What is Cleft palate?

As may of you know, our little guy was listed on our agency's special focus waiting list with the need: Congenital cleft palate. I wanted to take a brief minute today to explain what cleft palate is and how we will work to correct this once he is home.

Many people were surprised upon seeing Maverick's picture that he did not have any noticeable medical need. I think it was assumed that he would have cleft lip (picture on the right), which very often comes along with  a cleft palate, but not always. From an external view, you cannot see Maverick's cleft palate. His mouth looks perfectly normal (much like the picture on the left).

But, if you take a glance inside of his mouth, you will see where the problem lies. Your palate is the roof of your mouth and is comprised of two parts, the hard palate (front of the mouth) and soft palate (to the throat). Cleft palate is when the sides of the palate did not fuse together in utero. Depending on how much of the cleft is present depends on what degree the cleft is. Maverick has 2nd degree cleft palate, which means his hard and soft palate need to be repaired. The cleft opens up directly to the nasal cavity.

Cleft is the most common birth defect, occurring in about 1 in 700 births. 25% of these children, have only cleft palate. Clefts are also more common in boys. Cleft typically is caused from one of these 3 factors: an inherited characteristic from parents (gene), environment, and genetic syndromes. About 30% of clefts are associated with a genetic syndrome. We are unsure which of these caused Maverick's cleft. We have heard that they are more common in Asian children due to environmental factors, but we cannot say with 100% certainty that is what caused his. We were also told that when only cleft palate is present, there is a higher chance of the child having a genetic syndrome. We do not know if that is the case with Maverick, as he has not had genetic testing done.

Typically cleft palates are repaired within the child's first year of life (the first surgery at least). Maverick will likely be close to age 4 before he has his repair surgery. This delay enhances many of the difficulties listed below.

Difficulties associated with cleft are:

-Difficulties feeding (this is why Maverick was fed through a tube down his nose into his throat as a baby).

-Ear Infections and hearing loss: Ear infections are common in children with cleft, therefore causing potential hearing loss.

-Speech and language delay: Think of how many times your tongue hits the roof of your mouth when you speak. If there is no palate, that can make word formation very difficult as muscles are not being worked in the mouth the way they should. Throw in potential hearing loss and you are looking at some major speech delays. Our Maverick will be 3 next month and from what we hear, is basically non-verbal. Apparently he can say 2 words. that only his foster mom can understand.

-Dental problems: Dental work may be needed later on due to mouth abnormalities


So, how do we go about repairing his cleft palate?

Once Maverick is home and we have spent some time in the attachment phase, we will take him to see a cleft team at one of our local hospitals. There, we will discuss having cleft repair surgery, where they will sew up the cleft. From what I understand, they will cut along the sides of the tissue that is currently there and pull it together to sew it up to close the palate. In addition to the cleft surgery, he will likely get tubes put into his ears, to help the fluid drain from his ears more effectively, therefore reducing the likeliness of ear infections.

This will take some time to heal, as you can imagine having the entire roof of your mouth reconstructed is painful, and he may need additional surgeries in the future, including bone grafts and orthodontic surgeries. We will know these things with time.

 After he is healed from surgery, we will get him involved in intense speech therapy so that he can begin to communicate verbally. I see us using a lot of sign language for communication with him for a while, along with verbal communication on our part.

The great thing is that cleft repair surgeries are not super uncommon. We have connected with several families who have adopted children with clefts, and have walked the road before us. We know this will be hard on our little guy and will take patience on our part as well, but we are willing to fight through with him.


For a look at what a typical cleft palate surgery entails, you can check out this short video:

Show Hope

Yesterday, we found out some really cool news. Our little one's file does not have a ton of information in it about his past. This is not unusual. But, knowing that he will be our son, this mama wants as many connections and information as possible, so I start digging and researching. I must have googled every piece of information that I possibly know on him and have searched FB and blog posts and looked at every picture of Chinese orphans that I can find. If I will not fight for my little guy to know more about his past, who will? Well, luckily through a few different connections, I found out a little tidbit. It isn't huge, but for me, it just filled my heart with such JOY!

