What is your special need?

When people hear that we are adopting from China, they automatically assume we are adopting a healthy baby girl. When we explain that she is 4 years old, they hesitate, I'm sure unasked questions run through their heads, and then they continue on with their congratulations. For those who want to know more, it usually comes out that children adopted internationally at an older age usually have a physical special need. Our daughter has post-operative congenital glaucoma. That can be scary to some. We don't really know the level of her vision. We don't know what the future holds in regards to her sight. But no matter how well she sees now or later...we are going to love her...she is our daughter, and we are going to give her the best life possible.

Why do people adopt children with special needs? Is it because they pity them, is it because it will make the adoptive parents feel good about themselves for helping someone, is it because they want to be their savior, etc.? The answer is no to all those questions. They adopt them because they see beyond the special need...to their humanness and their worth as an individual. They see them as a child that can be THEIR child.

If you were to write down all your special needs, both emotional and physical from slightest to most severe, on a piece of paper without your name and hand it to someone, even a person you know, and ask that person if they would adopt a child with those needs, their answer is probably going to be "no"...until you reveal it is YOU the paper describes. We ALL have special needs. Don't let the term "special needs" scare you, or you could be missing out on a blessing from God.