Referral Day: May 9, 2012

As I shared in an earlier post, we took a little vacation to Cozumel the second week in May.  We were still without a referral, but had high hopes it would happen sometime soon.

After 4 days of vacation which entailed diving, eating, drinking, and of course checking my email every night, it finally happened.  As we went to dinner each night, we stopped off in the lobby to meet up with other divers, chit chat a bit, and log-in to check emails. Saturday... nothing.  Sunday...nothing. Monday...nothing.  Tuesday...nothing.  To say the least I was a bit disappointed at this point and figured this just wasn't going to be our week.  But then it happened.  On Wednesday night as I downloaded my email I saw a reply from our Social Worker to a message I sent her prior to vacation.  I figured it was just a quick question on her part or a reply to a question I had asked.  To my surprise when I opened it the first thing I read was "I am happy to attach the referral of..."  I stopped in mid sentence and looked over to Fred with my hand up in high 5 mode.

That's all he needed to know our time had come and our referral was here.  I walked over with the iPad and sat with Fred as we continued to read the short email which contained his name and the most current (8 mo) measurements per his doctor's visit on Monday, May 7. The actual referral document was attached with more detail and a additional pictures.  I told Fred I did not want to see the pictures until we read the details, but we caved and scrolled down to the bottom of the email and there he was, the cutest 8 month old little boy ever!!!

After a few screams, "oh my goshes," squeezes, giggles, and a little welling up...we opened the attachment to find all kinds of detail about medical and physical status, development, history of birth and admission as well as the a few more pictures.  These pictures were from his original intake after birth and I can only guess at his 5 or 6 month check up in Feb/Mar.  

That night, we had reservations for dinner with others so we had to wander off to the restaurant and planned to read all of the details later.  That lasted about 10 minutes.  Once dinner was ordered I was back on the iPad soaking in every word.  I think I was in such a daze the rest of the night as we reread the details again and again in the room and continued to look at that cute little face.  Can you ever look at a picture too much??


Some of his developmental status @ 5-6 months old which was included on the referral:

• Places both hands around the bottle.
• Goes to sleep around 11 pm and wakes at 7 am.
• Naps 2-3 times per day for 2 hours each.
• Sleeps with his foster mother on the futon laid out on the floor.
• Takes a bath every day, he does not like bathing much.
• Turns his head to direction of sound.
• Babbles a lot and is able to say eomma (mom).
• Turns from front to back
• Raises the top half of his body and turns head both directions.
• Holds up his butts and tries to crawl.
• Bears weight on feet and bounces when placed in standing position.
• Uses his hands and fingers to pick up objects.
• Is able to pull down objects put on high.
• Finds his reflection in the mirror interesting.

To say the least, vacation was great and I am so glad we were able to enjoy our little guy for a few moments just the two of us.