When we first adopted Bohao, we had no idea all that was in store for us.  Before the adoption, we knew that Bohao was speech delayed, but we had no idea the degree of delay or the reason why.   Three months after he came home with us, everything changed.  

It was almost 8:00 am and Bohao was still asleep, which was very unusual.  When I went to get him, he was staring off in to space.  I got him up to go to the bathroom and still nothing.  Although he knew our morning routine, he seemed to be so dazed and not responsive.  I took him downstairs and called my mom.  Within a few minutes, Bohao began having a seizure and we immediately called the ambulance.  By the time the ambulance arrived 15 minutes later, the active part of his seizure stopped.  The paramedics highly recommended that he go to UNC Children's hospital where there is a children's epilepsy specialist, and we are so thankful we did.  After 4 days in the hospital and lots of EEG's and testing, it was determined that he had severe brain wave dysfunction which triggers seizures.  We were in shock.  No where in his medical paperwork had there been any indication that he had any previous seizures.  He was placed on 2 different types of medicine to get his brain activity under control.   A month later, we returned to the doctor to find that his brain waves were 99% under control. 

Although the road had been hard and very scary, there was one outcome that we were all thankful for... Bohao began speaking for the first time.  Yes, he had spoken a few words in English and a few words in Mandarin, but up until this time, it had only been a few.  Bohao's doctor had said that we should notice a difference in his speech and she was definitely right.  He was learning several new words everyday and using them.  He began communicating with us, unlike before.  All of this time, it was his diagnosed epilepsy that was causing his delay.  He was finally able to learn and grow like he should.  

Everything was going so much better until we started getting the bills from the hospital.  We couldn't figure out why insurance wasn't covering anything... NOT. ONE. PENNY!  Long story short... they consider epilepsy a pre-existing condition (yes, you can still have those) and they wouldn't cover anything for the first 2 years.  We immediately began applying for financial assistance, but didn't qualify.  Now, we are in a very difficult situation.  

As many of you know, we are missionaries in Cambodia.  We have given so much (including most of our salary) in order to support our staff and ministry.   We honestly have very little to our name (and that's very hard to admit).  We never thought that we would be in a position where we would have to possibly leave our ministry in Cambodia in order to work to pay off these insane bills.  We are very thankful that UNC has given us a 40% discount from $40,000 and reduced our bill to $24,000.  But we still don't know what we will do.  

We would ask that you would consider making a donation to help pay for Bohao's medical bills.  Although this has been a hard time for us, we are so thankful for the outcome and rejoice at the progress he is making.  He is finally able to get the therapy and help that he needs now.   

Thank you so much for helping Bohao reach his fullest potential and providing for a little boy who was abandoned and left behind.