We Adopted a Disabled Child // Raelynn’s Story, Part 2

In this video, we tell Raelynn’s adoption story. Raelynn has had medical complexities since we started fostering her, but we were always willing to adopt her. Adopting Raelynn through the foster care system had its advantages and disadvantages, but we’re glad we went that route.

Part 1: youtu.be/EidKvC9bYZM

Website: hopeandsunshine.tv
Instagram: ift.tt/2Pwxk52

00:00 – Intro
00:40 – Adoption Process
04:27 – Raelynn’s Medical Condition
09:00 – Foster Care Complexities
09:43 – Raelynn’s Prognosis (and other medical complexities)
11:32 – Our Mindset
12:20 – Adoption Day!

👇 PLEASE SUBSCRIBE if you find this content helpful.
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A few playlists you may find helpful:
⏩ Seizures: youtube.com/watch?v=…
⏩ Medical Procedures: youtube.com/playlist…
⏩ Living Life with Disabilities: youtube.com/playlist…

ABOUT RAELYNN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Raelynn has epileptic encephalopathy, global developmental delay, cerebral palsy, cortical vision impairment, and I could go on and on. In fact, I’ll go on a little more. Raelynn is quadriplegic. She has a gastro-jejunal (GJ) tube through which she “eats” all of her food. She has a vagus nerve stimulator (vns), and is currently getting intravenous immunoglobulin (ivig) treatments to hopefully help with her seizures. She regularly wears a shaker vest, uses a nebulizer, and a cough assist machine to help her breath better, especially when she seems extra susceptible to aspirating on her oral secretions.

Raelynn’s been to the doctor more times than the rest of our family combined!

In this whole situation, if we were looking for hope in our circumstances, we honestly wouldn’t find much. Raelynn will probably always be in a wheelchair. She’ll probably always be fed via a food pump. She’ll probably never talk. And she has virtually no chance of getting better.

I can’t tell you how many times people have told me, “God can heal her.” I’ve actually come to find it a little funny when people say that (and I’m a pastor!). I know that God CAN heal her, and I know that God will heal her in eternity, but the point of life is not that we wouldn’t have difficult circumstances.

God is using Raelynn exactly as she is right now. I see how much I’m a better person because of Raelynn. I see the ways God has changed my family, the things He’s taught us, the people He’s put us in connection with, all because of Raelynn’s problems. When I see how much God uses her disabilities, I see that God takes the bad things, the hard things, the hopeless circumstances of our lives and brings beauty, goodness, and hope from them all.

That’s what this channel’s about.

We post videos of Raelynn’s life, seizures, and other disabilities to this channel three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday).

If this sounds like something you could benefit from, please consider subscribing! Your subscription will help us keep making videos of Raelynn’s life and assistive technologies! ❤️
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hopeandsunshine.tv

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