Our Family and our Adoption journey!

The Sharp Family and our Amazing Adoption Journey

This is written for all the people out there that do not know our family personally and those that want to know Why we are adopting.

My husband George and I have been married for almost 22 years.  We were married very young and quickly became parents to a beautiful little girl named Alexis.  God continued to grow our family with a few more children most within 2 years apart. George was the baby of 13 in his family so a big family is what we decided we wanted!  Today Alexis is now 21, Brennen is 19, Paige is 18, Madison is 15,  Zander is 13, Obrion is 12, Taegan is 10, Twins…Menzo and Mavis are 7, Twins…Mathias and Matayah are 5, Kullen is almost 4, Ziah is 3 and the baby Rizlee is 19 months old! We love being parents and have always felt our children are such a blessing to us. 

Here is our family in June of 2012 when our son Brennen graduated from High School

 About 7 years ago our lives were altered in a way I would have never imagined when our daughter Mavis was born.  I can’t express to you the excitement I felt when I found out not only was I expecting my 8th child but also my 9th, George and I were overjoyed to bring twins into the world. Everything went as expected and on August 15th 2005, Mavis and Menzo were born.  My daughter Mavis had a small sore on her left thumb which the doctors quickly dismissed as a “sucking” blister.  By the second day it was clear there was something wrong. Not only did Mavis have the sore on her thumb but throughout the night her whole body started to blister as well. To make a very long and scary story short, about a week and several doctors later; we were told our daughter had a very rare skin condition called Epidermolyisis Bullosa (EB). The easiest way to explain EB is that her skin lacks the protein or “glue” that holds it together.  She blisters in response to any friction to her skin. For example: clothing, shoes, people touching her, almost anything including food because she can blister in her mouth and down her throat can affect her.

This is our baby girl , covered in bandages when we were finally able to bring her home from the NICU

Here is Menzo and Mavis as newborns. notice Mavis' coloring is different due to her EB and her poor little hands we so rough as she lost every fingernail and toenail.

Having Mavis opened our eyes to the world of special needs.  When we finally brought Mavis home from the hospital she required an extensive amount of care and attention. Her bandage changes alone took over 2 hours each day and not to mention we still had 8 other children who needed our time and love too.  To be completely honest, her first year was the hardest and most challenging year of my life as a parent.  I am happy to say that Mavis is now 7-years-old and though her skin condition will never change, she is thriving and amazes us every day with her spirit and how nothing stands in her way!
   
Not long after my son Ziah was born everything began to fall into place, and we knew God was telling us that it was time to expand our family through the blessing of adoption. George had a much better job and we were financially doing pretty well. We knew that we had lots more room in our hearts, home and family for another child.  It was clear to us from the start that after having Mavis, we wanted to adopt a child with special needs or as I prefer to say, challenges.  George and I spent hours educating ourselves on what was out there. We wanted to make sure we could meet the needs of the child and that they would blend well with our family. 

One day while searching on Reeces Rainbow I came across the picture of a beautiful little boy with big brown eyes. I just knew in that moment I was looking into the eyes of my little guy.  Looking further into his profile, Kullen was listed as having dwarfism.  Honestly my husband and I knew very little about dwarfism and had never met a single person with it.  We then spent a great deal of the next several months preparing to bring him home and what care he might require. 

The very first picture we ever seen of our son, Kullen

On November 1st 2010, we traveled to Ukraine. Not only had we never left the country before, this was the first time my husband and I had left our kids for a long period.  Going to the orphanage in Kremenchuk, Ukraine for the first time to meet him was one of the happiest moments of my life, but it also opened my eyes to the harsh realities of the general care and treatment that these children are subject to every day of their lives. It grieved our hearts immensely to see so many children living in these conditions, the majority of them were special needs, some minor, others more severe. Most whose fate is a mental Institution when they turn 5 years old if not adopted. Once transferred, 85% do not survive the first year.  That is where our son would have gone.  We were allowed to visit him twice a day for two hours a visit. It was difficult to know we had to leave him each day until our adoption finalized.

