Baby Claire

Picture: Big sister Carissa (left) with Baby Claire (right)

Little Baby Claire is missing her right arm. She lost the arm when an abortionist twisted it off trying to abort her. Her Korean mother was unmarried and considered abortion to be the only solution to her problem. Claire, considered unplaceable in Korea, was adopted and brought to the United States by an American couple whose family already included four biological children and a severely disabled, adopted daughter from Taiwan named Carissa.

Claire was one year old when she came to America. She had hip surgery when she was two years old. For six weeks the energetic two-year-old was immobilized in a body cast. As her adopted grandmother, Dr. Jean Garton, says, it could have been a 42-day-long “Maalox moment” for the whole family. But that’s when sister Carissa came to the rescue. Carissa was born with severe head deformities: She has a severe cleft palate, and no lower jaw, making speech difficult, and difficult to understand. But there’s nothing wrong with her loving heart. With infinite patience, she took care of her little cast-bound sister. “What could have brought chaos to the family turned into something wonderful,” Dr. Garton relates. “Carissa became Claire’s missing hand and Claire became Carissa’s voice.” When others in the family can’t understand what Carissa is saying, Claire pipes up with the translation.