Adopting children with visual impairment or blindness??

[rachie]

I'm trying to find out all I can about what we would need to expect and be equipped with if we were to adopt an orphan from overseas with visual impairment/blindness.  First off we have three young children and I'd want to make sure I could devote enough time to all of them together.  I feel the child we adopt will probably still receive more love and attention by myself, husband and his/her new siblings than if left in some of the orphanages I've read about.  And I'm sure we'll be able to receive some support through our school district and community.  I just want to be sure this would be the right thing for our family.  Also trying to decide on age if adopting younger might be a good thing - giving earlier developmental and emotional support or if adopting an older orphan with less hope of being adopted?  Such a tough decision! 

[Whistler]

Hi Rachel!

We are almost through the process to bring a visually impaired 2.5yo home from Ethiopia.  We also have a 6yo, a 4yo and a 16mo at home and we homeschool.

No one can tell you whether this decision is right for your family or not.  Just because it's the right thing for our family does not necessarily mean it is for yours.  I can give you a few of the things that led our family toward making this move.

First of all, we knew we wanted more kids, and we knew we were going to be adopting again.  Because I have a mild visual impairment myself and because I have worked in SpEd, I felt like a blind child could fit into our family really well.  Also, I have a certificate as a Braille Transcriber... certainly not necessary, but it will be helpful!  Hubby was open to certain special needs, blindness being one, so we more or less waited to find the right child.  We did on a photolisting.  She is the right age to fit in between the two boys and we feel we can handle her medical needs.

Another thing that helped was talking to a mom in town who adopted a little Ethiopian girl who is blind.  We joke that they are long-lost twins or something.  Meeting her helped Hubby too.  We decided that although her special needs and medical needs will be some extra work, that it won't hurt her or the other kids to be one of four.  We have a lot of love to go around and we both think it's better for kids to learn to share with others, to respect others and to have the support of siblings.  We want to raise our blind daughter to be independent and self-sufficient like I have always been taught to be, so having to share Mom with siblings will help with that too.

I joined a yahoo group called blindhomeschooler and have learned a TON from the great moms in that group, many of whom are also adoptive moms.  So we're excited to bring our little girl home.

On a side note, when we were researching our options, I noticed that there are a lot of blind children in India who need homes, but that the rules to adopt from there are a little stricter.  Just found that interesting.

Good luck with your decision!

Erin

P.S. If you'd like to chat more, send me a pm with your email.  :)