I was walking around my local Sunday flea market on a pleasant spring Sunday morning when I spotted a vendor with a pile of prescription glasses on one of his tables. I was pleased, because my search for glasses at thrift stores and other places had been rather unsuccessful for quite a while. I went through the pile, and I found a really nice pair of ladies’ glasses that appeared to me to have a prescription of somewhere around -9.00D. I attempted to haggle with the seller, but he wanted $10.00 and was firm on his price so I walked away without them. As I was leaving his booth, I spotted my neighbors walking in. Juanita, the mother, was accompanied by Oskar, the oldest boy, and Rebekka, the younger of 2 daughters. Oskar was around 14 and Rebekka was about 6. I knew their sister Maria was around 10 or 11 but she was not with them. Rebekka had been born in the US, but I was pretty sure that Jose and the rest of his family had been living in the country for a few years without the proper papers. But this was none of my business, and they seemed like nice people. I had finished my walk through the flea market and was heading towards the car park when I saw Juanita, Oskar and Rebekka walking towards me. I got a little bit of a shock when I saw that Rebekka was wearing the strong glasses that I had walked away from. I watched her and she seemed to be looking around at everything as if she was seeing the scenery clearly for the first time. If she could see properly through those lenses this was one very nearsighted little girl. Over the next month or two Rebekka caught my eye a lot. She never took those glasses off, and she seemed to be able to see quite well wearing them. They were a little large for her face and they looked as if they were always falling down on her nose so one day near the beginning of July I mentioned to Jose that Rebekka’s glasses looked as if they needed to be fitted to her face a little tighter. Jose asked me if I knew how to do that, and I told him that by inserting the earpieces in a cup of very hot water we could warm the plastic up enough to bend the legs to fit Rebekka’s face. Jose and I ended up in my kitchen with Rebekka sitting there without her glasses. When I took the glasses off, her eyes had a blank look, as if she wasn’t even trying to focus on anything. I bent the arms using the old hot water in a cup trick, and when we were finished the glasses fit Rebekka much better and they didn’t slip down. Jose thanked me a lot and as we sat there chatting, he told me they were going to have to go back to Mexico sometime within the next couple of months. Apparently, Immigration had called him in for a meeting and told him that since he had overstayed his work visa, he now had to return home and apply for a new visa from his home in Mexico. He had a fairly pricey immigration lawyer working on his case, but they told him at immigration that if he self-deported rather than wait to be deported by them he would have a much easier time getting his family green cards, especially with Rebekka having been born in the USA and being able to sponsor them. Jose and Juanita had family back in Mexico, and while Oskar and the two girls really didn’t want to go back, they understood that they had to go with their parents. I don’t know why I said it, but without checking with my wife I told Jose that if they wanted to leave Rebekka in the USA my wife and I would look after her and send her to school and do all the necessary parental duties. Laura and I had tried to have children, but so far, we had not had any luck so I was pretty sure that Laura would love the chance to look after Rebekka. When I spoke to Laura about this she wasn’t as thrilled about the idea as I was, as she wanted to adopt a child and she felt that having a child in our household might just ruin our chances to adopt. But she eventually gave in and decided that if Jose and Juanita wanted us to look after Rebekka she would be happy to have a child in the house. Jose, Jaunita and Rebekka sat down with Laura and I and we talked about this for quite a while. Rebekka didn’t want her parents to go, but she also didn’t want to go to Mexico, and finally she decided that she would stay with us until her mom and dad could return legally. Jose and Juanita needed to leave before the end of August so they could have Oskar and Maria registered for school at the beginning of the term. They signed all the necessary papers giving Laura and me temporary custody and guardianship of Rebekka so now everything was set for them to go. Rebekka, Juanita and Laura had decorated her room together and she seemed quite happy with the arrangements. But she was still pretty depressed for a week or so after her mom and dad and siblings had left. I had not said anything to her parents, nor had I told Laura how it had come about that Rebekka was wearing glasses. Oskar had a fairly strong prescription in the lenses of his glasses, so I am sure that Laura just thought that Rebekka had an eye exam and had gotten glasses. I