PHOEBE for the Smith family–Zanesville, OH
God has truly blessed us! We have five beautiful children here on Earth and one in Heaven. Our two oldest children came to us through birth and our last four through adoption. Our 9 year old has Autism and our last three have Down Syndrome. All four of our adopted children are domestic adoptions. Our two birth children are beautiful and wonderful, they do very well with their siblings. Gabby and Dylan have helped and learned a lot through their new siblings. Jonathan is 10 and is Autistic. He does very well and has came a long way since he came to us at the age of 4 1/2. He is truly a great boy! Anthony is 8 and has DS. He was born with congenital heart defects and has had surgery to repair them. Anthony also has a lot of other health issues, but we deal with them because we love him. We have a great deal of support through the DSAGC and the DSACO, Nationwide Children's Hospital and Starlight School here in Zanesville. Ethan is 5 and has DS. He is a miracle. Ethan is relatively healthy, no other health issues, but his heart. Ethan has had two open heart surgeries. He actually coded on my husbands lap and had to be revived. Ethan has a defib/pacer and has bianual check ups with his cardiologist. They both go to our DS clinic at Nationwide. Ethan is very high functioning. Every day that he is alive is a miracle to us. Not everyday does your child die in front of you and come back. Like I said, a true miracle. Our angel Carmen is in Heaven. She was born in Kansas and life flighted to Children's Mercy in KC, MO. Carmen was born with Translocation and Mosaic DS. She was also born with an Unbalanced AV Canal-basically gave her hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Carmen had surgery at 1 week and two days of age. She never made it out of the PICU. Carmen died at 37 days of age. Leaving behind her birthparents and adoptive family that loved her very much. We have been trying to adopt Yana for over a year now. Complications with the process and issues that arrised beyond our control, halted our adoption. With our loss of our Yana that we dearly love, it was hard to make a choice to move forward, but my husband fell in love with Phoebe. So here we are again marching forward to add this beautiful princess to our family. My husband (Matthew) and I have been married for almost 18 years. A few years ago we decided it was important for one of us to stay home. Matthew has been a stay at home Dad for a few years now. He does a really great job! I am a registered nurse. I have been a nurse for almost 16 years. I work at a wonderful hospital-Genesis Good Samaritan-they are so supportive! My checks go to support my family with not a lot left over. We do fine, it's just we don't have a lot of extra. Please, Please, Please help us to help our Phoebe (and maybe another.) Every penny counts and means the world to us. Saving our Phoebe will mean even more to us. GOD BLESS YOU!!!!
5/17/11—COMPILING DOSSIER
Follow the Smith family's adoption journey on their blog at http://www.savinganangel.blogspot.com/
