Before we adopted from Russia we attended a 5 week course designed to prepare us for international adoption parenthood. While our social worker educated us from her perspective, having a international adoption doctor educate us based on his experience working with adopted children was priceless. One night the class focused on health concerns of the adopted child.
Children in orphanages could potentially have lice, scabies, exposure to TB, Hep A, rickets, internal parasites, ear infections, eye infections, upper respiratory conditions etc..
We've been asked, will your son be "healthy"? hmmmmm..... By US standards, maybe but maybe not. He could have one or more of the ailments listed above. We will not know our son's complete health picture until we arrive home.
The ailments may sound a little overwhelming but honestly, they are all treatable. The IA doctor recommended taking our adoptive child to a pediatrician within 2 weeks of arriving home for testing. We did that with Igor and we'll do it for BOC (son #2) as well.
If you are in the process of adopting internationally and are seeing the list of ailments for the first time don't freak out. Many adoptive parents, including us, have gone through several of the ailments listed and we/our children made it through treatment. Educate yourself, make sure your pediatrician has worked with IA children or is willing to learn about them. Ask your pediatrician to refer to the "Red Book" for standing testing protocol when you return home with your child.
Our conference call with AWAA was today. Duni confirmed the wait time for toddlers remains at 7-9 months. That's great news for us since we are in month 8! Stay tuned, we may have a referral this month.
3 comments:
I am SOOOOO praying you get a ref. this month AND a court date before court closure! You so need to travel this summer to bring us at home some continued hope!
I am looking for a international adoption doctor but really have no idea what I am doing so ... it does look like we will be going to Boise at first though ( a couple hours away). Come on MOWA!!
You guys are so close. I know none of us imagined the wait would be this long and I pray your referral will come very, very soon!!!
This is such an interesting post. It's so true - healthy by what standard? Thankfully, our little guy has been very, very healthy. I still get nervous when I consider the testing that must be done in September...but I'm so grateful for his good health. Really, I'm thankful for the good health of everyone in our family - our health can be such a fragile thing. I'm so amazed by the blessings of good health our family has been given!
I'll be praying for #2 and that he'll be blessed with excellent health!
Looking forward to your referral news!!!
Love,
Erica
Candy, as always, you have great info! Thanks so much for the encouraging words about our little ones' possible health issues. It is not fun to think about sick children, but it is beyond humbling to think that God would use our desires to adopt and the resources we have here in the US to heal babies and children. Just one of the many miracles of adoption!!
Love,
Shari
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