update

We had an exciting weekend so I wanted to give a quick update. After we found out our first little guy had been adopted by another family we took another look at our agency's waiting child list. I decided to inquire about two little boys. Later Justin was looking at the list again and pointed to a little boy and said, "He's the one." And, yes, he is one I had inquired about! I thought that was pretty awesome - especially since that is not really like Justin to do that. Sooo we got more pictures and medical info on him. He was reported to be Hepatitis C positive so I researched Hep C like crazy. I might consider myself nearly an expert now =). The neat thing is that a few months ago I would not have even considered looking more closely at a child with an infectious disease. I was still stuck in the 80's mentality that turns away from letters like "HIV". A family that I don't even know led me to ask the question, would I be willing to adopt a child who was HIV positive? This family has adopted a little girl who is HIV positive and they want to raise awareness and let people know that it is something they live a wonderful life with. I educated myself on HIV and found that after I did that, I wasn't scared of it anymore. So I believe it is because I was led to do that research that I didn't immediately disregard this little boy who was Hep C positive. I know Hep C and HIV and separate diseases but both bring about fear in people - at least they did in me. I am very thankful for families like the one I read about that are passionate about teaching people the truth so more babies have a chance to have a family.

So back to this little boy! We decided that we could do all the research in the world but really wanted to talk to someone about the disease and ask questions to a person instead of a computer screen. I had even told our agency that were almost certain we would say yes to adopting this little boy but would let them know for sure after we had talked to a doctor and had our questions answered. I had a hard time finding a doctor who would help me but finally was led to a woman in Ohio who is a doctor and an adoptive mom too! She called me and we got to talk a couple of times. She is a wonderful lady and I couldn't thank her enough! We felt really good about giving our agency a "yes" even though we knew it wouldn't be an easy road. We learned that there are definitely precautions to take but that Hep C is a "wimpy" virus and very rarely transferred within the household. The most encouraging thing I learned is that 85% of the time babies under the age of 2 who test positive for Hep C don't actually end up having the virus, they just test positive because they have the antibodies in them from their mother that leave the body by age two. This little boy will be two in October!

So here's the best news of all...yesterday I got an e-mail from our agency saying that the little boy was tested again and not only does he not have liver damage, he is not testing postitive for Hep C anymore!! My jaw dropped open and I couldn't believe what I was reading! I even e-mailed the agency back and said, "Did you mean to say that or was it a mistake?" It wasn't a mistake - she has been told that he is no longer testing positive. Wow - talk about amazed. I could go on and on about how we had peaceful assurance about him even though we knew his "special need" as they say, was a serious one. We prayed for his healing and knew a love was growing in our hearts for him. So I am excited to tell you that we have officially said YES to a little 19-month-old miracle in Taiwan and we couldn't be more thankful. I will keep you posted on what happens next! It's been a great Mother's Day!