To Children's and Back

We are home.

It was a LONG day with one appointment after another from 9:15 to 2:15 and exhausting. The kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. Even when we stopped for gas and the car alarm went off Little Missy did not stop snoring. Her head was hanging off the car-seat in a way that gave me neck pain just looking. It was all interesting. Little Guy is getting glasses. Little Miss has a lot of surgery and treatment ahead.

The level of care and concern between the different doctors and people we saw was striking. The first doc was flippant, said something about apples not falling far from trees and seemed to have a general attitude about foster kids. He was non committal in his statements to us and we came out more confused than understanding. He made comments about Little Guy's slowness of speech and inability to give him information.The next person was an audiologist who made several assumptions and incorrect statements and said Little Miss's hearing was fine. She was getting her job done. Period.

The next appointment was with the head of the cranial facial clinic. This was a complete different story. He was thrilled to see Missy in her new family. He has cared for her since day 11. He has done her surgeries and dealt with bio family. He asked about termination and got a smidge misty-eyed when he heard about the relinquishment. He talked about her background and the utter chaos the twins came from and how the developmental delays are, in his opinion, all environmentally caused. He said everybody there who ever dealt with Missy and family will never forget and they all have stories! Every visit was just that kind of unforgettable experience. He said he had never seen her look so good. In fact he repeated several times that he had never seen her look like this before. I didn't know exactly what that meant. He took a lot of time with us and answered a lot of questions even of their general health and other issues. He confirmed that what we are doing regarding their bowel health is the way to go and made some small suggestions that we appreciate.  Little Miss is quite taken with him and  soaked up the attention.

It was a parade of doctors, social workers, orthodontists, etc.... after that. Mostly these were caring people. These are all people who have followed this case since day 11. The doc who did the ear surgeries all the way down to the guy who took photographs remember vividly all previous visits and have stories. The photographs of Little Miss were amazing to me. I had not seen any good pictures of her since her referral picture and here they have a record of her for every year. The photographer said he would put them on a cd for me. Now if only I could get my hands on some good pics of twin brother.

Missy has a long road ahead. Cleft palate is a big deal. We are finding out what a sick baby she was and it's actually amazing she pulled through and is here today.

The kids were good all day. We came home to a clean house and mowed grass and the laundry done. The girls had the day off from cherries and they worked hard at home. They brought out a little toy that really excited the twins. We let them play with it for a bit and then I decided since it was past bed time they should each take one more turn and get their pj.'s on. Little Guy was not happy about that and went and stood between the two bathrooms and peed in his pants. We were completely caught by surprise. How could this be? He did so well all day and asked to go pee every time he needed to at the hospital and at REI, etc.... why now? We didn't put the two-and-two together until this morning. It makes me so sad.