Update on HIV Adoption

OK, so I have been doing a lot of thinking about disclosure issues lately when we finally bring our little girl home. My husband and I have been talking about who we should disclose to or not. Well, Grace from our agency told us there was a possibility for a one year old little girl that was HIV Positive. Nothing definite, but maybe a possibility. We have talked to the boys about it all, and they could care less whether they have a sister that is HIV positive or not. It's so funny how different children raised with parent's in the medical field are compared to the more medically sheltered children. My kid's know so much about disease and the body that I don't even think about it until I see how much other kid's are sheltered from the human body. So Cole, the eleven year old, has said about 10 times in the past few days " So mom, we might be getting a one year old sister from Ethiopia that is HIV Positive". He is so non chalant about it. It didn't hit me until last night, when I looked at my husband and said " Maybe we should tell him not to announce the HIV status to the world"

Then, the more I thought about it, I am not going to tell him not to say anything. Why should we think we have to hide her status. I don't want her to grow up and be ashamed of a disease she was born with. I don't want her to be ashamed of any part of her. She is God's Perfect Child. Period!!!

If someone has an issue with her HIV Status, I will gladly educate them on it, however if they choose not to know the facts, they can carry on about in their own ignorance. My girlfriend, a wonderful Christian woman, said "I think it's great, time to start weeding them all out" And it's so true, why should we care what the rest of the world thinks? If they don't like it, they can stay away from us.

As I have talked to many people over the past couple of month's about our decision to adopt a HIV Positive child, it has been a wonderful chance to educate on the advances in the field. I am amazed how many medical professional's are not up to date on HIV treatment and research. It is such a fast-changing field that unless you are constantly digging your nose into the subject, you can't keep up. I specialize in HIV and teach that section to our nursing students. I feel so fortunate to be in a position to help stop the stigma at least somewhat. My long term goal is to start my PhD this year in Public Health and Epidemiology with an emphasis on HIV. I would love to work for UNAIDS one day. Please pray for our family as we wait to hear news about this possible little one that we want so badly to be ours.