Do you remember how this whole adoption journey began? It all started with me reading the book, Choosing to See, by Mary Beth Chapman (Steven Curtis Chapman's wife). STC is a Christian musician for those of you who do not know. After I read that book, God started stirring adoption within my heart. At the back of the book was a link to an organization that the Chapman's had started called, Show Hope. It is an amazing organization, which advocates and cares for orphans and gives grants to families to help with the financial burden of adoption. Watch the video below to find out more about them.




I remember looking up Show Hope's website after I finished the book and thinking to myself "What am I doing? Why am I looking at this?" This was really my first step into what would transpire into our journey to Maverick.

I recently learned that Show Hope has a special floor at the orphanage where Maverick was brought as a baby. With over 700 children in this orphanage, the chances of him being cared for on the Show Hope floor were bleak, but I found out yesterday that he indeed was under Show Hope's care at some point when he was younger. I am not sure how long he was on that floor or when he entered under their care, but I do know that whatever time frame he was there, he was well loved and cared for and that just makes this mama so happy!

Right now, they cannot release any information to me about his time there as our adoption is not complete, but once our adoption is completed, they will send us any additional information and pictures that they have of him from his time with Show Hope. Yippie!

I was so excited about this. It was so neat to see how God used my cousin to get that book in my hand, how He led me to that website even though I had no clue why I was looking at it, how we started in Ethiopia, but ended up in China (Where Show Hope started) and how our little guy benefited from Show Hope's care. I love how God brings stories together like this.

Something else that is pretty neat, we found this information out yesterday, the same day that we got our China home study completed and in our hands. A completed home study means you can apply for grants. I always knew that the first grant that we would apply for would be from Show Hope. Last night, we sat down and started filling out our application on the website. The same website that I typed into my computer almost 3 years ago and asked God "Why am I looking at this?" Ha! God is so cool!

Now, I ask that you would pray for us. Pray that if it is God's will for us to receive a grant from Show Hope, that it will happen. Not all families who qualify will get a grant, as funds are limited. But, it would be so neat if we were granted one, no matter how big or small. We still have about $15,000 to raise in the next 9 months before we can bring Maverick home. I have no doubt that God will provide! He has always been faithful. We have HOPE!

                                        (Maverick on the Show Hope floor at the orphanage.)
                                                 

Check out Show Hope's website to find out more information:

www.shopehope.org

Beauty from Ashes

I cannot even begin to express to you how excited Evan and I are about becoming that sweet boy's parents. I look into those big brown eyes and I just want to let him know how precious he is, how much he is loved, how much he has been prayed for. I love that one day, he will call us Mommy and Daddy. What an honor, what a privilege to be his parents. This baby boy deserves the kind of love that only a mommy and a daddy can give. That unconditional love. We cannot wait to be that for him. To wipe away his tears, to kiss his cheeks, to snuggle him close, to give him security that we are not going anywhere, that he will never be alone, to let him know he is safe and he is loved and he will be cared for, to encourage him, to help him grow, to share the good news of the gospel with him.

While all of these things make us so excited as a family, we cannot forget that our excitement stems from tragedy. Our gain of a son, comes from the loss of a family somewhere on the other side of the world. When my heart was stirring almost 3 years ago to care for the orphan, his birth mom's heart was likely stirring over what she would do when this sweet boy was born. I can only imagine the thoughts that were swirling through her head as she placed her hand on her belly as it was swollen in preparation for this beautiful soul to enter the world. The thoughts that she had as she held him for the fist time and looked deep into his eyes. Adoption is such a beautiful picture, but it comes from such a hard and sometimes heartbreaking place. Nothing about it is easy, on either end.

