Getting scary health related news is never a good feeling, and it is even worse when it concerns your child.

Back in December our family received some news from one of the children’s birthfamilies. It seems that our child’s first cousin had tested positive in preliminary screening for a chronic, fatal, genetic disorder. At the time our child was born, we all believed this was a healthy newborn. The birthfamily in question believed them same of their own child, who is now almost 5 years old. It is so hard to consider that one, or both, of us might have been wrong.

Once we had a second to absorb this, we were told that if those tests do come back positive, we will also need to have our own child tested. The chances our child might be effected by this disorder is a staggering 25- 50%. Honestly I would have preferred to have those kind of odds only when I am playing the lottery, not when it comes to something as precious as the health and well being of my child! I know that the cousin’s family feels the same, and are beyond shocked and distraught since they report that no one in the family has shown signs of this disorder that they are aware of. All my current prayers in this start of 2008 center around this precious little cousin being sent a clean bill of health.

One of the better things about open adoption is that you have first hand access to health information. You often have the opportunity to see things arise with other bio-family members that might provide you with clues or early warnings to the health of your own child. That said, it comes as a real shocker when you do find out something potentially scary. Still the prospect is better than not knowing or having that access at all. We often love our children so intently that it is easy to forget that when adopted, they do not share the same genetic codes and inherited challenges. With no contact or information about an adopted child’s biological history, you are in for a bit of a surprise ride. The surprises of not knowing enough could become costly if your child is one who has, unknown to you, inherited a serious genetic condition.

This potential illness that could be running through my child’s biological family is Cystic-Fibrosis. This is a serious, non curable, genetic condition that demands specialized treatments through out the child’s life to keep them as healthy as possible, and living as long as possible. By doing a few google searches I have learned that children with this disorder, even with steady and early treatment available, generally do not live past the age of 30 years. The prospect of a shortened, and chronically ill life for one of my children is something I still can not stop to long to even think about at this point in time. I also care very much about the young birth cousin involved and have been desperately praying that family will receive good news, and soon.

I still believe knowing is better than not knowing. I am thankful for the relationships we have through our open adoptions for a variety of reasons, one of them is the access to health history and possibly life altering information.

A Beating Heart

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