definitely wanted to take Rebekka to an eye doctor to see just how nearsighted she actually was and how close the glasses she was wearing were to the prescription she really needed. I watched Rebekka like a hawk for about a month into the school year and while there were no other signs that she was not seeing properly I did notice her squint at things from time to time. Knowing that she had never had her eyes tested I made an appointment with an eye doctor at the mall for a late afternoon appointment in early November, and I picked Rebekka up at school in plenty of time for us to make it to the appointment. The nurse receptionist at the eye doctor’s office checked the prescription in the glasses Rebekka was wearing. When I had examined them at the flea market, I had guessed that they had a prescription of about -9D, but when she checked with the lensometer she told me that they were actually -10.50D in both eyes. And, when she did the autorefractor testing she told me it was a good thing I had brought Rebekka in for an eye exam because her prescription had increased enough that new glasses would be a big help to her in school. The prescription that the doctor gave me for Rebekka’s new glasses was -12D for both eyes, with a little bit of astigmatism as well. I had Rebekka try some frames on in the nearby optical store, but the price of her new glasses with the thinner lenses that the optician insisted that Rebekka needed because of her strong prescription was pretty darned expensive. We went back to the house and I sat down on the computer to check out a couple of online glasses places. I found a similar frame to the one that Rebekka had liked at the store, and I priced out the frame and lenses with the medium range higher index lenses and the anti-reflective coating. These glasses were going to cost less than half what the optical store was going to charge, and they were going to be delivered around the same time as if we ordered them locally. I had been collecting glasses from thrift stores and flea markets for a few years and I had a collection of around a dozen pairs, all with fairly strong lenses. I rather like the looks of strong glasses on a woman, and while I had married a lady who didn’t wear glasses, I still was very interested in them. I had done a bit of online research and had discovered that all of the glasses that interested me had minus lenses and were designed for the correction of myopia. I had also discovered that myopia was not a cut and dried problem. Some people started with very mild prescriptions and never really had much of a prescription increase for the rest of their life. Other people started with a similar prescription and then had their myopia increase significantly until they reached their mid-20’s. A very small number of people were born with a condition called progressive myopia and they had their prescription increase rapidly and severely as they grew older. Sometimes this progressive myopia continued increasing right through adulthood, and even into old age. After reading all about this myopic progression I suspected that Rebekka had either been born with congenital myopia, or she had developed her myopia well before she reached school age. I suspected that if she had started first grade without wearing glasses the teacher would have quickly informed her parents, so it was likely a good thing that she had found her first glasses at the flea market. All my research had created a bit of a quandary for me. From what I had read most eye doctors did not give a child their full prescription, but instead cut their prescription back by -0.50D, which still generally allowed them to see close to 20/20. I did not know for sure that the doctor that examined Rebekka’s eyes had done that, but it did appear to me that this was a pretty common practice. The one theory was that giving someone the strongest prescription they needed might cause the patient’s prescription to increase sooner. But another school of thought indicated that by giving a child a weaker prescription than they actually required could cause the child to strain their eyes and the child would then have to have an increase in their prescription. I didn’t know what to do. If I added another -0.50D to Rebekka’s prescription it would likely bring her up to her full prescription. Also, I had read that children are easily able to tolerate a little bit of an over correction, and by doing this her new glasses would last her for a longer period of time. That is why I made the decision to order her new glasses with a spherical prescription of -13.50D for each eye, and then I used the correct prescription for her astigmatism. By the time Rebekka grew out of these glasses hopefully Jose and Juanita would be back in the country and I would only have had to buy Rebekka that one new pair of glasses. We had to wait about 3 weeks for the new glasses to arrive. I was a little apprehensive, wondering if I had made a mistake by boosting the power of the lenses. When Rebekka put her