We don't know much of our Maverick's history and what we do know, we will save for him. We know he is a fighter though, growing up in an institution for the majority of his short life, all while having a physical special need. This adoption is bittersweet. I love this little guy and I have never even met him. The thought of being able to love him for the rest of my life makes my heart sing, but to know that he has not had a family for so long, makes my heart rip to pieces. No one wants their children to experience loss or pain. It makes my heart break that for whatever reason, his birth family felt like they could not care for him or that he would possibly have a better chance in an institution. These are things that he will one day ask about, one day wrestle with. We will be there to support him and work through those questions with him as best we can. But there will always be that sense of why? and what if?

I think about his birth mom, what was going through her mind that day? What is she thinking now? You don't forget a child, and I know she likely has his face burned into her memory, into her heart. I can only imagine that there must be a sense of pain and loss there, even if she thinks her child is better off now. As a mom, my heart goes out to her. I pray that she will experience the joy and love that only Jesus can offer her. That if she feels regret or guilt, that God will give her peace and somehow let her know that her baby boy will be ok. He will be loved so very much. He will have a family.

That little face up there, comes from a hard place. I never want to gloss over that, or focus so much on our gain, that we forget his loss. Even though he is so young, things will likely surface over time as he decides to ask about them. We want to be sensitive to those things and keep open communication with him about them. We will celebrate and we will mourn together. That precious face, the one that is now etched into my soul, he has been through so much already and this journey for him will not be all balloons and excitement. When we bring him home, he will be pulled from the only life that he has ever known, into a family who looks different and speaks different. He will fly halfway around the world and have to adjust to life in America, life in our family. There will be many challenges ahead, for us and for him. This will be hard, and we expect that. But, we will do it TOGETHER, as a family. No matter how hard it gets, we will be his constant and God will be ours. Beauty from ashes, redemption from loss, but never ever forgetting the cost.

This verse has been one that God has spoken to me a lot lately as we switched from Ethiopia to China, and now I pray it over our little guy.  God is about to do a new and mighty work in his life and we are so grateful that we get to be a part of that! To God be the glory!

INTRODUCING: BROTHER!!!

Y'all....am I REALLY writing this post? Some days I seriously never thought this day would come and yet here I am typing this out with the biggest smile stretched across my face. My face hurts from smiling so much today. WE HAVE A SON!

We received a precious little one's file on January 21st. We did research on his special need (cleft palate) and prayed over him. By January 23rd we knew we wanted to move forward with adopting him. We just had this overwhelming sense of peace. There was nothing holding us back. So, we started working on our LOI (Letter of intent) to submit to the CCCWA to let them know that we wanted to bring him into our family. It took us a few weeks to complete all of the documents but we got it done and submitted it last Wednesday. We were told it could take up to 2 weeks before we would hear if we received pre-approval.

Suddenly the nerves kicked in, what if we do not get pre-approval, what if, what if, what if? That is why my biggest prayer request has been for favor. I wanted our family and our documents to have God's favor all over them.

Today we had our China Orientation interview over the phone scheduled with our case worker. Did you catch that guys? Our orientation interview...haha! We literally were just accepted into the China program a few weeks ago! Our case worker, started off by saying "Well, before we get started, I thought I would give you guys some good news...." Right then my heart dropped and I knew what she was about to say. I looked over at Evan, eyes as big as saucers. We had received PA for our little guy! Once she told us the good news, Evan and I were shouting for joy (and probably waking up the kids that we had just put down for nap). It was perfect! Had the phone call been at any other time, Evan would have been at work, but Monday is his off day and we were both able to be on speaker phone together when we found out!

After that our hearts were racing with excitement and relief and we were both thinking...How are we supposed to concentrate now? But we did and as soon as our orientation call ended, we embraced and we thanked God for his faithfulness. Tears poured down my cheeks as my sweet husband gave glory to the One who is writing this story, who is in control of all things, who is faithful. Tears of joy, tears of relief, tears of hope all coming down. We have seen our boy's face! We know he will be part of our family!

