3 medications twice a day for the
rest of their lives & will visit the doctor every 3 months but
other than that, their daily life will be just like any other person.
Yes they may have to have some tough conversations when they get in
to a serious relationship but as I mentioned, they already had HIV so
this would have already happened regardless of whether or not we
adopted them.
This was already on the blog but
thought it was appropriate again.
"...once our eyes are
opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs
our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us
responsible to act."
~ Proverbs 24:12
I will continue to post information on
here. I don't expect this to sink in right away. It took us a while
ourselves to make this big decision. I just ask you to be open to
this information. Please feel free to ask us any questions & if
we don't know, we will find out & let you know. Also there is
very good information that can be found at
www.projecthopeful.org/
As always, thank you for your love &
support! To receive updates via email on our new blog posts, please enter your email on the right of this page.
