An Announcement, Part 4

Just in case you missed the beginning of the story, here are Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

On Monday morning, I got up bright and early and emailed our agency. I said, if he is back on the shared list this morning, we want you to lock his file for us. And I sat and waited with my laptop on and my phone in my hand. I knew that if my email popped up first, she hadn't found him. But if the phone rang, he would be ours.

And the phone rang. Sure enough, Dana had found him. I gave her our full names, birthdates, etc., and listened to her type, entering the information into the website. And she locked him in.

You would think a person could just relax at that point, right? But no, that is when the real stress begins!

At that point I made a copy of his file, including a note outlining his known special needs, to be delivered to our local pediatrician, Dr. Q. I called our international adoption doctor, Dr. T, and then emailed his file to her. Then, I called Kate's audiologist, Dr. S, and discussed his hearing test in the file with her.

I would've called Kate's old SLP, Jennifer, but I had already called her the week before. When we couldn't find his file.

The audiologist told me that while he has pretty serious hearing loss in the left ear, it appears the right ear is much less serious. Perhaps he has excess fluid and infections because of the cleft, and his hearing in that ear can be somewhat restored.

Dr. Q's first comment to me was, "I can't find a single thing wrong with this kid. He is perfect for you." My response? Yes, we think so too.

With our 72 hour deadline approaching on Wednesday afternoon, we joyfully told Dana that we wanted to accept the referral.

Dr. T is usually very quick to get back with us with any sort of question, but for some reason she didn't get back to us until after our decision. When she did call, she basically agreed with Dr. Q. She then went on to express some concern that his height and weight are low (teeny, in fact), but his head is nice and big (heh), which means his brain is growing. She was also concerned that he is a bit anemic. Tim and I were both prepared for all of that, so while we are concerned for his nutrition, I knew it wouldn't stop us from adopting him. She was even less concerned about his hearing than we were. She felt like even if tubes don't improve his hearing, other procedures/devices probably will. She doesn't feel like he will be deaf. Not even close.

I told her I was really glad that her report was so positive, because we had already sent in the paperwork to adopt him. He was ours, either way.

So who wants to see some pictures?

These crack me up because he looks incredibly annoyed to be bothered with taking some dumb pictures.
This boy seriously needs some mama love.

This one is my favorite. He looks so earnest. If you look closely at his left ear, you can see a little ear deformity. We don't know yet if it is just his outer ear that is affected, or if it extends into the canal and inner ear. Either way, he is perfection.