As with this whole adoption process, there have been lots of changes. Which means lots of growing periods for me! One thing that has changed throughout our process is the surgery for our daughter.
You can go back and read previous posts, to learn all about how God had provided someone incredible to help us fund the surgery and locate a doctor in India to perform the surgery.
But if you don’t want to go back and read, here is a synopsis of all that has gone down with the surgery…
Our daughter has a severe heart murmur. They call her an ASD patient in medical terms. From the medical records we have seen, most doctors have told us that she will require a surgery to fix this, as it will affect her life as she gets older. There is a slight chance she can receive something called an “umbrella device” that will not be as invasive and she will have less time in recovery.
We found out we had some insurance issues, and that our policy would not cover her surgery without raising our premiums to amounts we can not afford. We thought we may lose our daughter to the fact we could not afford this surgery.
Yet God stepped in and provided a great connection through a great friend…. the Dr. I mentioned above.
So, we got a surgery scheduled for the Fall of 2012. This surgery did not work out, because the orphanage director felt he could not successfully arrange/take her to get her surgery.
We made a new plan. We will take her for the surgery when we go to pick her up. We thought we would be getting her January 2013. Got a surgery tentatively scheduled, and then that is when the debacle happened with the NOC, and our picking her up was then delayed for months, without an answer as to when.
Then during the time our case was in Special Committee with CARA over our NOC, we found out we may not be able to take her to get the surgery, because of some of the travel visa regulations. Our agent was told we would have to get her Visa first then go get the surgery done. But the Visa says we have to be out of the country within 30 days. While we fully anticipate that she will be recovered in 30 days, it was too risky to assume that, and mess up any of the paperwork regarding our daughter.
Then the wonderful Dr. that has been helping us all along mentioned we could probably have her surgery done in Haiti Dec of 2013 or Summer 1014. So we resigned to the fact that this was the best option. We would not have to stay in India long, we would be in a similar time zone while her surgery is being done, we could bond with her before a major surgery, as well as American doctors would be performing the surgery in Haiti.
Then we also looked into seeing if she could qualify for Medicaid. There is slight chance that is possible, and she would definitely be covered under a program in TN called Cover Kids. But there were still no definite answers. We would not know the percentage of the surgery we would have to pay if she was covered by Cover Kids…. and this is a very expensive surgery, so even a percentage of the surgery could be a financial strain on our family.
Next we found out we could indeed have the surgery in India, because we could get her travel visa after her surgery.
We have come full circle.
We have decided to go ahead and complete the surgery in India. While there are some benefits to waiting for Haiti, and waiting to see how Cover Kids could help us… there were still many unknowns.
We felt is was the wisest step for our family to go ahead and complete the surgery while there, and we have full confidence in the Indian doctor, Dr. Gopi, that will be performing the surgery. And this wonderful Dr. in TN is helping us fund the surgery there. We feel very blessed!
So we have no travel plans set as of yet, because we are waiting on the court process to be completed. But it appears we will be leaving mid-September and I will be staying 4-5 weeks while she recovers from the surgery, and Scott will be staying for two weeks.
The hardest part of this plan for me is being away from my other children, but God has already been bringing me comfort about this. And, thank Him for the Internet, because I can facetime with them everyday!
Please pray for her surgery and her recovery!