All smiles and ready to go home after a long but good visit at the IAC. Let's go! (two of my favorite words)
Gee, what is that look on my daddy's face??? Was it something I said or did I need a diappy change???
I liked Dr. Jennifer! She is nice and made me laugh.
Can you tell that MaryAlyce is just slightly bored? (More waiting.)
Mommy listens intently to Ms. Leigh Ann as she goes over how to fill out an assessment form.
Drawing with MaryAlyce in the examination room...more waiting.
This was so fun I wouldn't look up at mommy. I wish I could have taken this fun toy home with me.
Waiting with Mommy for our appointment to begin.
I have been needing to write this blog post for a couple of days, but have been avoiding it I think. Even though the visit went well, it is hard for me to think of all the things that Esther Marie is going to have to go through. No parent likes to see their child in pain and for some reason, this is especially hard for me with Emmie. I feel like she has already been through so much yet she is such a trooper. And I am sure it is that sweet little personality that is going to help get her through more difficulties. Part of me wishes we could just avoid all this...I love the way her two little front teeth peek out at me when she smiles and I think her cleft palate is sweet. I don't want anyone cutting on her, but I know in the long run it's what is best for her and her development. I'm sure it's a painful surgery and her little arms will have to be restrained in some way while she heals. That breaks my heart. When Joshua had his palate redone, we had to be very careful that he didn't poke it with anything sharp. He was 8 and we could talk to him about it. Easier said than done with a two year old, thus the restraints.
Anyway, getting beyond all the emotion that I am feeling right now, I will tell you that this first visit was a good one and not very threatening for Emmie. Karla from our adoption agency met us at the clinic and it was so great to see her. She is in charge of the China program. I was excited that she could meet Esther Marie. She stayed with us while we waited and we shared with her about our trip and the adoption. We also ran into another mom with her child that was adopted at the same time. It was nice to see little Hope again.
The first person we met with was Leigh Anne who is a social worker/family therapist with the clinic who specializes in bonding and attachment. We had a nice time catching up and telling her about Esther Marie and our other children. She has worked with us each time now after our China adoptions. We talked about Emmie and how she is adapting, sleeping, eating, and reacting. We got suggestions and were again reassured that it's okay that she is sleeping with us, which is great for bonding. She has rejected the crib and Leigh Anne said that's okay....remember that she spent most of her life in a crib (probably 20 hours each day) and it's not a positive place for her. We talked about the other kids' emotions, reactions and development too, and Leigh Anne will be helping us with that also. She has two adopted daughters from China so she is living much of what we experience and that's very helpful. Adopted children have special issues that non-adopted kids don't have and it's very important to educate ourselves about the issues and acknowledge them. Leigh Anne helps us do this. We'll be checking in again with her in about three weeks at our next appointment.
Next we met with Dr. Jennifer who is so sweet and gentle. She has twin girls adopted from China. Esther Marie responded to her with smiles and giggles most of the time. She checked her over and we talked about her medical history. We also spent alot of time talking about how to try to get things covered by our insurance company and which doctors we needed to see. She was helpful in advising us about who to call at the hospital and told us to ask for a case manager at our insurance company. I have a bunch of phone calls to make next week after the holiday!
So, Dr. Jennifer thinks Emmie is pretty healthy. She is in less than the 10th percentile for weight and less than 30 for height. She has gained some weight and is 25 lbs. now and just over 32 inches tall. Thankfully, she is a good eater. Jennifer wants to have her checked for parasites, but that is a common thing to check for in children from overseas. There is a LONG list of blood work that is recommended, and we took the list with us and need to check with insurance to see which things might be covered. I would like to have titers testing done to check her immunizations because I don't want to duplicate immunizations that are good. I prefer not to immunize at all, but the law is not on my side in that area....sigh.
Anyway, Dr. Jennifer says Emmie needs to have her hearing and her eyesight checked out, so we will make appointments to have that done. We also will go to the ENT because she must have tubes put in her ears ASAP. She stressed how important that is for a child born with cleft in order to have the brain and ears work together to process speech correctly. There is a problem with fluid build-up for children born with cleft issues and if it's not dealt with, it can affect her speech permanently in a negative way.
