On the morning of Sept. 18th, 2008, we turned away a referral. It was a very hard, gut wrenching decision. We researched the need and knew it was beyond our scope of what we could handle. I was in tears all morning.
We stopped by our agency to just do some healing, and wouldn't you know it, CCAA had added more children to their shared list that night! At about 10:30 am, we saw a little boy named Chang Li Chen. He had a glowing smile, gorgeous big eyes, and his need was one on our list: repaired cleft lip, unrepaired palate. He certainly caught our attention. We jotted down his name and continued looking at the list. I asked if we could go back to Chang Li Chen, and when we tried to find him, we didn't see his name. Although Dan and I had been through hell over the last 24 hours, another little part of us seemed to melt, feeling like we lost something. And the numbers on the screen showed one less file. Our agency said that's how fast they go with that special need, and the only reason he was still there was because he was a boy.
And all of a sudden she said, "Oh, there he is!" And immediately we said, "Lock his file for us please!" We just couldn't handle losing him again.
When we discussed his file with the IA doctor, she thought he looked great. However, "He's very small. If we lined up 100 kids from shortest to tallest, Li Chen wouldn't even be in the line up." Small stature and low head circumference can be a symptom of mental issues or syndromes. We needed updated medical information and measurements.
So last year during this holiday (moon festival), we were waiting for updated information on this little boy. It was the longest week of my life. And sadly, little did we know we wouldn't get our info until October 31st.
And now, I watch my son, Tyson Li Chen, become more and more amazing everyday. Tomorrow we go to Children's Hospital for another dr. appt. Please keep us in your prayers that his hearing comes out normal and that he will actually speak for the speech therapist! Thank you.
Jolene
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We will keep Tyson in our prayers. He looks like he is doing so well. Your family certainly is blessed.
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