Page 11 - HFA Dateline 2016 Q3 Fall

An Unexpected Turn in Our “Luckey” Road

By Shari Luckey

ight years ago, if someone had asked if we were planning We swiftly completed all of the steps necessary to adopt him. In
Eto have more children, I would have laughed and politely order to complete the adoption, we needed pre-approval from
responded, “No.” Three children was actually one more than we China and a home assessment from a local adoption agency.
had planned for as we had already gotten a bonus when I gave We also had to take online training for older and special needs
birth to twins when our first-born was six years old. Besides, we children, complete various legal papers and forms, and get ev-
have faced our share of challenges as a family. I am a carrier erything expedited to China for authorization and approval.
of hemophilia B and my older brother, who had From start to finish, the process took about nine
severe hemophilia B, passed away from compli- months. The cost associated with an adoption
cations from AIDS in 1993. Our oldest son has from China is currently around $30,000 includ-
severe hemophilia B with inhibitors and suffers ing travel. Understandably, many people are put
from an anaphylactic reaction to factor IX. One off by the high cost of international adoption
of our twin daughters has mild hemophilia, like but there are numerous grants available to help
me. We had all that we could handle and our cover a large percentage of the cost.
family was complete, or so we thought.
It was January 25 when we first met Luke in
In March 2009 we received an email that in- China. He was frail and had a slight limp, as his
troduced an unexpected hairpin turn in the right knee had repeatedly bled over the years
middle of our family’s roadmap. The email told and was extremely swollen. During our visit,
us about a delicate, sweet-natured young boy, he spent the majority of his time in a borrowed
living in an orphanage in Nanjing, China. He had hemophilia wheelchair, giving him a sense of freedom he had never before
and had spent many weeks in the hospital. His situation spoke experienced. After spending 20 days together in China, we flew
to my husband and me so we requested more information. home to the US. Immediately upon stepping off of the plane,
After receiving his file and learning that he had hemophilia A, Luke became an official US citizen, and he was automatically
we made a prompt decision as a family to make him a Luckey. covered by our private health insurance. We spent the first few
Fall 2016 | Dateline Federation 11