Mia Bradshaw
China - 2005
Our daughter Mia was in a foster home that was connected with an orphanage. We did not have a chance to see the orphanage or meet with her foster mother. Mia was considerably healthy. She has a vision problem (eye turns in) which is corrected with glasses. (We did have concerns for a while because she was so shutdown and unresponsive.) Out of our group of 14 children, Mia was the most delayed. She was not walking, and it was obvious that she had spent a lot of time lying on her back. We were told that she liked TV and spent much time watching.
When we saw the photo, referral photos are often not the best example of what the child truly looks like. Mia's was not very flattering to say the least.
Mia totally shut down. She cried and cried. Mia would not let me put her down. (She was a real Velcro child.) Mia would not go to Bill and this was very difficult. She would not sit in a stroller so she had to be carried. She didn't smile for weeks and it took three months before she would let Bill hold her.
I guess that the biggest surprise that we had was the difference in food. The city of Hong Kong was not too bad, but there were very limited choices in Wuhan. The biggest issue was that everything was undercooked. Many families were sick, we were not but we were very careful, we ate a lot of spaghetti with no meat sauce. This was in a 5 star hotel.
Mia took to her brother Adam pretty much right away, but it was months before she would let me out of her sight. Just going down stairs to do laundry was a cause for tears. Every new experience brought on much resistance and lots of tears.
Mia has been with us for 18 months and is now doing great; she is loving, funny, happy, and incredibly smart. Any new situation is difficult for her still but once she tries she is usually fine. Last weekend we went for a boat ride, lots of tears at first, but now she is hooked.
We feel that God led us to Mia. "True Colors" is a song that best describes Mia. She has been such a blessing! Thank you to A Child Waits Foundation for your help with the finances, we could not have adopted her without your support.