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Cleft Palate; Artery Malformation

Kim and Shaune Porter and their children, 5-year-old Joshua and 3-year-old Mei-anna, are among the International Adoption Clinic’s success stories. The Porters, who live in Northport, came to the IAC when they adopted 22-month-old Joshua, who was born with a cleft palate. “What we needed at that point was knowledge, but they gave me a lot more,” Mrs. Porter says. The staff helped arrange for Joshua to undergo corrective surgery and to begin speech and occupational therapy --- all through the physicians and therapists at Children’s Hospital. When the Porters added 18-month-old Mei-anna to their family, they also sought the IAC’s aid. “Mei-anna’s medical records were much less complete. The paperwork said that her development was on track, but she couldn’t walk or even crawl; she couldn’t feed herself; she couldn’t hold up her head,” Mrs. Porter says. At the urging of the IAC staff, Children’s Hospital doctors conducted exhaustive tests and discovered a malformation in one of the arteries of Mei-anna’s brain, which was corrected by surgery at Children’s in Birmingham last fall. “Now she is a happy child, smiling and dancing. We never would have found it if they hadn’t been so diligent. I thank God for them,” Mrs. Porter says. “This is so much more than a clinic. They are my friends and a huge support system. I don’t know where my kids would be without them.”