As far as we're concerned, our daughter is flawless. However, if it wasn't for her "special need" we would not have this opportunity to become her parents.
Rita was born with a sacrococcygeal teratoma. I can't actually pronouce that, but as far as I can tell, it was a large benign tumor on her little bottom. She had it surgically removed when she was 8 months old. Based on her medical records, the surgery went well.
Some complications that can result from this are scoliosis, reoccurance of the tumor or impact on internal organs or bowels. Based on the translated medical records it does not appear that these things are issues. But if they are, we will deal with them as any parent deals with a child's illness or issues.
We've seen photos of her scaring both immediately following the surgery and more recently. (obviously we will not be sharing these photos) She will definitely need reconstructive surgery at some point. Again, we will not know the full extent of it until she comes home, but we are (we hope!) prepared to deal with it. In one of the e-mails that I received while reviewing her file she was described as "beautiful face, ugly bottom." I thought "So what? Me too!"
So, as far as we're concerned, she's not "special needs." But, in the world of China adoption, her tumor and scaring kept her off of the healthy baby list. This kept her from being automatically matched with a family the way that Lucy was matched with us. She was placed on the Waiting Child list which includes children who are older or have some kind of physical or mental challenge. Or sometimes children who have a corrected special need or some kind of imperfection. These children can still be adopted, but they need to be "selected" by a family. While we are sad that she had to endure this tumor and surgery at such a young age, but we understand that this tumor is the reason we were able to find her.
For anyone who wants more information on her specific condition, here is a link to wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrococcygeal_teratoma
Lily has a special hiney too-- it's blue!!! But as far as we're concerned it's the cutest one we've ever seen :)
ReplyDeleteSo great to hear about this fundraiser-- someone wise once told me that when you don't ask for or accept help, you are depriving others of opportunities to be obedient in serving others.
Btw, we are in the same boat this time around, so I'm having to constantly remind myself of the same thing... :)
-Elissa
So Lily's got some serious mongolian spots, eh? Lucy barely has one but it looks like Rita has some serious "coloration" on her little bottom. It's hard to tell what are spots and what is actual bruising from the surgery. Oh well, we still think she's a cutie pie.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reinforcement on the fundraising end. It's always more fun to be on the giving side, but I'm certainly receiving a lot of grace on the receiving side.