Priscilla Morse saw the photo in her Facebook feed in 2014: a boy named Ryan, with cerebral palsy, microcephaly, and scoliosis, posted by an adoption organization in Bulgaria. Something about that image would not leave her at peace.
She traveled there in November 2015. When she finally held Ryan in her arms, he was seven years old and weighed only 3.6 kilos, the same as a newborn. As soon as they landed in Tennessee, they took him straight to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, where he was fitted with a feeding tube.
A year later, Ryan had tripled his weight. Priscilla and her husband David had previously adopted McKenzie, a girl with Down syndrome, and later they would add Gigi, from Ukraine. “Everyone deserves a family”, Priscilla said. For her, no child with special needs should be ruled out just because the path is difficult.