new glasses on her face and looked through the lenses she was thrilled at how much clearer everything looked to her, and I knew then that I had done the right thing. The 1.67 index lenses didn’t look all that thick as there was only about 9mm sticking out behind the frame, and the temples hid most of that. Even Laura thought that Rebekka looked darling wearing her new glasses. We had expected that Jose and Juanita would be back by Christmas time, but during our weekly phone calls Jose told me that there was a little glitch that had to be straightened out. Now they expected to be here by summertime. Whatever the problem was, it had not been cleared up by the summer holidays so Rebekka flew down to spend a few weeks with her parents. Laura and I missed her terribly while she was gone, and we could hardly wait for her return. And when she did come back, she was incredibly happy she had decided to stay with us, as apparently living conditions there would not have been nearly as good for her as living with us had been. She was much happier to be with us. Another problem arose. Because it had taken so long for the completion of the paperwork Jose’s job offer fell through and now, he needed a new sponsor along with his daughter. Laura and I signed up to be their adult sponsors, and we felt that they would finally be coming soon. I had added the pair of glasses that Rebekka had gotten at the flea market to my own collection as I felt that the money, I had paid for Rebekka’s present glasses allowed me that liberty. She no longer wore them, and in fact she had adjusted so completely to her new glasses she would never have been able to wear those old glasses again. After only a year and a half of getting her new glasses I once again noticed that Rebekka was getting closer to the television screen to see the programs we were watching. I hated the thoughts of having to pay for another pair of glasses for her, but it certainly looked like she was going to need them. Since we had no idea when her parents would be allowed to come, Laura and I discussed the situation, and we decided we would just go and buy another new pair of glasses for Rebekka. I had to switch eye doctors so that the first one could not find out that I had boosted Rebekka’s prescription. It wasn’t hard to find another eye doctor as there seemed to be one in every mall. The optometrist we ended up going to was a young lady who had recently graduated and had only been in business for a short time. Rebekka had turned 8 over the summer and Dr. Nancy Smithfield was quite interested in examining the eyes of a very young high myope. Dr. Smithfield was extremely thorough in her examination of Rebekka. And when she finished, she wanted to discuss Rebekka’s condition in depth with me. But she had other customers booked, so I ended up taking Rebekka to school and I came back later in the afternoon to talk to Dr. Smithfield. Some of the stuff I discussed with her were things I had read about. Rebekka was born in June, and babies born in the summer months were “possibly” more prone to be myopic. Rebekka had been born a couple of weeks early and her birth weight was less than it should have been. These babies were more disposed to be myopic. Rebekka did not like to be out in the bright sunshine and she spent a lot of her time indoors. This was a trigger for myopia. Her brother Oskar was fairly myopic, so this ticked the genetics box. And Rebekka was quite a reader who held her reading material much closer to her glasses than I thought was prudent, so this ticked another box. I told Dr. Smithfield that Rebekka had not gotten glasses until she was 6 years old and they had a prescription that was right around -10.50D. This ticked still another box because Dr. Smithfield felt that Rebekka had been very nearsighted as a baby and since she had been struggling to see before she got her first glasses, she had become even more myopic. Of course, I didn’t tell her that Rebekka’s first glasses came from a table in a flea market stall and no one knew if they had been quite strong enough, or even maybe too strong for her. After the discussion had ended Dr. Smithfield told me that Rebekka’s prescription had gone up to slightly over -15.00D, This was a better than -1.50D over the prescription in her glasses that she had gotten just over a year ago, and was actually -3.00D more than the previous doctor had prescribed. That was quite an increase to me, but since the doctor didn’t know about the extra power I had added, she wasn’t quite as concerned. Dr. Smithfield wanted to give Rebekka a new prescription of -15.50D along with an increase in her astigmatism. But she also wanted to have me bring Rebekka back monthly for an atropine treatment. Apparently, a low dose treatment of atropine applied monthly had been shown to reduce - or maintain the same level of myopia in children who had been diagnosed with progressive high myopia. I wasn’t sure what to do about this. I certainly didn’t want to see Rebekka’s eyesight get any worse, but