A friend indeed!

A friend indeed!
The connections I've made through adoption have been absolutely awesome! We made such good friends with people we met through Clio's adoption and I've "met" so many great people online. Our first trip we got to meet up with some of my online buddies in China! It was great!

I guess because parts of adoption are different and people who aren't doing it don't always understand, many adoptive parents seek each other out. There are tons of online groups of people from various agencies, people adopting at the same time, people with kids from the same orphanage and it goes on. I am currently a proud member of 64 such groups! Although I can only really keep up with about a dozen that I regularly check and respond too.

With the adoption of Tian, I joined several new ones including one for adoptive parents of kids with limb differences. There, I found a really wonderful, supportive community. Many of them gave me information and support when we were reviewing Tian's file. They sent me photos of their kids feet and videos of them running and doing karate! You can learn a lot from the Doctors, but you get the real story about what it is really like from the moms who have been there before.

I "met" my friend Wendy on that group. She has a beautiful little girl named Madeline who came home from China a little over a year ago. Madeline has very similar hands and feet to Tian and Wendy has been a wonderful resource and support. I've learned about Madeline's surgeries and what to expect for Tian.

Madeline goes to one of the top pediatric hand surgeons in the country, Dr. Scott Kozin in Philadelphia. Wendy volunteered to take Tian's photos to him at Madeline's surgery last week. Through this contact, Dr. Kozin agreed to consult with us and, if we are willing to travel to Philadelphia, to be Tian's doctor!

You might be wondering how that is possible or affordable...Dr. Kozin is a surgeon for Shiner's hospital. A wonderful organization who provides free care to children with orthopedic issues and burns. I didn't know anything about them until researching for Tian, but they are an awesome organization supported by the Masons. You can check them out here: http://www.shrinershq.org/

We are excited to get to talk to Dr. Kozin once we have Tian home!