We just got out of the referral appointment and it went well. We are getting a referral for Alex, and saw a couple of pictures we had not seen before (incl one when he was by our guess 1 yr old--and SO cute!). I tell you, he's still smiling in all these pictures. We honestly didn't learn that much, and want to be careful about what we share publicly, but the medical information we received was all repeated. Alex was born with very low birth weight (which I assume means a premature birth, but I don't know for sure--just makes sense with the CP). He goes by a nickname. They say he has a calm character. We're speculating a bit from information received, but we think he entered the orphanage around one year old. But we don't know, it could have been earlier. We pick up the referral around 3pm tomorrow.
People are right when they say this is a paper-heavy process...the office is stacked with papers and phone calls (not emails) were being made to make absolutely sure Alex was still in that particular institution. The lady who handled the appointment was nice and very impressed with Jerry's Russian--everyone is!
More later, Susan
p.s. the plan is we meet Alex on Monday....
