Pre-Adoption Medical Consultation

When my DH and I were in the referral stage of our son we received pictures and a video. While waiting, I had read everything I could get my hands on regarding IA (International Adoption) and almost all books, articles, sites etc. encouraged a Pre-Adoption Medical Consultation. I was set on doing so. Well..... I ended up not doing one. I fell. I fell HARD for my son. I was adamant that he was ours, that, just as a biological child we would take him "warts and all".

As he was 2 years old at the time I thought that I could tell if there might be a problem. I didn't really see one except that his hair was tinged a little red ( a sign of malnutrition) and he was pretty floppy (our bio children are all muscle and sinew from playing outside a lot). He didn't know how to run. They DID have him in a gymnastics class to help him with this. A good baby home let me tell you. I will never forget the director- she really, truly cared for "her" children.

We turned out to be very lucky. After coming home and eating non-stop and my shoving vitamins, pediasure and butter on everything down his throat, his hair started to come in and shine and he learned how to run and swing and is just an awesome kid.

There is one thing that I am reminded by other parents who turn to me and say "What did he just say?" He doesn't speak clearly. Well, he is starting to but he has been home for over two years now and his family and pre-school teacher are really the only ones who understand him consistently. He has Apraxia.

"Apraxia: A seious neurological speech disorder. In the medical literature, a variety of terms are used to describe this condition, including apraxia of speech, verbal apraxia and developmental apraxia of speech."
~ from the book The Late Talker by Marilyn C. Agin, M.D. , Lisa F. Geng and Malcolm J. Nicholl (available through Amazon)

Basically, he knows what he wants to say. The words just get jumbled up while traveling from his brain to his mouth. Sometimes he just can't figure out how to move his mouth and tongue to make the right sounds.

There are more and more children being diagnosed with this. It takes a while though. There really is no way that an International Adoption Medical Doctor could have diagnosed this with just looking at our pictures and video.

Like I said though- We are extremely lucky. I have read some stories on FRUA (Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption/ www.FRUA.org) and other lists that break your heart.

That is why I think that a Pre-Adoptive Medical Consultation and then, when the child comes home a Post Adoption Medical Exam by an International Adoption Specialist is so important. If I had traveled to have our son examined by an IA Specialist we could have started on therapy for his Apraxia a lot sooner.

I know it is expensive- some way more than others. It is worth it.

I have been very impressed with a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in Georgia. Her name is Karen Campbell, RN-CS. She has adopted from China. I sent something to her and she did the consultation over the weekend with me!!!!!!! Awesome Woman.

There is also Children's Health System at the University of Alabama, Birmingham ( http://adoption.chsys.org/default.aspx?id=2 ).

Then of course the old stand-by's of Dr. Jane Aronson (where Angelina took her daughter / http://www.orphandoctor.com/) and
Dr. Dana Johnson of The International Adoption Clinic in the University of Minnesota(http://www.med.umn.edu/peds/iac/).

Know that these people are not perfect but also know- that you need to go into your adoption with open eyes.