My Dad has been diagnosed with ALS, Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It is a progressive disease that affects voluntary muscle control, eventually rendering the patient totally paralyzed and usually resulting in death within 3-5 years. We want to be the ones caring for him when he needs it, which could be within the year, depending upon how fast his disease progresses.
This is why we’ve had our homestudy and I-600A ready for over a week, but haven’t mailed them off yet. Not because we don’t want to adopt anymore, but because we are now questioning the timing of bringing home a tiny baby. Being a caregiver for a person with ALS is demanding and draining. So is parenting a newborn.
So we’re researching and discussing often, but we haven’t decided yet. My question for anyone out there reading, what would you do?
Is this a lack of faith, of recognizing that God will bring us through anything He brings us to? Or is this wisdom, of judging that because we can return to adoption in the future, we should put it off in order to better serve my father’s needs for this time?
Posted on May 4th, 2007 by Dove
Filed under: ALS, Fostering/Adoption
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