When Layla’s Mom Tasha had an emergency hysterectomy, Dad Nathan told her he was open to adoption as she went into surgery. They started looking into agencies during her recovery and decided to adopt from China because they allowed people to take their adopted child with them on their first visit to the country. The adoption agency gave them a checklist to pick traits they would like to see in their future kiddo. Tasha and Nathan agreed that if this was a child they conceived together, they would not put limitations on keeping the baby, so they checked every box on the list. They opened the file with Layla’s picture, and knew she was meant to be their daughter—regardless of her story—so they began the process of trying to match with her. From the beginning of the adoption process to when they traveled to China to get Layla, it was about a year. Layla had just turned one when they flew over to bring her home. Two hours after landing, the orphanage director handed Layla to Tasha and Nathan with just the clothes on her back. No bottle. No shoes. She had never been fed anything other than rice. They signed the papers, and she was theirs just like that. CHOA doctors said they were shocked she was able to walk after having her back open for 8 weeks. They eventually learned that Layla needed a catheter at home. Spina bifida led to her having no feeling in her bladder or bowels so she didn’t know when to go. When she was 4 years old, she had a 14-hour surgery where her urologist used her appendix to create a channel from her bladder to her belly button. Then he put a port in to empty her bowels and closed off the normal passageways of the bladder and bowels. Layla catheterizes herself every 3 hours through her belly button and hooks up an IV bag to her port to flush her bowels out every night. She has surgery once a year to change out the ports, and checkups at CHOA every 6 months. Tasha also has breast cancer. She underwent a double mastectomy last May and had a second surgery in November. Layla started doing the catheter herself during this time. 2022 BBA kiddo Rue goes to the school Tasha teaches at. They connected with 2019 BBA kid Abby Johnson’s mom on Spina Bifida social media groups. They learned about BBA from a pediatrician they’ve been going to forever. One of the nurses supports BBA and told them they would be perfect for it so they applied! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices