A Big Week for S

This past week was a big week for S. Here are a few highlights.

#1 On Sunday, S was dedicated at church along with another little girl. As Michael did the introduction and shared with the church the purpose of the dedication, S babbled and talked really loud behind him. It was pretty funny! S also chewed on the box that his little Bible was in and got excited that there was a picture of shoes on the outside of the box. (Did I mention how much he LOVES shoes?) :) He got very restless as we held him, and Michael eventually gave S his cell phone which kept him quiet during the remainder of the dedication and prayer. It was a nice dedication and, most importantly, a time for us as his parents to commit to teach and train him on what the Bible says and a time for our church to pray for us as parents. Here are a few pictures from Sunday. His outfit was made by one of my best friend's mom Mrs. Dale and monogrammed by my SIL's mom Mrs. Carol. S looked so cute in the outfit!

#2 S has been to 5 appointments at Vanderbilt in the past week. We went to the pediatric urologist who said he has healed well from his little boy surgery and that all looks fine. We went to the Developmental Psychologist, who said it seemed his temperament is fine and that it seems things are going well. Her main concerns were related to his weight and the need for speech therapy. We realized the need for speech therapy a few weeks ago after different appointments where everyone agreed he is delayed in his speech. I actually contacted TN Early Intervention last week, and they said they would follow up this week to schedule an evaluation. The Developmental Psychologist's other suggestions related to reading more books with him and also doing a "booboo routine" when S gets hurt but does not address it. She said we should say "I'm sorry you got hurt" and love on him, even if he doesn't cry or acknowledge he is hurting. She said this should help to continue to improve his emotional attachment. Finally, I shared with her that S still holds his arms out for people to hold him, even if he does not know them. Overall his attachment is going very well, and this has been our only concern. The Developmental Psychologist said that they really separate this particular behavior from attachment at this point. She agreed that our plan to hold him and say "you need to stay with Mommy (or Daddy) right now" is good and that we should tell people that we are still working on him realizing who we are so that people are not insulted by us not handing him over. We will continue to work on this issue. After seeing the Developmental Psychologist, we saw an OT for an 18 month evaluation. She felt he was doing well and had no concerns. On Tuesday, we saw S's feeding therapist and had his 18 month check-up. He has moved up the growth chart with his height, and is head is staying on the curve. While he has gained a little bit of weight, he is still far below the growth curve. Our pediatrician (who is our IA doctor as well) said she is concerned that he did not "catch up" with a growth spurt as many adopted children tend to do in the first few months home. She took a lot of blood at his appointment and said she may refer him to a GI specialist and/or an endocrinologist to investigate further. We know he is still not consistently eating well and he is SO active, which may contribute to the slow weight gain. I'm glad he is at least making a little progress and pray that they can determine if there is an underlying problem or at least that we could get him to a point where he is deemed "healthy." This part was discouraging, but considering everything and looking at the big picture, we are so grateful that his attachment, behavior, and overall development in terms of his OT evaluation are going well.

#3 Last night S had the opportunity to be reunited with AC, a little girl who was in his group at the Kashin baby home. We met her and her family at the airport, and S gave her a little gift. It was very special to be there and see little AC meet all of her extended family members. We have no doubt that God ordained that we would meet this sweet family early last year at a CHI Russian language class on a random rainy Friday night and that we would become friends through the adoption process and still be in touch when we both got our referrals for our children from this same orphanage! We look forward to some play dates once they get settled and are excited that S and AC will get to grow up knowing each other. Here is a picture of S while we were at the airport! I think he enjoyed seeing AC again, don't you?! :)