Of course, we know Esther Marie needs her palate repaired soon. Dr. Jennifer told us she thinks surgery is booked up for about 4 months, so I guess it will be a little longer than expected before we can get that taken care of. It's okay because it will give us more bonding time before she has to endure that. As I said, it has about a 6-week recovery period and her arms will have to be restrained to keep her from poking things into her mouth that can damage the repair while it is healing.
Esther Marie will also need some surgery on some of her fingers. Why? Because of scarring from the fire ant bites. When Jennifer asked about the spots all over her and we told her they were from fire ant bites she received when she was one day old, she got very emotional and said, okay...that is going to take me some time to get over knowing THAT! I can relate because when I think about what Emmie must have gone through and the pain she had to endure when she first arrived in this world, it grieves me so much that I cry. Have you ever had even one fire ant sting? Try having dozens and dozens when you are one day old....need I say more??? Anyway, her little joints on her pointing fingers are distorted and she can't straighten out her fingers, so she will more than likely need to have the skin cut and the scarring released so she can use those little fingers better. We will talk more with Dr. G who is the cleft surgeon we are seeing. He is a pediatric plastic surgeon so he would do the repair on the fingers also. I am very thankful to God that we have such a great cleft team here in our town!
Okay...back to Dr. Jennifer's exam....she also found that Esther Marie had an extreme amount of wax build-up in her ears. She worked globs of it out of both ears...and Emmie did cry during this because Jennifer said it did hurt her. After working on both ears, she said it was too much and we should use some drops at bath time to help soften the hardened wax. We'll do that before the next visit in three weeks. I am sure there are other issues that might come up so that's why we go back for a follow-up visit soon. In the meantime, we have blood work to deal with and parasite testing, appointments to make, and insurance issues to work out. I do feel overwhelmed right now but I know we have endured all the rigorous requirements of adoption four times, all of Joshua's medical issues and two surgeries for him, so we can make it through all of this too....so will the family and so will Esther Marie. (As a side thought, please pray for MaryAlyce who has been having nosebleeds and we are not sure why.)
Next visit, we will see Jennifer, Leigh Anne and also Jill, who is the Occupational Therapist. She will help us figure out how Emmie is doing developmentally. We see some issues already where we know she is lagging for her age, but since this is our third adoption from China, we know she'll catch up. We just need to identify as much as possible so we can get her the help she needs.
We want to thank the great staff at the IAC for everything...Jennifer, Leigh Anne, Jill and the support staff....thanks for helping us help our kids! God bless you all!
Anyway, getting beyond all the emotion that I am feeling right now, I will tell you that this first visit was a good one and not very threatening for Emmie. Karla from our adoption agency met us at the clinic and it was so great to see her. She is in charge of the China program. I was excited that she could meet Esther Marie. She stayed with us while we waited and we shared with her about our trip and the adoption. We also ran into another mom with her child that was adopted at the same time. It was nice to see little Hope again.
The first person we met with was Leigh Anne who is a social worker/family therapist with the clinic who specializes in bonding and attachment. We had a nice time catching up and telling her about Esther Marie and our other children. She has worked with us each time now after our China adoptions. We talked about Emmie and how she is adapting, sleeping, eating, and reacting. We got suggestions and were again reassured that it's okay that she is sleeping with us, which is great for bonding. She has rejected the crib and Leigh Anne said that's okay....remember that she spent most of her life in a crib (probably 20 hours each day) and it's not a positive place for her. We talked about the other kids' emotions, reactions and development too, and Leigh Anne will be helping us with that also. She has two adopted daughters from China so she is living much of what we experience and that's very helpful. Adopted children have special issues that non-adopted kids don't have and it's very important to educate ourselves about the issues and acknowledge them. Leigh Anne helps us do this. We'll be checking in again with her in about three weeks at our next appointment.