I also didn’t want to pay for this treatment out of my own pocket. Jose would likely be back any day now, but I also knew that they wouldn’t have any extra money to pay for the atropine treatments. Finally, my conscience won out and I signed Rebekka up to have the monthly atropine treatments. I took the prescription slip from the doctor, and that night I went online and with Rebekka’s help we ordered her new pair of glasses in the correct prescription. I only chose the 1.67 index lens option, and since that was what was in Rebekka’s old glasses I knew her new ones would be a bit thicker. Rebekka had chosen a larger frame and this made her new glasses noticeably thicker. There was about 13mm sticking out behind the frame, and while I liked the looks of the thicker lenses, I am sure that Rebekka didn’t. She did not say anything though, and I was happy about that. Jose called in November to say that everything had finally been settled. They were going to stay in Mexico to have Christmas with Juanita’s and his parents, and then they were heading north. Laura and I were a little sad about the fact that Rebekka would now be going to live with her own parents, as over the past 2 years we had become quite fond of our very nearsighted charge. I took Rebekka in for the first 3 atropine treatments and I wondered when I made the appointment for her January treatment if Jose would have the money to pay for it. Dr. Smithfield had warned me that once the treatment was started if it was stopped prematurely the chances were good that her myopia would progress even quicker. But I had no choice when I signed Rebekka up. I would have done it for my own daughter, and until Jose and Juanita returned and reclaimed her, Rebekka was still our responsibility. Jose and his family returned, and they stayed with us for a couple of weeks. Jose had good references and he was able to find a job relatively fast. Now that he had his green card, he was able to find a higher paying job, and the fact that he spoke both languages was a real bonus. Also, Juanita went back to work at the same restaurant she had waitressed at before they left. Oskar had gotten new glasses while they were gone, and his lenses were a bit thicker than I remembered, so I suspected his prescription had increased. The big surprise was Maria, who now also wore glasses. But I suppose it really shouldn’t have been a surprise, because Maria, who was now 14, had developed rather large breasts, and that was one of the things Dr. Smithfield had told me about Rebekka’s myopia possibly increasing in puberty. Maria’s glasses were quite weak in comparison to her brother and her sister’s glasses, but she wore them all the time just the same. As I had suspected Jose did not have the money to pay for Rebekka’s January atropine treatment. So, I pitched in again and paid for it for another treatment. But Jose and Jaunaita had been working a lot of hours and they had managed to come up with the money for the first and last month’s rent for a small house not too far away. Laura and I were prepared to have Rebekka leave us, but she did not want to go with her parents. Jose and Juanita were fine with the fact that Rebekka wanted to stay living with us, and Laura and I were actually thrilled that Rebekka chose us over her own family. It was easy to understand Rebekka’s thinking. It had been just under 3 years since she had moved in with us, and she actually was more like our daughter than she was to Jose and Jaunita. And they lived close enough that Rebekka could see them whenever she wanted to. With us, Rebekka had her own room, instead of having to share a very tiny bedroom with Maria. Since they lived within walking distance Rebekka could go and visit her family whenever she wanted to. Having Rebekka living with us made it easier for me to continue paying for her atropine treatments. Over the next 4 years, with these treatments, Rebekka’s prescription remained about the same as it had been before the treatments started and I had bought her a new pair of glasses after she had gone 3 years with no change in prescription. She was so very nearsighted she could see almost nothing without those thick lenses in front of her eyes, and I felt that by getting her a new pair she would at least have a spare pair to fall back on if necessary. Five years had passed quickly by. Rebekka was now 13, and she was rapidly becoming a young lady. She had tired of wearing her rather thick looking glasses and had asked us for contact lenses as a birthday present. But the monthly atropine treatments did not fit well with contact lens wear, and she would have had to continue wearing glasses for a week or so every month after the treatment so I told Rebekka that she was just going to have to continue wearing glasses until Dr. Smithfield told her that the treatments could be stopped. She was not happy about this, but she did realize that stopping the treatments at this stage could lead to her having to wear much thicker glasses. I suspect that the reason Rebekka