Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

When we set out on this adoption journey we NEVER expected to be parents to a child with FASD.  There is this nice little form that as adoptive parents we fill out and it says what we would accept, what we wouldn't accept, and what we would discuss.  That was a scary little form.  We prayed about it, checked all our little boxes...done!

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome was one of the issues we were nervous to except. We had heard stories (like all those scary childbirth stories people like to tell you right before you go into labor), we had been warned, and we looked on the internet!!  Note: the Internet is not a good place for research like this...just sayin'

Anyway, our social worker (who hadn't seen our nice little checklist) called one day to tell us about a little boy who was born with FASD features and were we interested in being shown to the birth mom.  Now call it desperation, craziness, or what have you... it took Steve and I less then 5 minutes to say yes.  We knew that this was all in God's hands and whatever child was meant for our family would makes its way to us with or without our approval, 'cuz you know what God wants, God gets! :o) We also trusted that God wouldn't give us more then we could handle and that He is with with us always.  With all that said, I was still nervous.  Our family was still nervous.  Adoption had been scary, now we were asking them to accept this too. 

But you know what, God is ALWAYS right!  Mason fits in our family exactly as God planned for him too. 
Are days hard? sometimes
Do we worry about the future? sometimes
Are we tired? sometimes :o)

And as any of you with children would say...they are SO worth it! 

Here is a wonderful resource to a booklet titled FASD: Strategies not solutions .  This booklet has great information for any child that craves structure and routine like these kids do. 

When we were matched with Mason we had to have our homestudy rewritten and "convince" our agency that we were prepared to handle a child with FASD.  Their words were "love isn't enough".  So very true but....
it's a darn good start!
And we love this little guy more then words, and if we'd known then what we know now we would do it again in a heart beat!!  God really does know best!