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Friday, July 11, 2014

Family is More than Blood:Chellson family

Family is more than Blood, I have that phrase on my shirt & as I was thinking of that phrase I decided I wanted to use it as an opportunity to bring awareness of adoption. Each Friday, I will be using this opportunity to introduce you to 1 family who has adopted & most weeks an additional family who is currently in the process of adopting. This week I introduce this first family who has adopted & is adopting currently. Meet the Chellsons, I have had the personal privilege of getting to know them a little bit while I lived in CA & luckily I got to be a part of their journey to Misha & got to meet him.
 What brought you to adopt?
I first felt the desire to adopt (or foster) after my little sister Lizzy was born. Lizzy was born when I was 13 & has Down Syndrome & she forever changed my world for the better. When David & I got married I knew I wanted to adopt (or foster) but it would most likely happen after my biological had grown up and moved away.That plan quickly changed once David & I learned we were struggling with secondary infertility. After a handful unsuccessful fertility treatments we were given word it was time to move onto trying IVF & we felt that my body had been through enough with all the fertility drugs & that it was time to look into other options for expanding our family. That was when our adoption journey got started.

How has your life changed since bringing home your child?
Life is wonderful having Misha home with us. From the moment we saw his picture we knew he'd fit in with us just perfectly! We have our moments when some frustrations or stubbornness kicks in but it's nothing we can't handle. Most of the changes we have felt has been in our daily schedule...Misha receives therapy 3 times a week along with attending our amazing county special ed preschool & you add this into our older sons baseball & school schedule it just makes for more time in the car. We've all adjusted to the schedule & it honestly feels like it's been this way forever.

What's the hardest part of life after bringing home your child?
The hardest part of life has not been the adjustment but it is the lack of knowledge we have on his medical or family history. We have some medical records but they are not very clear & it tends to leave the doctors scratching their heads. Which leaves us having to guess on things & making assumptions about his previous care. Thankfully we have a great team of doctors that provide amazing care for Misha & it helps the struggle of his unknown past.

How is the 2nd adoption process compared to the first?
Since we are currently in the final stretch of our second adoption I can say that adopting this time around is way less stressful & moving much faster then the first adoption. The paperwork the first time was so overwhelming and sometimes confusing for a newbie & took us about 6/7 months to complete because of things needing to be redone due to errors we did not see. This time around we felt way more confident in what we were doing & reached out to our resources from the first adoption & it made it all go much quicker & our paperwork was finished in about 8 weeks this time.

Why Special needs international adoption?
When we set out on our adoption journey we actually began looking at becoming foster parents but with Davids work schedule & having a young son at home we found it was not a good fit for us...we then looked into going the birth mother route but found no solid help or answers for our questions so we moved on...we then looked into domestic adoption of children with special needs & were again met with unhelpful answers & no one really willing to help guide us in starting the process...after all this we were told about Reece's Rainbow & found an amazing local family in process who were able to answer our questions, ease our minds & guide our hearts into starting the process...and the rest is history.
 I have witnessed first hand how much they love this sweet boy, now let's help them bring home another precious sweetie! They are still short on funds to bring Baby C home. They will be doing an auction on Instagram on the bringingbabychome page shortly. In the meantime you can go make a donation to their Reece's Rainbow page here http://reecesrainbow.org/70626/sponsorchellson-2




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