I’m Aware That I’m Rare: Lisa Knight Skeeters (339)

The phaware® interview

Lisa Knight Skeeters was born with heart defects and had multiple surgeries through her younger years. 14 years ago, she developed pulmonary hypertension and was advised not to have children. In this episode, Lisa discusses the reasons she and her husband decided to adopt.

My name is Lisa Skeeters, and I was born with a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot, which is basically four major defects in the heart. I had surgery when I was 11, and then again at 19. I did considerably well over the years. I went on to college, started teaching school, and got married. Then, I started noticing that I was getting really short of breath, more so than usual. Just fatigued. 14 years ago, I was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. I had been not struggling with that, but living with it for the last 14 years, doing really well.

I was told that because of my heart condition and because of the pulmonary hypertension, it would be best not to have children. So adoption was a very easy choice for us. We kind of dabbled in surrogacy a…