had an increase in her prescription after her next eye exam was that Dr. Smithfield had been waiting until her corrected eyesight became a problem for her. And of course, it was easily understandable that puberty had caused the increase in her prescription. With a -1.00D increase Rebekka could see fairly close to 20/20 again, but Dr. Smithfield and I talked about it and she advised me that she would like to give Rebekka a little stronger prescription so that she could avoid getting new glasses in 6 months or less. After our discussion I asked her what she would do if Rebekka was her own child, and without hesitation she told me she would like to add another -1.00D, making Rebekka’s new glasses -17.50D. Apparently Rebekka had also had her astigmatism increase another -0.50D in each eye and Dr. Smithfield felt that by not increasing the astigmatism correction, but giving her more sphere she would be able to see if the astigmatism would disappear. Apparently, as the astigmatism in a person’s correction becomes higher it is harder to attain 20/20 vision in some patients, because the axis of astigmatism seems to be constantly changing slightly. Her thoughts were to not increase the astigmatism and try to correct -0.50D of astigmatism with another -0.25D of sphere. And since she was fairly sure that Rebekka would soon increase another -0.75D because of the female hormones of puberty that were affecting her body Dr. Smithfield felt that by giving her a -17.50D prescription it would last her for a while. Jose and Jaunita had come to Laura and me to suggest that they would be willing to allow us to adopt Rebekka. Now, at age 13, Rebekka was legally our daughter, and everyone involved seemed to be happy about that. I was extremely pleased, because this meant that I would no longer fear that I would lose my very nearsighted daughter. It was a winning situation for both families. Jose and Jaunita would still get to see Rebekka frequently and she would not be a burden on their limited finances because of her high myopia and the necessary treatments. They already had to buy Oskar new glasses almost yearly, and Maria was likely wearing glasses with a prescription of around -10D now. Having to pay for Rebekka’s glasses and treatments would be more than they could handle. It was rather unexplainable. Oskar appeared to have glasses that looked to be a similar prescription to Rebekka’s, and Maria had been going through a bout of myopic progression. Neither Jose nor Juanita had ever worn glasses, and when I asked them about other people in their family needing glasses other than their three kids, they told me that no other family members had bad eyesight. As I had read before, myopia and its progression had no rules. Obviously, there was something in Jose and Juanita’s DNA that created 3 very myopic children. Dr. Smithfield had suggested that Rebekka would likely have prescription increases into her mid 20’s. Without the atropine treatments there had been a good chance that Rebekka would have ended up with a prescription in the range of -30D, maybe even higher. Now Dr. Smithfield felt that we would end up with Rebekka having a prescription in the range of a low of -20D and a high of around -25D. This was not the end of the world though. As she passed through puberty Rebekka’s retinas were in good shape, and there were no signs of any other problems. She did have floaters sometimes, but nothing that really bothered her. Her eye pressures were good, and even as her prescription got stronger her vision was remarkably good. By the time Rebekka turned 18 her glasses prescription had climbed another -2.50D to be -20D for her new glasses. When she finished her degree to be a caregiver in extended care facilities her prescription had only increased to -22.50D. She was now 22, and we hoped she had reached the end of her progression. Her brother Oskar had recently turned 30, and his progression had stopped at -20D around the time he turned 25. Her sister Maria was 26, and appeared to have ended up with a prescription of around -15D, as she had not had new glasses for about 3 years now. So, we were hopeful that Rebekka would soon be finished with her increases. But we were still continuing on with the atropine treatments just in case. Rebekka had not said a word about wanting to get contact lenses for a number of years. And her dating schedule had not suffered from any shortage of guys to choose from so I had hopes that she would continue wearing glasses even after the treatments stopped. Rebekka was really a cute young lady. She was fairly thin and had a pretty face. She had taken after her mom in the breast department as she was much bigger there than her sister Maria was. All in all, Rebekka was a pretty good looking young lady and my wife and I had not once regretted our decision to adopt her. She called us Mom and Dad, and she called Jose and Jose and Juanita Ma and Pa, so we were all satisfied. It had been a good decision for Laura and I to adopt Rebekka. Specs4ever Jan 2019