Adopted Down syndrome girl blesses family

[Guest guest]

I happened to see this in the Google News

Alert. It’s about Cammie Heflin & her family – Cammie wrote her

adoption story for the book we wrote and she is also on this list!

Qadoshyah

Adopted Down syndrome girl blesses family

http://www.marshfieldmail.com/articles/2008/11/13/news/doc491b32fde652f083145251.txt

By Greer

lindag@...

Published:

Thursday, November 13, 2008 11:26 AM CST

Hubble Elementary School speech

pathologist Cammie Heflin could not stop crying as she listened to a cell phone

message at work on May 17, 2007.

Her alarmed co-workers kept asking what was wrong, until Heflin finally made

the universal gesture of a mother rocking a baby in cradled arms.

Click image to

enlarge

The Heflin family at home in Marshfield. In front, from

left, are , 9, and Avery 7. In back, from left, are: Jarika, 16, ,

Cammie and Addysen, 2. The family adopted Addysen from Minnesota about 18

months ago.

Then they understood.

“We were waiting for the phone to ring all the time,” Heflin said

from the speech trailer alongside the elementary school in Marshfield.

In July 2005, Heflin and her husband, , applied with the National Down

Syndrome Society to adopt a young girl with the syndrome – and then

waited many months to be accepted and matched with a child.

“We knew this was God’s plan for us,” Heflin said.

After Heflin’s hysterectomy several years ago, the

couple considered adopting an international child, but dismissed the idea as

too costly. Then in early July 2005, Heflin attended a work-related Down

syndrome convention in Chicago and found information in an adoption booth to be

fascinating.

“This is it,” Heflin said of her intuition about adopting a Down

syndrome child. “I just knew.”

Heflin said when she told her husband her wish when she returned from Chicago,

he immediately agreed.

“I thought it was a great idea,” said in a later interview.

“We have friends with children with Down syndrome, so it wasn’t

completely foreign to us.”

Adoption procedure

and Cammie applied, participated in a home study and had background checks

done. Relatives, friends and Marshfield United Methodist Church members

provided character references. By January 2007, the application was complete.

The Heflins, now age 37 and 38, respectively, were called a few times about

prospective children, but none panned out.

Eventually the Heflins were paired with a Minnesota couple, both age 40, who

feared they could not provide the best care for a child with special needs.

They wanted Addy to have a quality life, Cammie said.

Finally, in July 2007, the Heflins’ dream became reality when they

brought home 9-month-old Addysen “Addy” from St. , Minn., a

blonde, blue-eyed beauty with a host of medical problems.

Health problems

“It was no surprise she wasn’t in perfect health,” Cammie

said. Yet, the family was unprepared for the extent of Addy’s medical

requirements.

When the Heflins flew home from Minnesota, at the birth parents’ expense,

Addy was on oxygen, couldn’t suck, breathe and swallow at the same time,

had already had a heart operation and had an unformed anus.

Addy spent the first 4 1/2 months of her life in intensive care and got sick

frequently. She has had 11 operations.

“We did not know what an ordeal it would be,” Cammie said of their

planned 11-hour drive home. “Her birth parents knew, which is why they

bought us plane tickets.”

Addy is now off oxygen and all medications. Her only medical condition is that

she requires a feeding tube until she eventually can eat solid food.

‘Her health now is amazing,” Cammie said. “She has come so

far. She can sit up and gets up on all fours.”

A new addition

Now 2, Addy turns 6-foot-4, 300-pound, to mush when he holds her, Cammie

said.

“Addy laughs all the time. She is so full of personality,” Cammie

said.

The Heflins’ youngest son, Avery, 7, in particular, “cracks Addy

up,” and is her buddy, Heflin said.

The Heflins’ decision two years ago to adopt was met with opposition by

then 14-year-old Jarika, the Heflin’s oldest child. Now 16, Jarika loves

Addy immeasurably, Cammie said.

Cammie said their oldest son, , 9, transitioned easily into having

another sibling, as did Avery. But Jarika was used to being the only girl, and

almost considered herself an only child because she is seven years older than

.

“Now Jarika tells Addy, ‘It was not in my plan to love

you,’” Cammie said. “Addy has changed my kids.”

“I was scared,” Jarika, a Marshfield High School junior, said.

Jarika said she did not know what to expect or how other people would react to

Addy. Jarika said it took just one week for her to bond with Addy.

“She’s a hoot,” Jarika said. “She’s so

funny.”

Addy’s future

Cammie said her three children are now more compassionate and understand not

everyone is the same.

“It’s great they are learning this so young,” Cammie said.

Cammie, who was herself adopted, as was Addy’s birth mother, praises

Addy’s parents for their decision to find adoptive parents for her.

They knew the challenges of raising Addy and wanted to find parents who would

love her for who she is. Cammie said she would encourage anyone to adopt.

Addy is in a First Steps program until she is 3. Then she will advance to an

early childhood special education program.

“Once she turns 5, she will go to kindergarten like everyone else,”

Cammie said. “Just like any other child, our goal is for her

independence, whether it is at home or somewhere else.”

Raising a Down syndrome daughter is a great gift, Cammie said.

“She is a lucky little girl,” Cammie said. “She has so many

people who think she hung the moon.”

“We couldn’t imagine life without her,” said.