“Come on guys, let’s be grateful! |
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Eight-year-old Milo Harmon was on a family vacation when his cousin felt a little grumpy. Milo knew exactly how to elevate the mood: “Come on guys, let’s be
grateful!”
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Gratitude is something that Milo, a native Bulgarian, knows intimately. Spending the first three years of his life in an Eastern European orphanage, Milo had no idea that a family was dreaming of him 6,000 miles away. He also had no idea that he had Opitz G/BBB syndrome, a disease so rare that most doctors have never heard of it. Other things Milo was in the dark about: staying steady on his feet, using a bathroom, processing emotions or even using words to communicate.
Five years later, the boy once known as “Landon” on Reece’s Rainbow knows about all of those things ― and beyond.
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“In spite of my shortcomings, Milo is thriving. He is happy. He is loved,” says Nikki Harmon, his adoptive mother. “What a beautiful, incredible, humbling reality.”
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The couple already had four young children and a busy work schedule. Their hearts broke over the trauma they were witnessing through a screen ― but should they take the plunge, too? And if they did, the questioned loomed: who would be a Harmon?
“We were scrolling through all the profiles and kept coming back to Milo for some reason,” Nikki says. “He felt familiar to us.”
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Milo’s gaze in his listing photo was simple and open. His eyes, wideset thanks to his syndrome, seemed toddler-innocent. After two trips to Bulgaria, Nikki and Mikey brought their three-year-old son home to the Utah Valley in 2018.
And at once, Harmon family life became “totally chaotic.” Nikki and Mikey cocooned with Milo for almost a year, and the original Harmon children immediately loved their new brother ― but love couldn’t magically erase the suffering Milo had lived through, nor shed light on his rare medical issues.
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“Milo was very silly and funny but also had a lot of trauma that came out in very difficult-to-manage emotions. Not speaking the same language was very hard, and knowing how best to help him was hard as well,” Nikki says. “We also had tons of various doctor's appointments…and that was very draining and hard on Milo.”
Even so, the boy who was described at his orphanage as non-verbal was singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” and saying words like more, please and uh-oh within three days of his departure. Milo grew five shoe sizes in the first year of family life. He is now potty-trained, swings across monkey bars, rides a bike without training wheels, explains why he is upset, takes a hip-hop class, allows people to console him, loves school and has an expansive vocabulary.
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That vocabulary, in fact, can get him in trouble. About a year after becoming an American, Milo’s teacher called Nikki. Your son is using a very inappropriate word, she said. Embarrassed, the new mother wondered where her son would even have heard it. The mystery was solved later that day when she overheard Milo referring to a school friend with a new title: “Master Grayson.” |
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“You with me?” Nikki chuckles. “With his not-so-clear English, it sounded like a much more inappropriate term (insert all the laughing emojis).”
With Milo’s natural silliness, laughter (and all its accompanying emojis) is common in the Harmon house. It helps soften the frustration of “realizing that even with what little I knew about him, I was suddenly the one who knew the most” about Opitz/Gbbb, Nikki says.
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“Most kids with Opitz have developmental delays of varying degrees. Milo is delayed developmentally, but physically is very capable,” she explains. “He can get dressed by himself, brush his teeth, take care of his bathroom needs and feed himself. He can even get his own cereal and pour his own milk in the morning!”
Yet even if he couldn’t, mothering Milo would be worth it.
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“Sometimes I watch him playing at the park, or eating an ice cream cone, or getting on the bus for school and it hits me that those experiences would never have been possible for him at the orphanage,” Nikki says. “Milo has brought a level of holiness to our home that can only be achieved by great sacrifice.” |
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“And yet that sacrifice feels like an honor when I step back and see this child growing and loving and living.” |
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Crystal Kupper is a freelance writer specializing in magazines and special projects. Since earning her journalism degree, she has written for clients such as Zondervan, Focus on the Family and the Salvation Army, among many others. |
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REECE'S RAINBOW • www.reecesrainbow.org |
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