We shared the news with our kiddos tonight and they were so excited to finally see who Brother was. We gave each of them their own picture to keep of him. Their reactions were so sweet (video to come later). My sweet friend, Kallie, happened to show up at our doorstep with congratulations balloons and a gift right as we were telling the kids, so the celebration was even sweeter!

What an AMAZING Monday it has been! Our hearts are full and now we can move forward with this precious face impressed on our minds with every document we fill out, every step we take, knowing they are leading us closer to having him in our arms, to becoming his Mommy and Daddy!

After all of that, are you ready to meet our little guy? 

Introducing: Maverick Daniel 

(Maverick, because it is a strong name that we have ALWAYS just loved and Daniel after my precious younger brother, who is so very dear to us and loves the Lord with his whole heart.)

Is he not the sweetest thing EVER?!?!

WE GOT PRE-APPROVAL! AHHHHHHHHH!

Seeing Brother for the First Time

The road ahead is still long and we have a lot more work to do. Our timeline is looking like about 11 months (that is pretty conservative) from now until he will be home! We think it may be sooner, but we have learned that God's timing is always best and we will trust in that!

God has been so very faithful this entire journey, even through the bumps and the twists and the turns. We know that we were in Ethiopia for a reason, for our hearts and our faith to grow. We know that he led us to China for a reason, to this sweet precious boy. 

Oh, and can I tell you something REALLY cool? This little guy was born right around the time that God started laying adoption on my heart a few years ago. He was preparing to enter the world as God started pressing adoption on my heart. So amazing! 

We are over the moon excited and in love and ready to bring Brother home into this crazy family! 

We love you Maverick and we are coming for you baby boy!

King Cake Raffle

It's Mardi Gras season here in Louisiana. Check out our FB page for the chance to win a king cake shipped directly to you or someone you love.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mcginty-Adoption-8568-Miles/147262792144528

FAQ about our switch to the China program

1) Why didn't you start in China to begin with?

- When we decided to pursue an International adoption with our agency, we received a sheet with all of the countries that they worked with. Each country listed certain qualifications such as length of marriage, age, financial status, time in country, cost, # of children in home, etc. When we looked at that list, we did not actually meet the requirements for China. We did however meet the requirements for Ethiopia. We actually knew a few people who had completed adoptions from Ethiopia as well. It seemed like the logical thing to do. All of our qualifications pointed us to Ethiopia.  It wasn't until recently that we found out about the waiver that was offered to some families for the special focus program through the webinar that our agency invited us to. Also, we started out wanting to adopt a fully healthy child ages 0-3. Through time (because we had a lot of it in Ethiopia), God has opened our hearts to adopting a child ages 0-6 and being open to some special needs.


2) What about all of that money that you already poured into Ethiopia?

-The wonderful news is that most of that money is transferring over. Our agency recognizes the huge change that has occurred in Ethiopia as far as time frame goes and allowed us to transfer our agency fees over to the China program. There will be some money lost, money that was paid directly to our placing agency in Ethiopia to be able to translate all of our paperwork, and some money for documents that we needed for Ethiopia. So while we will need to redo paperwork for China now, we were actually going to have to redo paperwork several times in Ethiopia because the wait was so long and the paperwork expires after a certain time frame. All in all, not that much was lost, which is a huge blessing! We wanted to make sure we were being wise financially when we switched programs. We recognize that so much of the financial part of this adoption has come from many of you through fundraisers or just your generous giving. We wanted to be sensitive to that, while also following the road God has laid out for us.

3) Why did things slow down so much in Ethiopia?

-First of all, you are dealing with a foreign government here that can change laws and processes at any time. Apparently, what has happened is that more steps have been added in the process to adopt a child to better ensure that children are not being trafficked. This is a good thing! The not so good thing is that this significantly slows down the process of getting these children into families. The lack of organization and efficiency within the government to be able to move through these steps in a timely manner is not in place. So while a good thing was implemented, it is not being executed in the most efficient manner, thus the slow down aka the "new normal". With the way things were estimated, we were potentially looking at several if not more years of waiting before a child was matched with our family.

