Stumbaugh Family |
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Our story to pursue adoption started as a calling through prayer. After the birth of our third child (and first son) we actually felt very ‘complete’. Presently working as a stay-at-home mother, I started to include in my prayers to know what to do once our children started school. Oddly enough, instead of an answer to that prayer, I kept getting a calling to add to our family - this time through adoption. After talking with my husband about these feelings, we both started getting really excited to expand our family in this extremely special way!
We had always heard good things about the Chinese people when it comes to the health of their children. And, at the time we started looking into adoption, we felt most comfortable requesting a child ‘as young as possible and as healthy as possible’. This description given to the Chinese usually means a little girl. Because we knew several families who had wonderful experiences with EACI, we gave their China team a call and asked them how to get started.
We made that phone call mid-summer in 2007. The paperwork was…well, a lot of busy work, but after we handed in our dossier, we started our ‘wait’ with the news of our April, 2008, log-in date.
EACI sent out some paperwork on the Chinese Special Needs program about 5 months after our April log-in. I remember the flyer speaking to being ‘stalled’ in China and being tired of waiting. You know, going into this adoption, my husband and I were made fully aware of the waiting period. At this stage of the game, however, we looked at the ages of our other children and realized there was going to be a larger age-gap than what we considered ‘ideal’ between them and our new baby.
We dared to ask EACI/China… Could you tell us more about the special needs program? After some serious consideration, we decided to go for it. In a delightful turn of events, we also realized that we could also pursue either a daughter or son! Gender was fun for our children to “pick”. Would the girls have the majority? Or, would our son even things up when we accepted the referral of his new little brother? Our consultant discussed with us some of the special needs she had seen in the past and eagerly solicited our thoughts on each of them. She helped us to decide what was best for us by considering our thoughts and family dynamics. We decided to pursue the adoption of a young baby boy with mild special needs!
Roughly 5 weeks later, we accepted our son’s referral on October 24, 2008! Jiahong Wei was 7-1/2 months old at the time of his referral and – without a doubt – one of the cutest little boys ever! Jiahong was born with an abdominal opening that was repaired successfully within the first days of his life. This condition, known as gastroschesis, has an excellent long-term prognosis.
We were on our way to China to bring “Johnny” home on February 27, 2009. We were in his home province of Jiangsu for the bulk of the trip. We had the blessing of holding our newest son in our arms on March 2, 2009. Our in-province consultant, Denise, was with us to help in the adoption and joyfully planned for us several outings. The highlight of our time there was the day that Denise took us to see the orphanage where Johnny lived prior to our adoption and to the hospital where Johnny was orphaned, found, taken to surgery and cared for the first month of his life. Both institutions welcomed us with open arms, talking with us while Denise translated what they were saying into English. We had the honor of meeting the staff at the orphanage, walking in Johnny’s bedroom and playroom, touching his crib, and thanking them gratefully. At the hospital, we met the woman who first saw our son, saw the tree under which she found him, met the surgeon who performed Johnny’s repair, met the nurse who cared for him in the ICU, had a tour of the unit, and even touched the bed where he lay and healed for a month’s time. Our heads were spinning and we could not imagine an adoption experience more marvelous than ours with Johnny. The hospitality of the Chinese is one for which we will always be grateful.
Johnny’s homecoming was wonderful. Our families and friends adored him at first sight, and he adapted incredibly well. From day one he slept through the night, ate well and interacted with his sisters and brothers sweetly.
The adoptive staff at the Cleveland Clinic did a thorough examination of Johnny, which included a surgical expert looking at his abdominal area. The surgeon told us the doctors in China did an excellent repair. The Cleveland Clinic staff congratulated us on our healthy, new son, and told us to enjoy our lives with him as a part of our family.
Since bringing him home, he’s grown and learned so much. He’s gone from hardly able to roll-over to walking unassisted. He feeds himself, continues to sleep and nap well, and touches the lives of everyone he meets in a very special way. I cannot imagine life getting any better. Thank God for our beautiful family!
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