Mary has been through a lot mentally, namely epileptic seizures and brain surgery. But when she traveled with her husband, Bill, to China to adopt a baby girl, she never imagined she'd be bringing home an unprecedented peace of mind.
Mary & Bill's Story
"At the age of 27 I had my first Grand Mal seizure."
Mary: I had my first seizure in the middle of teaching a class. They took me to the hospital, and at first they said that it didn't mean that I had epilepsy because anyone can have a seizure. That kind of opened the door, though, because I kept having more and more, averaging about three to five a month. Eventually they said I could have the opportunity for brain surgery.
Bill: The first time I saw her have a seizure it was very scary. Everybody's seizures are different, but for hers, she turns blue and it seems like she is not breathing. When she decided to have the surgery, they monitored her seizures and were able to measure and determine exactly where they were coming from. She was seizure-free for a year, and we thought it was over.
Mary: We started trying to have a baby, but the stress on my body of trying to get pregnant, having a miscarriage, and having surgery to try to get pregnant again made the seizures come back.
"At some point in time you have to say, 'What is best for her physically, as well as emotionally?'"
Bill: Other than her seizures the other worst moment we have had as a couple was going through the miscarriage. We started looking more into international adoption, and for us it the best option seemed to be China. Anne wasn't even born when we sent the paperwork in to apply for adoption. We found out who our daughter was going to be, and then we received a phone call from our adoption agency. We were told that she accidentally knocked over a bottle of hot water and it poured on her back and she could possibly have some serious burns. They sent us some photos and gave us the option not to take her.
"This is a human being, not a dog. We would even take the dog!"
Mary: We fell in love with her when we first saw her photograph. She is our baby. When people were like, "You really want a child that might be disabled?" I said, "No one would have wanted me, they would've said a baby with epilepsy."
"It took time to bond, but now she's all over us."
Mary: When we went to China to get her and they put her in my arms, she arched her back and screamed so loud, I almost dropped her. We were like, "This kid, we want her and she doesn't want us." All the other babies didn't do anything and ours was shrieking and screaming. We took her back to the hotel, and by that night we had won her over. Now she is all over us, and just recently she has started climbing up and sitting on my lap and letting me read a book to her. It took time, but when she wanted to do that out of her own volition it meant a lot to me. She knew that I was her mom.
"She has been the best medicine."
Mary: Stress causes me to have seizures and when we found out that we were going to get her and we actually had the plane tickets, the seizures stopped. It was ironic because for someone with epilepsy when your blood pressure gets too high or you get too hot you have seizures, and with the heat index in China at 118 degrees some days, William was terrified that I was going to have a seizure. I never did. I haven't had a seizure in over 60 days -- since she has been my little girl. She has been the best medicine.
