Sweet Alabama Pt I

Our weekend was quite the fun and interesting one. Apparently my project at work has caused me to lose common sense. It started out on Friday, after work, when we were heading to Alex's football game. I saw the location was "Marietta" so we went to Marietta HS, paid to get in and low and behold - that wasn't our team playing!! Yep - I took us to the wrong school. To top that off, once we got to the game, we were sitting two rows back from the field. I see a back-up quarterback warming up and I said to Keith "Who is that quarterback? Look! Someone else is warming up - who's going in Who's #16?" He looks at me weird and laughs. I said "WHO is it?" He said "Are you serious? That's Alex!" Ummmm... he was 10 feet away, I've been to 4 games, he has the same number as last year and I still didn't know it was him. THAT set the tone for the weekend. :-)

We arrived in Birmingham around 2am (EST), checked into our hotel and crashed about 15 mins later. We had some hotel room problems - not to bore you with details - so bottom line is I got the night refunded. We headed to the church where the clinic was being held and dove right in. They broke us out into groups - little kids and older kids. Obviously, we were in the little kids group. Dr. Chambers started the discussion and went through the medical side of the UAB Clinic.

I loved Dr. Chambers from the start. She is an adoptive parent (2 girls from China) ** ETA: Thanks Melissa for pointing out by boo-boo! CHINA not Russia! I have Russia on the brain! As a matter of fact, everyone that spoke was an adoptive parent. It really gave you comfort knowing that they've been through what you're about to go through AND they have the science and training to know what to do about it. She described what they would do with our referral. Since we're most likely traveling blind, we would give her what little information we have when we leave and then send her a questionnaire (provided) as well as photos and video. She will review it and get back to us within 24/48 hours. We'll have an on-call number as well. She also took some time and went over common skin rashes and how to treat, things to take with us and the prescriptions that she'll prescribe for the Peanut for Trip 2.

UAB also does post-adoption medical. They communicate very closely with your pediatrician to ensure your child goes through the least amount of agony when it comes to shots and blood draws. They do an extensive medical screening and also rule out/confirm any strange diagnoses on your child's medical. She went over FAS and told us what they look for and what kind of pictures she'll need to check out facial features.

Next up was Leigh Anne Harrington a Clinical Social Worker. She talked a lot about attachment and bonding. She was gave us realistic expectations for some of the things we may face when we come home with the Peanut. There were so many handouts included in our packet - things to do to encourage eye contact, how to encourage attachment, a letter to give family and friends discussing guidelines for promoting attachment, pre-travel tips and info and an article on how to raise sound sleepers. She talked about post-adoption depression and encouraged us to call her office immediately if we feel overwhelmed or like we're getting depressed. She said it's so much more common that anyone realizes.

Closing out the day was Jill Barnhart, Developmental/Education Specialist. She talked about sensory integration and how children react to being outside of their orphanage surroundings. It was either Jill or Leigh that told us that some children spend (brace yourselves) 20 - 22 hours PER DAY in their cribs with nothing more than themselves and a stuffed animal or toy. I'm sure that is the extreme, but to think that many of these children don't leave the four walls that surround them for months at a time just blows my mind. Jill gave us a handout on developmental milestones, language issues and how that affects future issues in school and baby sign language. The baby sign language really intrigued Keith and then when he saw Iliya signing (see tomorrow night's post) he was sold. My husband now signs "more" quite regularly. :-)

All of these doctors were so good to listen to. They absolutely LOVE their jobs and that means so much. We will definitely be using them for our evaluation as well as for our post-adoption visit. It is a drive for us - about 2 hours - but worth it if you feel confident in the evaluation you are given. I spoke with Dr. Chambers and she said that since we're from Atlanta, they could combine our 1st and 2nd visit into one visit to make it easier for us. It would just be a 4 - 5 hour day at the clinic. Keith and I are open to taking two trips. I suppose we'll see how good the little one is in the car before deciding. :-)

I know I didn't cover details regarding attachment, bonding, sensory integration so if you have specific questions, please just leave them in the comments. For those of you with CHI, you probably had to take the 10 hours of education on DVD and that covered a lot of those topics. I will tell you that I got a LOT more from this UAB seminar then I did the DVDs. It reinforced a lot of what I had already heard about but it gave us a look into what the majority face - not the extreme cases. It was more about educating you and calming your fears.

Coming up tomorrow night on "Sweet Alabama Pt 2" - our visit with Melissa and family, 12 hours of sleep and a flat tire!