Hi I'm Grant. I'm a junior at Silverado High School. One thing you should know about me is that I play baseball. Another important thing to know is that I sometimes eat raw cookie dough even when the wrapper explicitly says not to. I like to live on the edge a bit; just don't tell my mom because she'll flip.

Aside from all that great stuff, I just turned sixteen years old a few days ago (New Years Eve actually!). That was pretty neat. In fact, I'm basically an adult now. I have to take out the trash, do the dishes, file taxes… okay maybe not the taxes. But it still feels like a step in that direction.

Now it makes sense that with my passing into this unknown realm of responsibility and hard work that I would begin something new. And what better way to start fresh than by entering into the world of online journalism? This is officially my first article for Odyssey. Here are some clichés to show you how excited I am to get started:

1. I am overjoyed to have been given the opportunity to write in this wonderful community.
2. I am curious to see where this new chapter in my life takes me.
3. I cannot wait to start contributing to this website and the world as a whole.
4. I am looking forward to this experience.

And finally, the most contrived and thoughtless cliché of all:

1. I'd like to thank the man upstairs for helping me out on this journey. I'd also like to thank my parents and my siblings. Shoutout to Tupac too; he seemed like a cool guy.

Pick a few of them out at random and you've got a pretty decent post game interview from a professional athlete.

And while all of these things are true (I am incredibly ecstatic to be participating in the Las Vegas Team of Odyssey), they just come across as lazy. So instead of trying to put into words the way I feel about this experience, I figured I'd get right down to it and write about something personal that I haven't shared with many people before. The ultimate goal is to increase the scope of my thoughts and ideas, and hopefully find an audience that, at the very least, respects my work, and maybe even find an audience that takes as much pride in the words I write as I do.

Today, I am going to take you on a journey, a true odyssey if you will. It is one of loss and forgiveness, of hope and despair. It is a journey that eventually leads two young children to a life that they could have never before dreamed possible, a story so great that even Homer would be jealous… It's actually not nearly as epic as it sounds, but I still think you'll enjoy reading about it. So without further ado, here is my personal experience with adoption.

Now before I explain how or why we have adopted two kids, I first have to tell you about my family. I am the fourth youngest of eight siblings, five of whom are biologically related to me. The youngest of those five, Dan, was born with a physical disability called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or OI for short. If you have ever heard of old people getting Osteoporosis, then the idea is roughly the same. His bones break really easily, and because of that, it causes dwarfism, a weakened immune system, and other various physical impairments. But mentally, he is just as smart as any other kid in his grade. Now, if he would actually apply himself, then maybe his grades would reflect this, but that's a story for another time.

Anyway, Dan’s disease is extremely rare. On top of that, he has one of the most severe types of OI. So when he was first born, our family didn't quite know what was going to happen. Because of this, taking care of him and learning to live with him was a process. But after a while, we all got used to it. Things that might be foreign to most people (putting the wheelchair in the car before we leave, giving him his medicine when he needs it, picking him up to carry him where he needs to go) became second nature to us. It still is. So while many people may view what we do, and what he does, as difficult, we have grown accustomed to these sort of tasks. And after 14 years, I have to say it hasn't been all that bad. Just don't let him know I said that.

Because of the severity of Dan’s condition, many other families with children in the same situation often need help figuring a few things out. Whether it be simple stuff such as what to do when a bone breaks, or harder stuff like how to stay positive in difficult circumstances, there is a growing “OI community” across the world that aids and supports one another. And that's where this amazing thing called the Internet comes in. People from all 6 inhabited continents have taken to the web in search of support. Oftentimes, these parents are simply not prepared or not able to care for a child with this disability. This is where we come in.

My family has created what I refer to as “The Facebook Baby.” There have been countless instances of my mom starting a dialogue with someone on Facebook who is parenting a child with OI. Twice now, those fruitful conversations have resulted in a brand new sibling for me. When you really think about it, it seems insane that we would adopt someone based on facebook posts and text messages. But at the same time, it showcases the power of social media and all of the good it can do for the world. While this isn't necessarily a common occurrence, if one person's life can be changed in a positive way, then social media, and Facebook itself, has done a good job.

The first child we adopted is named Alan. His parents are from China. When we first “received” him, it was March of 2014; he was just two years old and couldn't speak a word of English. Today, he's four years old, and turns five in February. He has progressed a lot since then, but language isn't the only way he has improved his life.

Alan came from a peculiar home situation. He and his parents were living in California at the time, and they couldn't quite handle the way things were going. In Chinese culture, having a disability is looked down upon, especially by the men. So one can imagine the contempt the father felt toward his own son. It's a strong word, contempt, but it is accurate in this case. On the one hand, he was Alan’s dad, so it was his job to love him. On the other hand, it seems that in their culture, love is earned and not given freely. For that reason, Alan was essentially solely cared for by his mom, and while she tried her best, she had a very hard time keeping up with him and understanding his disease. Later on, after Alan had been living with us for some time, we realized he still had bone fractures that had yet to heal. This was alarming, but it just shows how tough it is to care for a child with this disease.

Earlier, I said we “received” Alan, and I used that word for a reason. We didn't adopt him through normal means; it wasn't this long drawn out process that cost thousands of dollars. It was a lot easier, and a lot more heartbreaking than that. The main issue was that Alan’s parents were moving back to China. There were two complications that arose because of this decision: 1.) The healthcare in China isn't as good as it is here for someone with OI, and 2.) Alan’s mom was pregnant.

