Description

The England Grant of $2500 may be available for qualifying families.

Individualized grant funding for qualifying families may be available through our President’s Grant. Contact us for more details!

Please meet precious Marissa. She was born February of 2010. Her diagnoses are congenital cerebral palsy with Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy-III stage. Our Bulgarian staff met her in November, 2023 and said that Marissa is a cute, charming and gentle child. She really needs a lot of love, attention, personal contact, understanding, patience and activities.

Throughout the meeting, Marissa was active in her own way and it was extremely interesting to watch her interact with the specialty team and the activities they did with her. She adjusted to us visiting and slowly got used to us. We could then approach her and even lightly touch her and tease her.

Marissa needs help with all her self-care including feeding, bathing, toileting etc. However, although she is fed by staff, she can hold a bag of snacks and take out the food item and put it in mouth. Marissa sits with support. Although she cannot walk on her own, the specialists have her use a special walker to encourage her to keep upright and move her legs. When Marissa likes something, she becomes more emotional, waves her arms and tries to smile or make facial expressions. She will follow a person with her eyes.

It is felt Marissa would do best in a large family as that is what she is used to with her foster mother. We have a lot more information and photos for this sweet girl. Please e-mail kathy@wiaa.org. Grant funding is available for qualifying families.

Her video from the visit can be seen at: https://youtu.be/rojfdwtWLYQ

Disclaimer:

WIA is not responsible for the medical information summarized here. Medical information sent by other countries may be inaccurate or incomplete. Prospective Adoptive Parents reserve the right to have medical information evaluated by a medical professional in the United States.