Day 10 as a Daddy

Hey Buddy,

Well if we thought having you home was not blessing enough, we got some great news at your very first Dr. checkup today. We went all the way to the opposite side of Nashville to see our favorite pediatrician. He has experience with internationally adopted babies, and we were connected to him thru our friends Jim and Adrienne. He also read the limited medical information we had back in April when we first got your referral.

Anyway, mommy and I had a few concerns and we also had a ton of medicine that the Dr's in Taiwan sent us home with.
We decided not to use any of them with the exception of an inhaler that we gave you twice a day. Below is a list of things we were concerned about:

Possible ear infection - (because you would grab for them like they hurt)
Flat spot on your head- (From laying in one spot for so long)
Recent diagnosis in Taiwan of Bronchitis- (hence the inhaler)
Additional diagnosis in Taiwan of Congenital Artial Septum Defect- (google it)
The fact that you have been sleeping so much- (12hrs plus at night and long naps)
Your overall health
Development
and Attachment


The Dr. responded with the following instructions:

The ears look clear, don't give him anything- (possible dry skin he is reaching to scratch)
The flat spot will correct itself with time
The lungs are clear so stop using any medication for this including the inhaler
The heart sounds good, but you should see a specialists eventually to get an echo
The sleeping sounds normal as long as you have plenty of energy when awake
Overall you have NO acute symptoms to treat- (Which he said is very rare)
Your development is up to par
and your attachment looks great

He said throw away all the medicine they gave us in Taiwan and don't give you anything because you are a very healthy baby. He did recommend some vitamins to add nourishment you probably did not get enough of over there. We will do a complete physical and full vaccinations in one month.

Wow! Is that great or what? God definitely was looking out for you my man.




On an unrelated note, I want to share with you the following:

Somewhere between seeing you in your refferal paperwork and traveling to pick you up, I decided I wanted to do more for orphans. Now I know what your thinking.... Daddy, can't you just adopt them all? Well son, even if I could, I could never fit all of them in our car to go to church. So I have really been mindful of how I can make my life meaniful to as many orphans as possible. Mommy and I have tried to educate ourselves as much as possible. I pray God gives us oportunities to serve orphans more.

In the meantime, I have been working on a few things you're probably really excited to hear about. Right before we left to come get you we had an orphan awareness sunday at church. We served http://www.justlovecoffee.com/ coffee for the congregation. This was really great just because the smell alone had people asking questions. Additionally, our children's ministry that mommy works with sponsor two children thru http://www.holtintl.org/. The final thing I hope to do this month is the have a list of the 430 children in Tennessee State Custody available for adoption thru the foster system. Our friend Tracy from church has offered to make bookmarks to be able to give to church members to pray for these children over the holidays. Tracy recently started a site at http://www.2loveorphans.com/ which has available the neat necklaces you saw mommy wearing.

OK, just wanted to give you an update of what is going on. Thanksgiving is this week, and we have a lot to be thankful for.

I love you son,

Daddy