4) What is the estimated time of a completed adoption with China?

- A China adoption is typically completed between 12 to 18 months from start to finish. That is a much quicker time frame than we were looking at in Ethiopia. Our hearts have been ready to welcome a child into our family for quite some time now. This new timeline is great news! Likely, our son will be home in 2015 or early 2016. Yippie!


5) When will you be matched with a child? When can you share about him?

-Since we are adopting from the special focus program, we could be matched at any time now. We are actually in the process of reviewing files while we pray and discern about what needs our family feels equipped to handle. Once we decide to pursue a child, we will send a LOI (Letter of Intent) basically telling the Chinese government that we want to pursue adopting that specific child. The CCCWA will then hopefully approve us to move forward with the adoption of that child and issue us a LOA (Letter of Approval) to continue on with the adoption process.


6) Will your child be special needs?

-Yes, since we are adopting from the special focus program in China, he will be considered special needs. That may be physical or mental special needs. Every child is different and unique, which is why we are praying through our decisions as we review files. Like I said before, we were not open to special needs when we started the process, because we were scared. God has softened our hearts to so many more needs as we have sought after Him over the past 2 years. Once again, we want to be wise with what our family feels equipped to handle, but also step out in faith. We will see what child He leads us to.

7) What about that Africa puzzle we donated to? What are you going to do with that?

-So many of you supported our family through that puzzle fundraiser. That was such a sweet time of God reassuring us that he was going to walk us through this and provide. We are going to keep the puzzle as it represents that part of our journey. As I said in my last blog post, we do not feel like the time we poured into and waited in Ethiopia was wasted because God worked on our hearts in that place. Maybe that is why he had us there. Evan calls all of our Ethiopia items that we have collected (books, puzzles, bags, etc.), "souvenirs of obedience". Ethiopia represents us saying "yes" to adoption. It is still very much a part of our story and our hearts.

8) How long will you have to be in China?

-Once we are at the end of this process, we will travel to China for 2 full weeks. The trip that we meet our son on, will be the same trip that we bring him home on. This fills my heart with so much peace. In Ethiopia you have to take 2 trips. One to meet your child and be declared their parents in court and then another several months later to bring your child home once paperwork is complete. The thought of having to meet our child and then leave them in Africa was heart wrenching. Any parent who goes through an Ethiopia adoption could tell you that has to be the hardest part. I am relieved we just do 1 trip with China.

9) What stage are you in now?

-We are in my favorite part of all (NOT!)...paperwork! I feel like I have done enough paperwork to last a lifetime. But at this point, I laugh in the face of paperwork and sometimes cry. But, we are now familiar with how much paperwork this requires and it is no longer intimidating, just another step on the to do list. So, while we are drowning in it AGAIN, we are pressing forward knowing it needs to be done. We are also beginning to review files, which is exciting and yet so heartbreaking. To see these children's stories, to realize the trauma they have been through is yet another reminder that we live in a broken world. It breaks our hearts that these kiddos are not with their biological families. It breaks my heart to see what they have had to overcome in their short little lives so far. But God is a God of redemption and we pray that each one of these kiddos can be placed in loving homes.


We hope this brings some clarity for those of you who have been faithfully following our journey. We are excited about how God is leading. If you have any other questions for us, feel free to send us a personal message. We will be sure to update on our FB page as this story unfolds, so stay tuned.

A BIG CHANGE!!!!

I am about to write words that I never thought that I would write in this adoption journey. It still seems surreal and yet God has guided and led and we have ended up in this place. So, here goes:

We are no longer adopting from Ethiopia. Wow, to type that out feels so strange! I could be sad, but I am not, because this was a God thing. In fact, I have some exciting news...

We have transferred to CHINA! We are adopting from CHINA! Our son will be from CHINA! Now, that feels even crazier to say!

I know I may have totally lost you and you may have a ton of questions going through your mind, so let me fill you in on how we got here.

