[blindkid] New Family

Doreen Franklin doreenproverbs3 at bellsouth.net
Mon Jun 27 22:04:07 UTC 2011


Heather
Welcome! and Congrats on your adoption! We have 2 daughters who are adopted. Our 
older daughter will be 16 in December and she was a private adoption from the 
county we lived in. Our younger daughter will be 7 in Sept and she came home 
from Guatemala 5 yrs ago in August. Our younger one is visually impaired. We 
were able to visit her a few times in Guatemala and on our pick-up trip, we 
spent 2 great weeks with her and the foster family in Guatemala! 


I was also worried about the language barrier. Somehow, Torrie understood our 
English (and my little "spanglish") and what we were saying to her. We also had 
some sign language that would be easy for her to pick up -- and I gave her the 
sign, and then the Spanish and English of what it meant. I knew she got it when 
she used it independently for what she wanted! I can tell you from our 
experience, it was 4-6 weeks before we got words out of her once she was home in 
FL. Once she started talking, she hasn't stopped! (smiling here). It was as if 
she needed to "shut down" to get from Spanish to English. She would obey, just 
there wasn't much coming from her. 


I can tell you of one thing that "scared" me -- she had been home about a year, 
so as she was nearing her 3rd birthday, a language teacher for the school 
district (happened to go to our church and was doing the pre-K class), said that 
she wasn't doing 3-4 word sentences. It took me back but I talked to a friend 
who had adopted from China; her daughter is the same age as Torrie and had been 
home about 6 mos prior to us. She said that Torrie had Spanish for 2 yrs and she 
won't "measure up" the same way as our kids born here. I needed to hear that, 
and we were good to go. Our internationally adopted kids will not be on the same 
"language path" as our native kids. 


We were finally hooked up with Early Steps and they provided services to help 
with her motor skills, after her evaluations of where she was. I then found NFB 
and the parents division has been a huge blessing for us! There are families who 
have "been there, done that" and can help mentor, guide and encourage me. We 
attended the state and national conventions in 2009 and it was truly an eye 
opener in many areas! But I knew NFB was THE place to be! I know there are 
several people I can call or email for help. Torrie has not only seen kids like 
herself, but she has seen the adults who are able to do things, even if they 
have a visual disability! I was also able to see and hear what I needed to do to 
help Torrie -- even small things that we sighted adults don't realize they need. 
The docs may give you the medical stuff, but it's the parents and families who 
have lived it that help you out! I learned a lot by tapping in to other moms and 
families!

Definitely keep reading and tapping into the yahoo groups. Join an NFB parents 
group and attend the state and/or national conventions. Talk to other families 
and remember the sky is the limit for our kids!

 
Doreen Franklin
V President
FL Organization of Parents of Blind Children (FOPBC)
 




________________________________
From: Heather Breems <heatherbreems at gmail.com>
To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
Sent: Mon, June 27, 2011 10:11:17 AM
Subject: [blindkid] New Family

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this list and just wanted to briefly introduce myself and my
family.  My husband and I are in the final stages of adopting a 2 and half
year old from Haiti who is assumed to have been blind since birth.  As you
can imagine the medical information from Haiti is scarce, but we have
visited with him many times over the course of this year long adoption
process and are so happy we will finally have him home soon.  I have tried
to do as much research and reading as possible to prepare ourselves first
for helping him with the transition.  I am very encouraged to have found
this group along with all the other resources that I know will help our
family and our son.

Sincerely,

-- 
Heather Breems
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