Stories of Adoption, Part 2

Born in Our Hearts
by Filis Casey

(Page 2 of 2)

Miracle in Miami Jessica Varn

When my husband Craig and I decided to start a family through adoption, there was never any question of where we would find our child. The only choice for us was Colombia, as my family is from there, going back at least three generations on both sides. I am very proud of my heritage, and I wanted a child with whom I could share a language and cultural background.

While I searched the States for adoption agencies with Colombian programs, I set my relatives to work in Colombia, with my cousin researching orphanages in Bogotá, where my extended family lives. The situation came together like those wonderful coincidences in life where magic, chance, fate, divine intervention and whatever else all form tiny links in a chain that brings a child home to a family. My cousin had a friend who worked at an orphanage in Bogotá and who was also adopted from there as an infant. That same week I discovered an agency that worked exclusively with this orphanage. The combination offered the perfect, and only, choice.

Within six months of starting our home study and paperwork, we received the heart-stopping news that the child was a boy, and he was waiting for us in Colombia as soon as we could get there.

Jacob was eleven weeks old when we first held him. He was all I'd hoped for in a child: beautiful, angelic looking. But my little boy had been sick with a nasty cold. The stress of our first week of parenthood, which would have been terrifying enough, was compounded by Jacob's illness and his trouble sleeping and eating because of congestion. Within the first ten hours of being with us, our son was examined by a pediatrician, who said Jacob had a lot of lung congestion and was to be placed on a regimen of respiratory therapies. In Colombia, pediatricians and therapists come to your house and the pharmacy delivers prescriptions to your home. A therapist visited us every other day, and at one point Jacob was filled with five different medications, for the lung infection, an eye infection and colic.

Craig had to go back home after the first week, along with my dad, sister and aunt, leaving my mom and I alone with Jacob. My memories in Colombia after they left have a faint, bittersweet tinge. We moved into my aunt's house to live with her and my uncle, cousin and grandmother for the remaining four weeks we were to be in the country. I think it was a healthy adjustment period for my son, being loved and coddled and held, fed, changed, bathed and put to sleep by all of his live-in relatives, with many others visiting on a regular basis. Spending his first month with our family in the arms of a Colombian household that spoke his language was, I hope, a soothing period for Jacob, easing the transition from his foster home to ours.

But with every sweet new thing he did, each gurgle and chubby hand wave, I smiled and cried, feeling the sweetness with a fishhook of pain in my throat. He was developing before my own eyes, but not in front of his dad. We missed Craig terribly. In Jacob's crib, we placed the T-shirt that Craig had slept in the last night he was with us, hoping his son would sense his enveloping presence that way.

But unfortunately, even though we saw the pediatrician and therapist through the entire month, Jacob never improved. He seemed to be stuck in a constant state of lung congestion. At night I would listen to the raspy wheeze of his breathing, wishing I could hold him and use my love to suck the very illness out of him. Two days before we were scheduled to go home, he was put on an inhaler to help clear his blocked airways. It seemed to help a little, and he was deemed healthy enough to travel to the United States.

We were warned, however, that his system might react badly to the air conditioning at the Miami airport, since he had never breathed air-conditioned air. As we prepared for takeoff in Bogotá, Jacob projectile-vomited all over his pristine (and carefully planned) white outfit, the airplane window and my lap. He seemed to feel much better afterwards (he was the only one, mind you), but I was sure that he would get very sick the moment we arrived in the air-conditioned Miami airport.

As soon as we arrived in Miami I noticed something different, but I could not place it at first. I'd become so accustomed to his perpetual and rhythmic breath, like a small accordion under my arm everywhere I went. Suddenly there was silence. I walked for several paces, looked at him, then walked several more. I stopped. Jacob was looking around the airport with bright interest, his mouth open slightly. His breathing was quite clear, with no rasp at all! It was entirely bizarre, beautiful and instantaneous. We had scheduled a visit with a stateside pediatrician before we even flew home, and when he was examined they found nothing wrong with his lungs. No congestion, no sickness. Poof! It had all gone away. We're not sure if the inhaler did the trick, or the humidity in Miami, or maybe both. Maybe it was feeling my sense of relief and happiness that we were finally home with Craig.

So after four weeks in Colombia we were home with our sweet son, who was more than I had ever hoped for. He has brought sunshine into the lives of everyone in our family. Our family in Colombia adores him, and he has brought us closer in touch than we've ever been in the past. Our family in the States is crazy about him, too, and we couldn't be prouder.

Jacob is two now, and he speaks Spanish and English. My parents and I speak in Spanish to him, and Craig and his family speak in English. He is a Colombian with a new heritage, and with a wonderful American heritage, too. The joy he brings us, and his instantaneous recovery to good health, are a daily reminder of God's presence in our lives.

© 2004 Health Communications, Inc.

About the Author

Filis Casey is the founder and president of The Alliance for Children, the first international adoption agency in Massachusetts. Since its inception, The Alliance has placed more than 4,000 children from countries including China, Latin America, India, Ecuador, Colombia and Russia. She is the mother of two biological children and one adopted child.