Medical News

Cincinnati Children's Hospital has a program specifically designed to evaluate children adopted internationally.  The program was started by a doctor who adopted internationally & when her children arrived home her pediatrician did not have the necessary info to properly address specific health concerns pertaining to her children.  Plus, who could evaluate their mental health, or their emotional state, etc.  So she designed this program where you go for one appointment & you meet with a doctor, social worker, occupational therapist, mental health specialist, and have a whole host of tests run on their bodies.  When all this information is compiled it is sent to your permanent pediatrician & the group at Children's remains available to the family & the doctor for any questions along the way.  They told us to prepare for a 4 hr appt.

The Appointment:
When we arrived we went to registration & went directly back to a room, no waiting room.  We left the hospital 5 1/2 hrs later!  We saw all the professionals, they did basic tests on her, talked to her (but mostly to us), gave her a flu shot, TB test, wrist x-ray (to determine age), chest x-ray, & took 10 (count them, 10) vials of blood for other tests.  We were all three EXHAUSTED at the end of the day.  Wiped out is the word.  Everyone we delt with was just wonderful, in both attitude and knowledge.  They really seemed to have their ducks in a row & know what was going on.  I like it when ducks are all lined up.   I will go back in a month to receive all the "official" reports & results.  Then we will repeat the process in 6 months to document changes & advances.

The prelim Results:
The doctor said she measured in the third percentile for her height & weight for her age.  We were happy she was on the chart since she is so tiny, the important thing is that she is proportiate.  The occupational therapist said she is just lightly weaker than she would like, but that would come.  The psychologicalist was very happy with our educational plan, discipline plan, & just our general way of accepting her into our family.  The social worker was very happy with her integration into our family.  In general, the people who are educated in these areas are VERY pleased with everyone's adjustment to the new situation.  This is stuff we all knew, but confirmation is always nice to have. 

Now on to the medical results.  I got a call about those today.  The TB test is neg, HIV is neg, the chest x-ray was clear, & she has no sign of parasites.  The nurse said that no parasites in a child from a third world country is almost unheard of.  Some of the other tests are not back yet but nothing they are worried about.  I want to give a shout out to Arbre de Vie (the Faton's & the centre Maman & Papa) for providing living conditions for the kids that are physically, mentally, & emotionally healthy.

The interesting part of the whole thing is the result of her wrist x-ray.  Her birth certificate says she was 8 at the end of June.  I have doubted that since my first week with her, but maybe I was just not understanding the developmental differences in her & an American child.  The x-ray can be thrown off by the child's nutrition in their past, but it revealed a bone age of 6 years & 10 months.  The nurse said the only way the difference could be that great is if she was mannourished almost to the point of death for long periods of time & we don't think that's the case.  So I asked what was the likelyhood that she really turned 7 in June.  The nurse said that is very highly likely.  So we will have to have some discussions in the near future about changing her birth year to 2003 instead of 2002.

Bottom line; the professionals are as amazed with this child as we have been for the last 3 years.  Thank you, are not words enough for the wonderful people at Arbre de Vie who connected us with this unbelieveable child & for changing our lives for the better.  We were destined to be a family long, long ago, the adventure is only beginning.

School

We have decided to homeschool Tati until she can get caught up with the other school children her age, gets a better understanding of English, and understands our customs & culture better.  Our plan is to homeschool her for the rest of the year and if she is ready to send her to public school next year.  Our choice for homeschooling is to use the public school online that we used with our other two children.  This way she gets all the benifits of public school like ESL (English as Second Language) services, math tutoring, peer testing, and the expertise of a teacher to work with.  The biggest bonus is that since it is public school, IT IS FREE!!  I could have attempted to do all the work myself, but without the schools involvment it would have been expensive and I tend to do better with structure and deadlines.  Basically, without them I would have gotten lazy and not done what I should have for Tati.  Good to know your limitations, I embrace that & try to work around them. 