Next we met with Dr. Jennifer who is so sweet and gentle. She has twin girls adopted from China. Esther Marie responded to her with smiles and giggles most of the time. She checked her over and we talked about her medical history. We also spent alot of time talking about how to try to get things covered by our insurance company and which doctors we needed to see. She was helpful in advising us about who to call at the hospital and told us to ask for a case manager at our insurance company. I have a bunch of phone calls to make next week after the holiday!
So, Dr. Jennifer thinks Emmie is pretty healthy. She is in less than the 10th percentile for weight and less than 30 for height. She has gained some weight and is 25 lbs. now and just over 32 inches tall. Thankfully, she is a good eater. Jennifer wants to have her checked for parasites, but that is a common thing to check for in children from overseas. There is a LONG list of blood work that is recommended, and we took the list with us and need to check with insurance to see which things might be covered. I would like to have titers testing done to check her immunizations because I don't want to duplicate immunizations that are good. I prefer not to immunize at all, but the law is not on my side in that area....sigh.
Anyway, Dr. Jennifer says Emmie needs to have her hearing and her eyesight checked out, so we will make appointments to have that done. We also will go to the ENT because she must have tubes put in her ears ASAP. She stressed how important that is for a child born with cleft in order to have the brain and ears work together to process speech correctly. There is a problem with fluid build-up for children born with cleft issues and if it's not dealt with, it can affect her speech permanently in a negative way.
Of course, we know Esther Marie needs her palate repaired soon. Dr. Jennifer told us she thinks surgery is booked up for about 4 months, so I guess it will be a little longer than expected before we can get that taken care of. It's okay because it will give us more bonding time before she has to endure that. As I said, it has about a 6-week recovery period and her arms will have to be restrained to keep her from poking things into her mouth that can damage the repair while it is healing.
Esther Marie will also need some surgery on some of her fingers. Why? Because of scarring from the fire ant bites. When Jennifer asked about the spots all over her and we told her they were from fire ant bites she received when she was one day old, she got very emotional and said, okay...that is going to take me some time to get over knowing THAT! I can relate because when I think about what Emmie must have gone through and the pain she had to endure when she first arrived in this world, it grieves me so much that I cry. Have you ever had even one fire ant sting? Try having dozens and dozens when you are one day old....need I say more??? Anyway, her little joints on her pointing fingers are distorted and she can't straighten out her fingers, so she will more than likely need to have the skin cut and the scarring released so she can use those little fingers better. We will talk more with Dr. G who is the cleft surgeon we are seeing. He is a pediatric plastic surgeon so he would do the repair on the fingers also. I am very thankful to God that we have such a great cleft team here in our town!
Okay...back to Dr. Jennifer's exam....she also found that Esther Marie had an extreme amount of wax build-up in her ears. She worked globs of it out of both ears...and Emmie did cry during this because Jennifer said it did hurt her. After working on both ears, she said it was too much and we should use some drops at bath time to help soften the hardened wax. We'll do that before the next visit in three weeks. I am sure there are other issues that might come up so that's why we go back for a follow-up visit soon. In the meantime, we have blood work to deal with and parasite testing, appointments to make, and insurance issues to work out. I do feel overwhelmed right now but I know we have endured all the rigorous requirements of adoption four times, all of Joshua's medical issues and two surgeries for him, so we can make it through all of this too....so will the family and so will Esther Marie. (As a side thought, please pray for MaryAlyce who has been having nosebleeds and we are not sure why.)
Next visit, we will see Jennifer, Leigh Anne and also Jill, who is the Occupational Therapist. She will help us figure out how Emmie is doing developmentally. We see some issues already where we know she is lagging for her age, but since this is our third adoption from China, we know she'll catch up. We just need to identify as much as possible so we can get her the help she needs.
We want to thank the great staff at the IAC for everything...Jennifer, Leigh Anne, Jill and the support staff....thanks for helping us help our kids! God bless you all!
2 comments:
Thanks for the update! I am glad you are continuing to blog. I drove up to the folks today and will show the blog to mom and dad while I'm here.
great pics
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