Medical Files

Wow! What a week!! Our referral pictures came in on Wed Mar 4 and we've been spinning ever since then. So many wonderful emails and calls have come from dozens of friends (and strangers) with congratulations and tears over our referral. The reality of things to come is exciting and unnerving for both of us. We just need to concentrate on the next steps, one at a time...

The translated medical & information file from China was to take around 2 weeks to prepare but we received it by email on Wednesday March 11. At only 6 pages long, we were surprised that it was such a small document. It had the basic details of our daughters medical tests: blood work, urinalysis, immunization records, mental and physical development charts and some general comments on her daily schedule, personality and sleep patterns. All very clinical. The full package was available for me to pick up on March 12 so I drove to the agency to get it.

The full package had:
-her original photos
-her Chinese medical file
-the translated medical pages
-a 'Summary of Birth Family Information' form (blank)
-the 'Adoptive Parents Acknowledgement of Information' form indicating that we will not hold our agency liable should the baby have a disease that was not identified in the medical review
-the 'Letter Seeking Confirmation from Adopter' which is the letter to the Chinese government indicating that we accept/reject the referred child
-a letter from our agency indicating what we had to sign & send back to them
-an invoice for our final payment to the agency (the rest of the money is paid to/in China)

We made our appointment with the agency approved pediatrician and braced ourselves for the results. What would we do if this baby wasn't healthy? Would we still accept? With so many horror stories out there about diseases, illnesses, malnourishment and tainted formula, we just weren't sure how we would handle a bad review. Luckily we didn't have to make this decision and were thrilled to hear such good results on our baby.

The doctors opinion is:
Excellent height, weight, head size and chest size for a baby in orphanage care. Other than anemia (which can be fixed in 2-3 months with vitamins), she has a very clean bill of health. She is a bit small based on the western growth charts but of a very good size for an infant that has been in a orphanage and would likely make up the growth difference once home with us. At birth, she was in the 80th percentile but her growth has been slow so she's now in the 25th percentile but still within the normal range. She is physically proportioned, with no signs of drug or alcohol deficiencies. She is happy, smiles freely, quiet, calm, good sleeper & a good eater. Although she did have some tainted formula for about 4-5 months, there are no obvious signs of it impairing her health. Overall, he was very impressed with how healthy she is and says we've received a beautiful, happy and healthy looking referral.

Woo Hoo!!!!! (Phew...)