When You Sent Your Letter of Intent to Adopt Marygrace Did You Know She Was Hearing Impaired?

No, we knew Marygrace had bilateral subdural hematomas that were drained when she was five months old. We had lots of medical reports and an 11 minute video of her, which all seemed to indicate that Marygrace was a fairly healthy child exhibiting minimal delays (which were not to be unexpected given her history and environment). We both new the risk, but were equally convinced and are still convinced this is our daughter. As Lan Fei became older and her speech skills continued not to develop the nannies became increasingly concerned about her hearing. In December she was evaluated at a hospital in Hunan. At this time, a significant hearing loss was confirmed. We were notified in mid January when our adoption agency requested an update for us.

Initially, we were shocked and each took our own time to pray about the situation, but in the end there was little need to discuss what to do. We both knew without a doubt God was calling us to bring our daughter home.

"Trust in the Lord with all you heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all ways acknowledge the Lord and He will direct your path." Proverbs 3:5-6

What's a Cochlear Implant and Why Does Marygrace Need One?

We recently found out that Marygrace is hearing impaired. We do not know exactly what she can and cannot hear, but it sounds like it is a significant hearing loss. We will not know until we get her home and can have her evaluated by an audiologist at Children's Memorial Hospital the full scope of her hearing. The director of the orphanage indicated that the doctors who evaluated Lan Fei's hearing in China believed she would be a candidate for cochlear implants, which would be wonderful!

Cochlear implants are the most amazing tool for individuals with severe-profound hearing loss. They can help deaf individuals detect sounds at normal levels and develop almost flawless speech. As a speech-language pathologist, Kelley has had the opportunity to work with several individuals who have had great success with their implants! Not everyone is a candidate though, and we will have to wait patiently to find out if this is an option for Marygrace.

Who is Marygrace?

Marygrace is known in China as Yong Lan Fei. She is soon to be our precious daughter and little sister (aka. Mei Mei "little sister" in Chinese). We will call her Marygrace LanFei. She will be two on March 11, 2007 and we are sad we will not be with her to celebrate. We are sending a cake to her orphanage in the Hunan Province (yes a Spicy girl, she should fit in great with all the spicy food loving boys in our house) Yuck! We also recently sent a care package to her with pictures of our family.

So Where Are You Today?

We are on day 46 of our wait for Travel Approval (TA) to fly to China to officially make Marygrace LanFei part of our family. The average family adopting a waiting child waits 90-100 days for TA. We are praying it will come soooooooon! We hope to travel in May.

How It All Began

We are establishing this blog for all our family and friends to follow our adoption journey. This has been quite a year for our family. While adoption has been discussed in our home for years, everything began to change one weekend last March. Kelley had a long weekend away with the girls at the Hearts At Home Conference. Many of the keynote speakers had adopted children and were sharing their inspiring stories. While, Kelley was frustrated hearing these stories fully knowing that adoption is a huge decision and one she absolutely could not make alone, Scott was home with the boys, whose school was hosting the Children of the World Choir, made up of orphans around the world. He and the boys attended several events that weekend and needless to say this was just the beginning of God preparing our family for where we are today.