Her computer arrived, I couldn't get it set up fast enough for her

The school provides a computer for every family and it was so overwhelming that this was all for her.  She didn't think I was telling her the truth.

All set up

 We got it all set up and she started to work right away.  She has a sippy cup because she has a tendancy to spill, well I wouldn't call it a tendancy, if she has a cup you can pretty much guess that it is going to be on the floor at one point or another.  So since I do childcare, this is our solution & she loves it because she is now allowed to take her drink all over the house.  Anyway, back to education, she is so excited about all the things she is learning.  She is soaking it up like a sponage. 

That is the update today for the busy Kelley house.  She is keeping us on our toes and we are loving every second.

Guess Who Met Santa

We had a new Kroger open up here in Beavercreek & this past weekend was their "Open House" and they had a Santa in the entrance. 


First Santa

 Well, typical Tati, she walked right up to him and asked me to take a picture of them.  Actually, the Santa wasn't the nicest of guys I have ever met but oh well, Tati didn't know that.  She spent the rest of the weekend asking me if "Papa Noel" would be coming to our house tonight.  By her excitement you would have no idea that she has no idea what is about to happen with Christmas.  She has no clue about the cold, snow, the decorations, songs, the gifts, or Santa.  The way she can't stand it you would think she knew exactly what was coming up.  As far as I know she has only had one or two gifts each year & that only for the last 2 years.  No decorations & the only snow & Santa have been in a movie or two.  She did ask me if they would each be getting a gift for Christmas.  I just answered yes & smiled to myself, let the overwhelment begin. (AGAIN)

The other big thing that happened this weekend was that Tati got "hair."



New Hair, mommy worked very hard all weekend




She is so cool!!

 Ok so while I absolutely LOVE her short hair & we have plenty of barretts & headbands to help her look like a girl in public, she is a girlie little girl and all girlie girls covet their long hair.  So what I did was to take a round headband and attach black yarn all the way around.  Then I cut it to length & tied a knot in the end of each & every string to prevent fraying.  It looks absolutely adorable.  I can't believe how much the color looks the same as her own & how much it looks like real hair.  As a matter of fact, today we went to visit my grandmother in the nursing home & a nurse met her & commented to me that her hair was just beauiful.  It was great.

Leaves

We all know the climate change is strange for Tati.  Really, it turns out she is handling it like a champ.  She doesn't seem too cold too much of the time.  Well with the climate change comes a change in the type of plants.  In Benin there are beautiful palm trees with coconuts, the vegatation is very georgous.  Everything is green for a big part of the year.  Weather just goes from MAJOR Hot, to HOTTER & back to VERY Hot.  Well............................. here in good ole Ohio it's not exactly like that.  She has had a new expirence over the last 2 days.  LEAF PICK UP!!!  Wow, I know how jealous some people can get but yup, Tati got to have the joy.  LOL  She really did have a good time.  The weather was amazing, like 70, both days & she would work a little, play a lot, work a little, play a lot.  We all had a good time.  She now has a bicycle that was down at my parents.  It is down here & Papa (my dad) put training wheels on it so she could learn how to ride.  She is crazy about it, she wants to ride all day everyday.  Also, we have one of those garages where it becomes a catch-all for the stuff that needs to go out of your immediate view but you haven't decided where it should live permanently.  Today Tati figured out that there was interesting "stuff" in there because when we finished with the yard we started straightening out the garage.  My mom always laughs that the kids love to "shop" when they are in a situation like that.  The reason that is so funny is because it fits so perfect.  Tati was deciding what she wanted & where she wanted it to go when she took it in the house.  So we brought some stuff in but mostly Brian & I were in a mood to pitch so we filled the trash cans as fast as we could before we changed our minds.

