4Real Forums: Intro - Liberian adoption

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Topic: Intro - Liberian adoption

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afranciscan
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Joined: April 23 2006
Location: California
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 63

Posted: July 28 2007 at 11:18pm \| IP Logged

Hi everyone. I've been meaning to join this section of the board for awhile. It seems that whenever I get on the computer I'm reading 4real blogs or getting/giving support for our recent Liberian adoption. I do want to be a part of this group though so I'll try to join in as I can. Reading recent posts made me feel that I just had to share a little of our experience right away.

We brought home twin boys from Liberia last month. They have been home 6 weeks and everything has been going amazingly well! In fact this seems to be the norm for Liberian adoption. I have been reading Liberian adoption blogs and I'm on a Yahoo list specific to the orphanage we adopted from and I am convinced that the children coming out of Liberia are a very unique bunch. After 19 months in the Liberian adoption world I have heard of only one case of RAD. Perhaps others are not talking about it and going elsewhere for support.....but the Acres of Hope (AOH) orphanage (which we used) claims to have never had a family whose adopted child turned out to have RAD. AOH is founded by an adoptive mom of 16. She does all that she can within the orphanage to help the children come home with the best chance of forming an attachment. For example babies are worn on the nannies backs every day.

The needs of these children are different. In most cases there has not been neglect. The village or surviving birth parents have WANTED to give the children food and clothing but due to Liberia's recent civil war the societal structure is in a shambles and basics needs often can't be met. But these children have been LOVED and so they seem to be attaching well because they have attached before. Their needs seem to be nutritional, medical and cultural training.

Here are some examples in our own boys. First let me say that we don't know how old they are. Their birth mom insisted that they are 5 1/2 now but they are the same size as my 2 1/2yo. So we are waiting to see how they grow with good nutrition and we will change their birth certificates to age 3 or 4 eventually. We had to run extensive lab work for them (well we chose to) and one of the boys has high lead levels so we are dealing with that. We are still waiting for some of the lab work to come in and we expect there to be some parasites which is common. This can sometimes contribute to the bloated bellies that they nearly all come home with. The bellies take about a year to go down to normal I am told. Also due to poor nutrition one of twins has very thin hair so we are keeping it shaved. They also just turned up with ringworm

When I said cultural training I mean we need to work on things like not peeing in public or trowing things on the ground or pushing every button in sight.

It really has been a joy to work through all of these things with these boys! They are such a perfect fit for our family. Things have gone so well in fact that I would like to start the process to adopt again from Liberia. My husband is not quite there yet

But when we're both ready we would like to adopt an older girl. In Liberian adoption circles "older" seems to be age 8-15. We are thinking younger than our oldest who is now turning 13.

I have noticed over the past year that there are many calls within the call to adopt. Some are lead to special needs children, some to infants, some to troubled or abused children, some international, some domestic, etc. By saying how "easy" our adoption has been I don't mean to turn anyone's eyes away from their unique calling. Those special kids need you! But for those in the discernment process I wanted to throw Liberia into the mix for your consideration. I'd be happy to share more of our experience if anyone is interested but I feel like I've carried on enough for now.

Let me add that Liberian adoption is among the fastest and cheapest of international adoptions.

Glad to have joined you!
Jennie Lou

Here is a link to the Acres of Hope orphanage website:
http://www.acresofhope.org/aboutacres.htm

Here is a link to pictures of our boys that we recieved while waiting. I need to update with some at home pictures.
http://tippett.sonora-ca.com/adoption.html

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http://tippettfamilynotes.blogspot.com/
Jennie Lou
Married my prince charming in 1993, ds 94, dd 97, dd 00, ds 02, twin ds from Liberia 03, dd 04, dd 08

Jeanne Marie
Forum Newbie

Joined: March 30 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 36

Posted: July 30 2007 at 9:17pm \| IP Logged

Thank you so much for the information Jennie Lou! Your boys are precious!

We have been adopting through our state. Our children are African American and we would like any future children we may adopt to be of African descent also -- so if we do decide to adopt from another country it sounds like Liberia might be the place to look.

I'm new here too, but welcome!

Thanks again - Jeanne Marie

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