Melissa is a CWA seminar facilitator, home study provider, wife and loving mother to two adopted daughters.  We first posted Melissa’s Adoption Myth # 1 on Facebook several weeks ago.  Before posting Myth #2,  I wanted to allow anyone who missed Myth #1 an opportunity to catch up.  Myth #2 WILL be posted next week.

Myth 1:  When you adopt a baby, they will have no issues or problems because they are young.

I love this one…as if babies are immune to their early experiences or that they are somehow numb.  If we relate this to the old computer adage GIGO (garbage in, garbage out), our early adopted babies are influenced in great part by their early experiences (good or bad), and can behave accordingly (good or bad) later in life.  Contrary to the myth, baby’s brains are more vulnerable.  From before birth forward, God wired us to be relational beings, and baby’s brains are wired and ready to grow correctly through wonderful, nurturing, sensory-rich experiences.  These experiences wire the baby brain for success later in life.  When the baby brain does not get these wonderful experiences the brain then begins faulty wiring.  Why…you may ask?

The human brain develops from the bottom up.  The brain stem develops first, and then up until four years of age a child’s brain is 90% adult size.  As Dr. Bruce Perry said, “The organizing brain is very malleable and responsive to the environment.  This means that of all the experiences throughout the life of an individual, the organizing experiences of early childhood have the most powerful and enduring effects on brain organization and functioning!”

There is so much hope and help for our children.  God’s miracle of the human brain is malleability.  Is God calling YOU to help a child heal?  From my personal experience, it is so hard, but truly one of the greatest miracles I’ve ever experienced.