Now up until the beginning of 2016, China had a strict one-child policy. If a family was found with more than one child, their “extra” kid was taken away and put into an orphanage. So if Alan moved to China with his family, he would either have been subject to lack of services or simply a lack of a family. Neither was a viable option to us. And even on a deeper level (it really hurts me to say this), Alan could have brought shame to his family. If you had seen his dad's face when he looked at Alan, you would see the expression of someone who was embarrassed and ashamed. Ashamed that his child was born with an imperfection and that he was too inadequate to help him with it. In Chinese culture, bearing a child with a disability reflects poorly on the parents. This is for a multitude of reasons, but the main one is that people judge the parents based on their child, like in any culture. Because having a disability is frowned upon, the parents are subsequently looked down upon as well.

For all of those reasons, we couldn't let Alan go back to China. Frankly, his parents didn't really want him to go with them anyway. So one day, his mom and dad drove down here with him, dropped off his stuff, stayed in town for a night, and then left. They signed some papers essentially giving guardianship to us and that was that.

His mom might have cried a bit; I don't remember. I do know that she loved Alan and that she still checks up on him routinely through Facebook with my mom. But even though she loved him, she was still willing to give him away. So once they signed those papers, Alan was adopted into our family. We were scared. Dan was hard to take care of in the early years, so we didn't know what to expect with Alan. Almost three years later and he has put all of our worry to rest. Alan is a part of our family and we wouldn't have it any other way. We were skeptical when we first got him; we thought for a long time about the implications of adopting a child, especially one with a disability. Even though we were scared of the unknown, we decided to take a chance and bring Alan into our lives. Looking back, it is one of the best decisions we have ever made.

So that's the story of how we brought Alan into our family, but he is just one of two that we have adopted. The second one is more recent and we are still going through the process. I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to tell people about this. Oh well, I think it's okay.

About four weeks ago, Dan was in Philadelphia for a bone treatment. At that exact same time, a girl named Cyana was there too. It turns out that my mom had been communicating with her parents for quite a while now. She had been thinking about adopting her already, but the fact that they were in the same place at the same time was just too much of a coincidence. She saw it as a sign, a sign that she needed to bring Cyana home with us.

Cyana’s story of coming into our family is certainly not as simple as that, and is arguably even more saddening than Alan’s. See, she grew up in an orphanage in Bulgaria. On top of that, she has OI, so it amplified whatever problems arose from her situation and created even more difficulty. For nine years, she lived in an orphanage. Finally, she was adopted by a foster parent, but unfortunately, this situation wasn't much better.

She lived with her foster family that had 13 other children, most of them with various mental disabilities. Her foster parents knew how to deal with these children, but had a much harder time with her. They were used to the kids not really having a personality because of their disabilities, but Cyana was more… nippy. Think of a Chihuahua. They are a tiny, tiny dog, but they act like they are a pitbull. And when you grow up in an orphanage and are bullied and mistreated because of your disability, your personality is your only way to fight back. Inflicting physical harm (fighting) isn't really an option for people with OI. So she learned to use her words to retaliate. Dan and Alan have learned the same thing. It doesn't make it right, but when you are trapped inside their body and can't run, walk, jump, or fight, words are the only real power you have left.

Cyana’s foster parents didn’t understand this, and she was neglected and even abused because of this. Not only that, but they were in over their heads too. They couldn't take care of that many kids, and all it did was give less attention to Cyana and leave her with a bleak future ahead.

Three weeks ago, we changed this. My dad and Dan brought Cyana back to our house from Philadelphia. Her foster mom eagerly sent her off with them, all too willing to be rid of her. We don't have the technical adoption situation in order yet; we are still trying to figure that out. Actually, we are still trying to figure out if we should even adopt her. I think she's great. She's 11 years old, funny, respectful, nice. There are things that make her different, but with her upbringing, it is understandable. We can't hold that against her. I understand that there is uncertainty. We don't know what life will be like when Cyana is truly a part of our family. But we can't let uncertainty hold us back. A common motif in my family has been this lack of knowing, but still going through with it because it's the right thing. We persevered through the early years of Dan’s life, we took a chance on Alan, and now it's time to take a chance on Cyana. We cannot allow the fear of the unknown to keep us from doing what is right.

I think we should, and are going to, adopt her. But at the end of the day, it is ultimately my parents’ decision. Adopting a child is a lifelong commitment. In a year and a half, I'll be off in college. Even after I leave though, my parents will still be caring for Dan, Alan, and Cyana. That is no easy task, even if they didn't have their disabilities, but I think we can do it. To me, it is the only morally correct thing to do in this situation. I couldn't live with myself if we sent her back to that wretched place she used to live. They put soap in her mouth, they locked her in her room, they even hit her if she did something they didn't like. Knowing that is going on and giving her back to that misguided family would make me, and each of my family members, an accomplice to that unacceptable behavior. We can't do that, so I'm pretty sure Cyana is here to stay. She has done well so far, and adjusting to life in our family, or to any new family, is hard.

We are going to enroll her in school soon, and while she has never had a formal education before, she is smart enough to where she will learn quick. This is a step in the right direction for her, and I consider it the first of many obstacles that she will have to overcome. She will be okay, though; I believe in her.

Anyone who has the will and inner strength to live through what she has lived through has my respect. Not just that, but I'm really starting to warm up to her. I think I might love her; I can't really tell yet. I told her I did about a week ago, but unfortunately, I'm not sure if I meant it. Pretty soon, I hope I can say it without any sort of consternation.

Things are changing for the better. The more I talk to Cyana, and the more she is with our family, the more I realize we are making the right choice by adopting her. Moreso, I realize that we are definitively changing her life. Nothing in the world could make me happier than that.