Day 2: Ups and downs - Sept. 5 9/8/2007
We awoke early anxious for a response from Dr. S. It wasn’t there but it came through sometime in the morning while we were getting ready. We had another early morning with Vlad picking us up at 8 am. The Dr wrote that he had been unable to view the video due to technical difficulties, but he felt he could make some conclusions based on pictures, the medical, information provided by the baby house head doctor, and our anecdotal observations. He addressed her various issues point by point, but in the end he said he felt she likely had a good prognosis provided she received good nutrition, a loving family, appropriate therapies, and so on. We were elated and started our day out feeling pretty good about life.
We med Vlad, picked up Elena on the way, and had a pleasant drive out to the Ussurisk baby house followed by a pretty good visit with Anna. Pictures from Day 2 are found here. I think Steve and I both had some anxiety still about it all, but we have the benefit of a previous adoption and remember feeling very anxious and scared when we decided to adopt Adelina. It is just such a huge decision and a major responsibility we are taking on. You can’t help but question it all some. Anna gave us some sweet hugs, though, and we were really warming up to the idea of making her our own.
Anyhow, the day went much like the day before. We stopped at the Vlad Motor Inn to turn over our interpreter and driver to the other WACAP family that is in Vlad at the same time and were provided another driver for our return trip to our hotel. Once back at the hotel, we tried to check e-mail, but something was wrong with the wireless connection or with g-mail, and it was loading too slow. We were starving because we had skipped lunch and we decided to go to an early dinner at an Italian place down by the waterfront. The e-mail can wait.
Our dinner was excellent, though the lasagna was not nearly as good as the creamy salmon and pasta dish that I had. Wow, it was so yummy - we must go back for some more of that. After dinner we walked along the boardwalk area and I took off my sandals so I could walk in the water. I mean it isn’t everyday you get a chance to put your feet in the Amursky Bay, essentially an inlet off the Sea of Japan. They had a little beach area there and many people were sunbathing and playing in the water. It was cold, but not unbearable. We saw some other cool things at the waterfront, like a diving platform. You know the ones for the competitions where they have the concrete platforms at 5 and 10 meters (we think those are right). The platforms were right on the bay, which looks so scary! It’s one thing to plunge from the heights into a clean pool of water, but into a choppy sea!? Yikes. Anyhow, the waterfront area was really cool. We then had to walk up the hill (the hotels are on this steep hill rising above the bay) and we got some pictures with the tiger statue, evidently there to commemorate the hill, which is called Tiger Hill. Pics from our walk around Vlad are in the gallery. So we had had a most pleasant time and we returned to our room feeling encouraged and refreshed. Upon our return, we checked our e-mail, and this is when things got interesting…
Dr. S. had written again letting us know that he had finally had a chance to view the video (he had gotten technical help) and had some further comments and a concern. The concern involved something he observed on the video regarding her muscle tone and the CP. He asked us if we had observed the same thing he thinks he is seeing, and he went on to say that if we have (observed what he saw), this will alter her prognosis, I am afraid. “I am afraid” is the phrase he used, and we did NOT like the sound of that. I think Steve about started to hyperventilate, and I was just trying to pray and remember that God is good and He is in control, and He has a plan. This would alter her prognosis how!? We started scouring the internet to see what we could find. We found a little but nothing clear enough to really help us. In the end, we put together a second e-mail for Dr. S. detailing our observations as related to his concern and also providing more medical data we received that day on some of her other issues (which left us a tad concerned). We also uploaded another video in case it helped him to see more of her movements and motor skills.
We had to call our facilitator and tell her that we were dealing with questions from our Dr. and we were pulling back temporarily from our “yes” just until we can get his concerns addressed. She was very understanding and sympathetic to our situation. We e-mailed our parents for support, then we prayed hard and went to sleep. Despite the stress of it all, we actually slept okay. We had asked Dr. S. to please answer us by noon AZ time, so we’d get his response by 6 am in Vlad. That should give us enough time to contact our facilitator and either continue or alter our course. Thus ended what was largely both the best and the hardest day thus far.
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