The seven new kids join the family, instantly swelling the ranks; Johnny and Ronee' eventually return home, where they have to learn how to do many things over again since waking up from their lengthy comas.
*Part One: How The Family Got Started (Continued)*
Chapter Four~
I. Seven New Arrivals:
As promised from the adoption caseworker, the seven new children we had applied to adopt arrived to our home. It was an instant shock for all involved, particularly the foreign-born children (and for Richard, who came carrying a lot of emotianal baggage).
We went from just two children to nine seemingly overnight.
The girls were ages three-and-a-half (Jae Mee Ok--Korea and Mariko In Ai Lee--Japan), 11 (Stephanie Louise--Canada), and nine (Barbara Le-Anne Therese--Louisiana); the boys, ages eleven (Anh Kim Van--Vietnam) and nine (Richard--Utah). Now, Stephanie and Barbara were healthy; the others were not.
They had significant special needs, some of which we were too ill-equipped to handle.
Richard was an extremely angry, frightened young boy who was subjected to violent outbursts. Anh had just been diagnosed with having cancer (again; he'd had it at age six; it resulted in the amputation of one leg), and Michael and Mariko both had uncontrollable seizures. As for little Jae Mee Ok, she had severe physical and mental disabilities: at the age of there, she could not take care of herself; she was more like a little infant than a little girl.
At age three, she could not walk, talk, eat (she had to be fed by hand or by a baby bottle), and she wore diapers: she was not toilet-trained. Upon first seeing her, it became apparent just how severe her disabilities really were. It really saddened us.
II. The Chaos Theory Strikes Our Happy Homefront:
In addition to the arrival of the seven new children (which instantly made for cramped living quarters and room for lots of tears), we had to deal with Johnny and Ronee', who were, by now, home from the hospital. Both had been going through extensive physical/occupational therapies, learning how to walk, talk, do things all over again.
They were both now three years of age.
Ronee' learned fairly quickly (she was almost like her old self just a few months after being released from the rehabilitation hospital); Johnathon, however, seemed to be a changed person overnight. Instead of the giggly, happy-natured boy he was prior to getting sick, he was a shell of his former self.
He could not hear without the aid of powerful hearing aids (his hearing had been destroyed by the effects of the meningitis), his eyes were so bad he could only make out shadows or the brightest of ligthts; everything else was nothing more than a dark-grey curtain to him; and he had a terrible stammer to his speech whenever he spoke.
He was brain damaged and hopelessly disabled; it broke our hearts because he was no longer the little boy we had adopted when he was just a few months of age.
Johnny seemed afraid of us: whenever we came near him or attempted to hug/kiss him, Johnny would start screaming like he was being killed or he'd scuttle away like a frightened animal.
It really bothered us. He acted more like a feral child than a normal preschool-aged little boy.
Ronee' became scared of her brother: he was nothing more than a stranger to her; she wanted nothing to do with him. She did not like him anymore.
We knew we needed help. Lots of it. What our children were going through was beyond anything I or Bill could deal with.
We had a family again; but at the same time our family unit was quickly falling apart. It got so bad it was a wonder neither one of us (meaning Bill or myself) were thinking about divorcing the other; the demands of our suddenly-too-big family were proving to be too much.
This is so emotionally loaded that I feel exhausted just reading of such human endurance, struggle, pain... and gain! The medical detail is astounding and it seems to me that even one child sick in this way would be enough to test the time and patience of even the most doting parents... add to that the pressure their own marital relationship may come under, and the situation becomes dynamite. My heart is quite wrung out. These darling people must have 72 hours a day, just to survive. And the strength and faith of Jehovah Himself. These stories are so real and close to the bone, Karen. The impact me in such a way that I always feel changed when I leave your Den. And that is a very good thing. Bless you and I am grateful for the chance to catch up on the history of the most remarkable family history EVER! :)) Love, Kate xx
The one that can come with a universal answer to tell a child about illness and why he/she got it, will be blessed by every parent around the world, as it is, parenthood came without instructions book.
Georg
Hard to manage two sick children, and they add more...either a lot of love or some insanity...probably a bit of both LOL In any event, if more parents would take in the unadoptable, there'd be a world more love. Well done.
