Response to a Friend About Adam's Vision

You are correct that Adam has had a rough little life so far.  I have fought many angry thoughts this week as I see each scar and watch him put things right in front of his face in order to see things.  I know that this is all part of God's plan and Adam's little life will be used for His glory but some days it does seem unfair.

We were aware that he had vision problems.  When he was with us at Christmas he was very wobbly on the stairs and quite clumsy.  It was very stressful for us to wonder if he would tumble down the stairs.  In January the social worker called us to tell us that one of his eyes was getting a little bit better.  We were optimistic that his vision would continue to improve such that he may someday outgrow his vision problems.  When Adam arrived at our home a week and a half ago the lens in the right eye of his glasses had NO prescription.  Both Regan and I felt Adam was a little less clumsy too.  We were eager to see his eye doctor and find out what we could do to continue the healing in his left eye.  A few days after having him in our home we made our way to his eye specialist in Ping Dong. The doctor informed us, "He has complete retinal detachment in his right eye from trauma to the head." I was completely deflated because this did not sound like the remarkable improvement that I thought had occurred.  When I questioned him about the lack of prescription in the lens he said, "You can put any prescription in the lens because that eye does not work."  The left eye has some improvement.  It went from a -9.00 to a -8.50.  Apparently, this is still very poor vision BUT I am praising God that he still has some sight.  As we left the doctor's office I fought back the tears but as soon as we got in the car I LOUDLY expressed my disgust with this social system that let Adam continue to have unsupervised visits with his parents for extended periods of time when they knew his parents had hurt him.  I have been trying very hard to not feel sorry for Adam.  My awareness of his vision has changed but nothing has changed for him, he still sees things the same way he did before I found out.  He does not need me to 'baby' him.  He has compensated very well until now and he has learned to cope with the vision that he has. The problem is now that I just need to let him keep growing and developing especially when my instinct is to pick him up and carry him everywhere to keep him safe.

I probably said WAY more than you wanted to know but it is still so fresh for me. 

Have a great day,

Holly