Tati's new word in English that I noticed tonight was, "necklace."  It always throws me just a little off when she blurts out a word in English, especially when I haven't set out to teach it to her.  She has just picked it up somewhere & started using it in the correct place.  Oh yea, the new word Wednesday was "everyone."  She was asking me who something was for & said, "Mama, Papa or Everyone."  I totally lost track of what I was doing & had her repeat it several times.  Poor thing.  lol  The other new English thing she is trying out are the words "look" & "watch."  She knows they both mean - to see something - but she isn't sure yet when each applies.  She will ask me to watch something when she wants me to look at it.  "Mama watch," and she hands me a book.  I heard her tell a little friend today to look when she did a dance & I knew immediately she meant watch.  The last thing she is doing on the language front; is that she is starting to "repeat" everything she hears.  Anyone who has paid attention when a child was learning to speak will understand what I am talking about.  She repeats but doesn't know the words so the repeated sound is only gibberish but the sounds are exactly what came across her ears.

Tres Jolie

Tati has received so many awesome clothes & toys from friends of ours.  Believe me, it has been amazing on our checkbook but the most important part is that she just loves all the things that are "just for her."  Something she has never had in her life.  Then again she has never been a spoiled American before, I'm not thrilled about materialism but this is her existance now and the new "things" in her life really make her feel included.  Plus, any kid likes stuff.

She was given this pink wig & she now thinks she should be allowed to wear it any place she goes.  Well, those of you who know me, pretty much know that I will probably let her.  It needed a good brushing when she got it.  That didn't slow her in the slightest, she brushed it out & even put some of her hair products in it when I wasn't paying attention.  Aaahhh, I told her that the products don't work like they do in her hair.  So at least the wig smells good now.  With the brushing it looks good too, she is so wanting long hair that she has me put this up in a ponytail & everything.  It is too cute.

Playing

I have also figured out that these posts may be slightly out of order as I will do them when I get time & catch up when I get time.

Before I left we were sitting down to assess our view of what Tati would go through.  We decided, with the exception of diapers, it would be like having a newborn in the house.  Ok, not a problem because in reality after all she really is 8 so will it truly be like the work of a newborn.  OMGosh, it is just like having a newborn in the house.  lol  I am so EXHAUSTED at the end of the day, I had no idea.  Now, let me clairify, it is all the WONDERFUL things of a newborn.  All the exploration on her part, training on my part, trying rules, successes, failures, etc., etc., etc.  It is wonderful but man do we sleep good at night!

She has a new word in English....... stop...... she says it "c-top"  She has new words everyday but that is the one that sticks out to me right now.

So today she is playing by herself again while the daycare kids are asleep.  She asked if she could use my baby swing.  This is what she was doing with it.

This is the swing she "borrowed"

This is the baby taking his nap.

At the same time the baby was sleeping, her Barbies were also napping.  I guess it was just general naptime at my house.  Why wasn't the memo delivered to mommy?

The chair/bed for the Barbies

Barbies fast asleep

Every Girl needs a Dollhouse

A friend of ours gave us a dollhouse her girls have outgrown.  Tati thinks this is the coolest thing on earth, she especially liked it when I told her she didn't have to share it with the daycare kids.  This was something she could keep totally to herself, she can decorate it herself & no one would mess it up.  Man was she excited.

I knew that everything would be firsts for her, but to see things from her point of view, man o man.  We went to a pumpkin patch last week to pick out our carving pumpkins.  This place had more than pumpkins, they had animals to pet, a bounce house, a tent with hay to play in, plus the tons & tons of pumpkins to pick from.  It was a lot of fun. 




Our 3 babies - so happy to finally have them all together



She felt quite strongly about the animals

Loved petting the kitty

We also took a trip to the indoor play place in the Beavercreek Mall one day when it was too cold for the park.  Again, she took everything in stride.  She had a blast but never acted like she was nervous or scared in the slightest.



In case you can't see her, she is on the left with her bum on the floor and folded in half with her feet in the air.

 Well, more to come as I have time to catch up.  We are all adjusting well & having an absolute blast getting to know each other.