God be with them

Something "new" is heavy on my heart. We are adopting a special needs child. They will have a physical need/birth defect/medical disease. The list is long of what their need could be. Because of the type of child that we have described in our homestudy, we would expect that the child would be as mentally and emotionally healthy as possible. But recently my mind has been wrapped around the fact that almost all of these children are simply damaged. I don't know what the Lord has in store for us, or what our child will really be like, but from what I have been reading, there seems little chance that they will be "normal" in every way. You see, most Bulgarian children are placed for adoption in infancy. There is much research on the damaging effects of being raised in an institution. Their little minds simply cannot develop properly without the constant care, love, contact that a parent could give them. God made children to be cared for by a mother and a father. The situatation in most Eastern European countries is that they are placed in orphanages and cared for there. In other countries it is more common for a child to be placed in a foster home, or cared for by a parent until they are relinquished to an orphanage due to exteme poverty or the child becoming an orphan. These situations have there own problems and risks, but not quite as severe as complete institutionalization. I am making generalizations. From some message boards that I have been on lately, I am hearing that almost 100% of these children have some form of ADD/ADHD or other learning/behavior problems. It's hard to assume that our child will not suffer with the same. Every family loves them and believes they are wonderful and loving children, but there are issues and the road to raise them is not easy.
I believe the orphanages are doing the best they can, but these children need mommies from the very start that will hold them and talk to them and look them in the eyes. I am sad for the life that these children are handed. It's this fallen world that we live in. I am not trying to put the cart before the horse...but I am sad and disappointed that our child may suffer from these problems...that we (the child and us) will have this burden to carry. No one would want their child to suffer from these problems. It doesn't make me not want to have one of these children. They need a family as much as my own children need our family. Our child needs us and we need to see what Jesus will do in their lives. The damage is done, so to speak. Their best hope is Jesus and the love of a family. That's what we want to give them.
My prayer is that God will give us a special measure of grace to handle whatever their physical and emotional needs may be. I know it will be difficult. I pray that our child is an exception to the norm, but regardless, I trust that God will give us what we can handle, and that He will hold us up to meet the challenge.
I pray that even now their caregivers pat their backs, smile at them, sing them a song, and look them in the eyes. I pray that they are given the best care to give them the best chance in life until we can have them home.