Baby Claire
Survivor #8 : Baby Claire
 | Survived Abortion : Date Unknown Place : Korea Injuries : Hip damage, severed right arm |
Baby Claire's Story
Little Baby Claire is also missing her right arm. Like Ana Rosa, it was wrenched from her helpless body in the sanctuary of her mother's womb. Her Korean mother was unmarried and considered abortion to be the only "solution" to her problem. Claire, considered undesirable and "unplaceable" in Korea, was adopted and brought to the United States by an American couple whose warm and loving family already included their own four biological children - triplet boys Joshua, Jonathan, and Jeremy, and their sister Caitlin - and a severely disabled, adopted daughter from Taiwan named Carissa.
Claire was one year old when she came to America. A year later she "celebrated" her second birthday by having hip surgery. For six weeks the energetic two-year-old was immobilized in a body cast. As her adopted grandmother, 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," Mrs. 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.