Novermber 14, 2007

Today, we attended a Pre-Adoptive Seminar at The Floating Hospital for Children in Boston. The presenters for this seminar were Dr. Laurie Miller who is Pediatrician and Linda Tirella who is a Developmental Specialist both woman specialize working with international adoptee. We will be in contact with them while we are overseas. We will fax them our child’s medical history, pictures and videos. They will help us determine how healthy our child is and what the child’s potential is for living a healthy life. If our child happens to be not so healthy they will guide us on making the decisions on what we will need to do or what we should expect. The seminar was very informative and we were so glad we made the decision to attend it. The topics that were covered:

1. Medical and health issues pre-adoptive parents need to know about (parasites, hepatitis, HIV, syphilis, fetal alcohol syndrome and growth).

2. Pre-adoptive medical & developmental assessments: how we assess referrals and videos.

3. Child development and delays in international adoptees and long-term effects of institutionalization on language, behavior, and learning.

4. Compilation of articles and information on internationally adopted children. (They have given us a ton of documentation to refer to.)

Parts of the seminar were really hard to take. I sat there for the 3 hours on the verge of tears and a huge ache both in my stomach and my heart. But they did only tell me stuff that was best for me to hear and see before actually walking into the baby house for the first time. We both feel more prepared for what to expect now.

In addition, Dr. Miller has written a book entitled “The Handbook of International Adoption Medicine” being the big reader that I am, I had to buy it. Even thought it is a medical guide it is written in an easy to read format and covers pretty much every possible medical condition that our child may face. The handouts and this book will be going to Kaz with us.