The Process Goes On

Woke up at 5:15 this morning, checked e-mail and blog and went back to bed around 6:30. CD woke around 9:00; I slept in until 10:30. CD prepared a fine breakfast of scrambled eggs, home fries and ham from the Green Bazaar, and we spent the rest of the time reading until it was time to see Otis. Candace packed some socks; I ditched the smokes, and we headed out.

New schedule, our arrival time is now 2:15, but they still snatch the little bugger away at 3:55 :-( Our coordinator, Galina was there today and after about 15 minutes with Otis, who was in a great mood, she took us down to the Director’s office. The OD read us a summary of Otis’ medical records, and CD took copious notes while I held O. We realized we had been miscalculating his age; his birthday’s 11-1-04, so he’s almost eight months old, not nine as we thought. (CD: this from a guy who calculates dates in his head and a woman who manipulates big dollar figures for their livings! Otis: the bad news is: your mom and dad are arithmetic morons. The good news is that your developmental achievements are that much more impressive.)

CD: OK, here are the new facts, for those of you (notably my mom) who are interested:

• He weighed 4.4 pounds at birth (eek! – possibly consistent with a mom who was starving herself to conceal her pregnancy? -- we’ll ask Dr. A about that) and was 46 cm long. (Consistent with the above, I have forgotten how to convert cms to inches, notwithstanding having been brought up during the ‘70’s flirtation with conversion to the metric system.) His Apgar scores were 7 and 8 – the low end of excellent. He tested negative for all the really bad stuff – HIV, hepatitis, syphilis. The “head pressure” diagnosis was absolutely a function of his having been born in Almaty, not of oxygen deprivation during birth. Every child born in Almaty is diagnosed with this.
• A month and six days later, he was transferred to the orphanage. At that time, he weighed 5.6 pounds. Ever since, he has tested well for all functions, has never been in the hospital, and has received all his vaccines but for TB. An interesting story here: when he was born, the TB vaccine that was being given was made in Serbia. Lots of KZ kids had a bad reaction to it, and because the orphanage is an essentially closed environment, the OD decided not to have him vaccinated. There is now a Russian vaccine available, and the OD is waiting to see how kids react to it before having him vaccinated. She suggested we may just want to do this in the US.
• As of June 1 (they weigh and measure the kids once a month on the first), he was 18 pounds and 63 cm long. As far as I can tell, this makes him a healthy weight but on the short side. On the other hand, all they’re feeding him is formula and juice.

OK, back to DJ….

Galina said the copies of the medical records had been sent to the Dept. of Education and she would have copies translated for us soon, but not today. I pressed her on this, saying we needed them for our doctor in the US and added, “I’m going to ask you about this every day.” Galina’s response: “And if the doctor sees something she doesn’t like, are you going to say you don’t want the baby?” Subduing the impulse to say: “Just get me the translations, bitch,” we both said: “No, no!” (CD: To which she replied, “Then why do you need to know?” !!!!!!!)

Galina told us that the Section Chief at the Dept. of Ed. was concerned about the age disparity between O and us, but she didn’t think it would be a problem. Tentatively, we have a July 12 court date. We thanked the OD profusely, told her O was perfect and went back to the bonding room.

The rash on O’s face and the cradle cap seem to be clearing up. Big moment: he spit up for the first time in front of us! The next 45 minutes passed quickly; he glommed onto my watch again, took our glasses off our faces and generally made us laugh. He fell asleep in CD’s arms five minutes before the nurse came to get him.

Back to the apartment, where Galina lightens the load in my money belt and is offended when I ask for a receipt. We are now trying to figure out where to go to dinner. Today I’m grateful for (besides C&O): 1) the internet and tri-band cell phones, which keep us tethered to 2) you guys and your love and friendship. It would be so much harder (CD: almost impossible) doing this without all of you.