Two months ago today we officially became Braxton’s
parents. It was a very emotional day,
when we got Braxton he was extremely delayed (more than what we expected) and
we definitely did not expect to get home and find out that he was severely
malnourished and neglected. This is a
child that we were introduced to during the process of adopting Sarah. Love Without Boundaries had begun raising
funds for her surgery and when we made the decision to have her surgery the
money was reallocated to little Braxton.
He was only 10 weeks old at the time and the orphanage staff was not
sure he would even make it. After
surgery he stayed at a healing home.
After we came home with Sarah we continued to check in on Braxton
and found out that he was not up for adoption.
When asked why he was not up for adoption we were told because they did
not think he would survive. Thinking
that he would just sit there until he died was not something Jerry or I could
live with. We pushed to get him paper
ready (available for adoption), so we could get him the care and love he needed. The whole process took about 7 months. It was amazing the doors that God opened and
the speed at which we were able to get there and get him. When we saw him – it was VERY clear. Braxton was very sick and needed attention
right away. The hardest part of the whole
experience has been hearing over and over again that he has been severely
malnourished and neglected.
When we got Braxton we had lots of concerns, he could barely
hold his head up, he was very blue, dark eyes that were sunken into his head,
very small, no muscle tone, very small body and large head. We immediately
started looking into syndromes that he could have. I was convinced that it was more than just
his heart condition. We started seeing
doctors as soon as we got home, they all had concerns – that is when we started
learning the degree of malnourishment.
We were told by cardiology that there was a good chance there would not
be anything they could do for Braxton.
They started talking about possibly a heart & lung transplant, but
there were few hospitals that would even perform this and the outcomes are not
very good. After a 4.5 hour heart cath
we learned that God has very different plans for this little boy. He was, to their surprise, a candidate for
surgery.
In the two months Braxton has been home he has gained almost
2 lbs., he quickly learned how to sit up unassisted, he can scoot around, he
can ride his little car and push backwards with his feet, he can roll over
(both ways), he is learning to feed himself and go from sitting to lying by
himself. It’s amazing the
accomplishments he has be able to make in just the short two months he has been
home. He has been seen by his
cardiologist, heart cath cardiologist, hematologist, genetic specialist, nutritionist,
gastrointestinal doctor and pediatrician.
It’s crazy, but each time they think he could have another issue /
syndrome, the results come back negative.
God has protected this little baby and while I feel like he was set
aside to die, we have the joy of being his parents and watching miracle after
miracle and know that he will have an incredible story to tell one day.
His heart surgery will be major, but I so look forward to getting
it fixed and watching him continue to grow and learn new things.
We celebrated his second birthday tonight and I am so in
love in this little boy – he is amazing…
Many of the things here are very hard to hear and comprehend,
however it’s the truth for millions of children all around the world (many even
worse than Braxton’s conditions). It’s
easy to talk and look at the good parts of adoption and look at how sweet and
cute they are – but there are many, many children that need much prayer and a
forever family that will give them the love and attention they so desperately
need! There was a statement in Max
Lucado’s book Outlive your Life that
really challenged me and is a big reason we ever looked into adoption – God does
not call us to change the world, but he does call us to do something – what are
you doing? For us God has given us the
ability to adopt and love these children, but your calling may be completely
different, but you are called to do something.
I just ask that you pray about it, it changed our lives!