This is the very first time we met our son Kullen as we sit in the orphanage directors office.

Here is our shy, sullen little boy that very first day in Ukraine.

After court in his country, he officially became our son on November 22, 2010.  We now refer to this day as “Kullen’s Gotcha Day”.  After lots of paper work, medical visits and Embassy visits, we were finally able to bring Kullen home on December 7th 2010.  During the first few months we worked through quite a few challenges as he adjusted to being part of a family.  Some of the things we encountered were eating and drinking issues, lethargy, and malnutrition. It was amazing to watch the transformation in him. He improved and opened up each day.  Before we knew it this shy, withdrawn and sullen little boy had blossomed into a bright eyed, energetic, full of giggles toddler.  There are no words that could express how thankful we are to have Kullen as a part of our family. 

Here is Kullen today. This is the bright, happy face we get to look at each and everyday . He is here with us today because we listened to God's calling.  A family does make a difference!

We vowed that we would never adopt again since the paperwork, process and lack of funding were so very stressful on our entire family. God certainly had other plans for us! We tried to deny God's calling to adopt again but after a couple months we knew that this was HIS plan. We also never intended to bring home 2 children this time. That was totally a God thing. This is a very long story but lets just say, there were far too many coincidences for God to not be involved!

We are currently in the process of adopting two children from China both of whom have a form of dwarfism.  It just seemed natural to choose these two little ones because we are already very familiar with dwarfism and the medical care they will require.

 Our little girl, whom we are naming Rowyn just turned 4 years-old on September 11th. She was abandoned as a newborn simply because she was a girl. They had no idea at the time that she also had a form of dwarfism. She is now living in a foster home in China  where she will be sent back to the orphanage to wait for our arrival, which breaks this mommas heart. She will grieve the loss of the only family she has ever known, all alone. In her update that we received in November, she is only 17 lbs and 26 inches tall. She is very tiny. Shes even smaller than our youngest daughter who is only 19 months old and Rowyn is 4 years old.

This is the very first picture that we seen of our daughter, Rowyn.......she is 2 years old here.

Here is our girl's updated picture taken in November 2012. Shes just so so sweet and deserves to have a family!

Our son who we will name Zekiel is 2 ½ . He was kept by his birth family for around 5 months but abandoned when they realized that he had a form of dwarfism. He is now living in an orphanage in one of the bigger cities in China, where he will remain until we bring him home. Sadly we have no updated pictures of him and these were taken over a year ago or more. I wish I knew more about this sweet little boy to share, but sadly I do not.

Here is our little guy standing

Check out this cute little face just waiting to be loved!!

 Just like Kullen, the long term outcome for these children in their country is very bleak. China’s culture does not accept physical differences.  It is almost impossible for them to provide for themselves because they are limited in education, living skills, and health care.  By adopting these two children we are not only providing them with a loving family but we are also giving them the opportunity to live a full and healthy life.  Dwarfism can have many medical complications and can often intimidate adoptive families. Unfortunately children with dwarfism are often overlooked for adoption.  We are excited and motivated to bring Rowyn and Zekiel home to join our family. 

Right now we have received our Letter of Acceptance from China and we are beginning the final stages of our adoption. We hope to travel to China to bring them home in March. We are still very short on funds. While we have the means to take care of them on a daily basis, we do not have the large amount needed to get them home. Currently our family needs close to $20,000 to bring them home. We have already spent that for this adoption as well. We  have done many fundraisers, applied for grants and different things to help fund our adoption.  It’s very expensive to adopt and bring a child home to their forever family. This is why we are now asking for support from, family, friends, and just about anyone that would love to see our children home with their family.  They too deserve the love of a family......can you help make that happen??

Thank you so much for your  love and support! Every donation helps and raises the ransom to finally bring them home where they belong! We all can make a difference in these 2 children's lives.....Will you help us?

You can make a tax deductible donation that goes directly to REECES RAINBOW to help our family

SHARP FAMILY SPONSOR PAGE

Thank You all so much for caring for our family!!!