CHOP

No I'm not making dinner. Yesterday we went to the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania.

As we drove down 95 South I marveled at how lucky we are to have one of the countries best pediatric hospitals just a half hour from home. CHOP has an entire unit for International Adoption cases and the unique medical complications they bring. When you are given a referral of a child you are encouraged to have the medical portion reviewed by a medical professional before saying "Yes" to things you might not understand. Dr. Friedman has been with us since our first referral of Simon and we were thrilled to finally see her in person yesterday.

Isaac was evaluated for speech, motor skills, developmental delays and learning disabilities as well as a full medical work up. It was so fun to watch him show off for the doctors. He got a kick out of putting together puzzles, stacking small blocks, kicking a ball and running down the hallway and walking sideways on a line. Why can't all doctor visits be this fun?

In the end they were pleasantly surprised to see that Isaac is testing right at 36 months developmentally. He barely spoke while he was at the babies home but it is clear that he was understanding everything around him. They asked us if we taught Isaac his colors and we didn't know how to answer. "We taught him how to say his colors but I think he already knew them."

Most orphans experience a significant delay not only in physical growth due to undernourishment, but in language and cognitive areas as well. Isaac is showing no developmental delays! He is testing around 22/24 months in verbal communication but they attribute that to the fact that he has only been learning English for a short time. They were very impressed that he is already doing 3 word phrases and understanding everything we say. Way to go little man!

We are also thrilled to report that Isaac is finally on the growth charts! He is rockin a solid 4% but his trajectory is good and they expect him to catch up just fine :)