Christina and her husband have a seven year old adopted daughter, Rosie, who has complex medical needs. Christina says: ‘I’m not saying that life is challenge free, but it’s a challenge that we love facing with Rosie.’

Ours was a whirlwind adoption – just seven months between attending an open evening and bringing our beautiful 4 year old daughter home. We were very aware of Rosie’s complex needs. She was unable to walk, barely able to talk, she was tube fed and had challenging behaviour. When our daughter entered our lives, so did eight different groups of professionals.

With a lot of help, Rosie hit some amazing milestones. She learnt to walk unaided and her speech started to improve. But her behaviour very quickly escalated. There were daily meltdowns lasting hours if not all day, violence and verbal abuse, a refusal to cooperate in any adult led task -  difficult when she is reliant on adults for every task from washing and dressing to feeding and safety.

After one year of being home, and what I can only describe as the most challenging summer holidays we had ever experienced, I gave myself a talking to. I put my pride behind me and remembered the promise we had made to our daughter - that we would never stop getting her the help and support she needed. I made the phone call to post adoption support and begged for their help. They were amazing, and things moved fast.

Rosie had multiple assessments and, thanks to the Adoption Support Fund, is having Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy. Our daughter now has a total of 12 different diagnoses including FASD, Global development delay, complex developmental trauma, Oral aversion, Dissociation and attachment disorder.

Now aged 7, Rosie has been home for nearly 3 years. I’m not saying that life is challenge free, but it’s a challenge that we love facing with Rosie. She is so strong and resilient, has a love for the great outdoors and she makes us proud every single day. She is such a character, everyone who meets her falls in love with her. We are riding our life’s roller coaster as a team. I am not sure where we would be today without the support we’ve had and we will be forever grateful for the wonderful social workers, therapists and adoption community we have met. We will never stop fighting to get our girl the help and support she needs.

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