If you have been keeping up with our story, you know that the Ethiopia program hit a new normal of VERY SLOW last year! We found out that the time frame that we were given when we started this adoption process had significantly increased (and I am talking years). We were upset, frustrated and confused. We knew that we were ready to welcome a child into our home way sooner than that time frame was offering us. We were told that if we wanted to transfer to another program within our agency, that most of our agency fees would transfer over.

That is when I started to panic and started researching every other option out there: other countries, domestic adoption, foster care, etc. We had never felt like we were called specifically to Ethiopia. We did feel like when we started we were called to a foreign country (my Haiti trip had much to do with this) and we happened to qualify for Ethiopia, so we went there. Our heart has always just been to give an orphan a loving family and home. The place was not specific to us.  I was spinning my wheels trying to figure out what to do and I hit an emotional break down on our way to Texas for Thanksgiving (my poor sweet social worker, got to hear me sob like a baby about how frustrated I was). She encouraged us to take a season of prayer over all of it.

Here's the truth, I didn't want to take a season of prayer. I wanted to move forward. We had been waiting in Ethiopia for a year and in this process for 2 years. We had prayed long enough! Now I needed to see some movement, some action, some progress. Yea, I won't be winning a gold medal for best attitude here. It was not a shining moment for me. At the same time, Evan had decided he felt led to teach a sermon series at our church. I asked him what he felt God was leading him to teach and he said "prayer." BAM...smack in the face!"OK God, I hear ya." So, I decided to stop researching and trying to fix this problem and Evan and I dedicated the rest of the year to being on our knees in prayer together over this adoption, over our son, over which direction God would want us to move, if he wanted us to move. I told myself that I would stop searching and if God wanted us to change directions, HE would reveal that to us. As soon as I came to this decision, I felt this insane peace that I had not felt in quite some time. All of my anxiety about what we were going to do had vanished. I KNEW this was HIS story and HE would make things clear to us when HE was ready.

On December 11th, we received an e-mail from our agency inviting us to a webinar for families in the Ethiopia program to be informed on what transferring to the China program would look like. I almost ignored it because we had already looked at the China program and we knew that based on some of the qualifications, we did not qualify. However, we signed up and figured it couldn't hurt to be better informed.  Five days later we were logged into the webinar and hearing about the China program. We were reminded of what the new Ethiopia expectations should be, which just kind of reiterated God closing the door for us in Ethiopia. We also found out that some families may receive a waiver to be able to enter China's special focus program, which includes children 3 and over with more moderate to severe special needs.

After some prayer, we decided to send in an application to see if we would qualify. Beforehand I prayed, "God you seem to be opening doors here, you brought this opportunity to us. If this is the direction you want us to take, please move mountains and let us qualify for this waiver. If this is not the path you have for our family, please close the door here by not allowing us to receive a waiver."

Well, as I am sure you figured out, we were granted the waiver and accepted into the China Special Focus Program. I almost could not believe it. We were transferring out of Ethiopia and into China. I could not have written this story this way. I thought my son would be from Ethiopia, but God had other plans. Both Evan and I had a peace about the move.

So here we are, a CHINA FAMILY now! It has been so crazy to see how our journey is unfolding. We are so excited to see how and when God leads us to our son. While there was so much time spent in Ethiopia, we do not feel like that time was wasted. God worked on our hearts in amazing ways during that wait. He pressed on us to be open to things that we would have never been open to when we started this journey. He prepares us, even when we are unaware of what He is doing.

Nothing is wasted, He works all things for good! His promise remains, forever He reigns!





We know that there will still be many questions that were not answered in this blog post and we want to answer those. So, if you have any, please send them to us via our FB page or email. We will be following up this post with a question and answer post to give you all a better idea of what all of this entails. So stay tuned in the next couple of weeks if you are wanting more clarity.

Thank you to everyone who has already shown us so much love and encouragement as we took this leap of faith!