We met our pediatrician!

On Tuesday Gary and I had an appointment with the pediatrician that we were interested in to be the doctor for Avery. The doctor that would look at her file when we had one to look at, and the doctor for her once we brought her home from China. She is Dr. O and we were extremely impressed with her.

I didn't really think I was nervous going in to meet her but I guess I was. This whole experience of finding a pediatrician when you are adopting and don't have other children was daunting to me. How do you go about this and what are the questions you ask? Would people be receptive to our situation? How easy or hard would this process be? It was fairly easy...

We did a lot of asking questions of friends we knew, and family. I asked a lot of the parents I know at the dance studio, and other adoptive families we know. I asked who their pediatrician was and if they wouldn't mind giving us their opinions, and any other recommendations. People were so helpful, and receptive, and so willing to help us out, it was great and we are so thankful!!

I sent an email to the pediatrician's group and we also sent a specific letter to that doctor, and also 2 other letters to two other doctor's groups and just waited to see who would respond. We also had some friends mention us at their appointments, and a couple friends that we know are nurses and they mentioned us to her also. Plus, Gary's brother's family goes to this pediatrician's office also, so they've seen the name before. One of our friends was actually going in to have Dr. O look at their adoptive child's medical file for review. So she had definitely heard from us and of us before Tuesday.

I ended up that Dr. O called us and of course we weren't home, and I called her back and explained our situation, and she was really nice and professional on the phone, I liked her from the start. I set up a meeting with her to go through the special needs list that our agency sends to us and wanted her opinion of the "needs" and what to look out for and what she's seen come through her office etc. We had already decided (Gary & myself) what we would accept and not accept for the needs list but I wanted to go through it with a pediatrician that was knowledgeable about International adoption, and of course knowledgeable in all the medical terms etc.

Dr. O was great. Very down to earth, very easy to talk to, very informative, just put us at ease. I didn't think I was nervous, but I was. My face was red (I get a red face when I'm nervous, and it gets splotchy-always has ) and Gary says I was very talkative, and he couldn't get a word in at all. Very unusual for me to be that way but I guess it's good to know that I will be that forth coming when it comes to our family. I think this step was another step of this finally becoming "real", a pediatrician-GREAT!!!

Dr. O will work with our short time frame of 24-48 hours before a referral has to be fully locked in. She said to call her right away, and told us the week in April that she will be out of office. She will be Avery's doctor when we get back from China, and will prepare us before we go to China. It was a great meeting and we were over the moon excited afterward. As we walked out of the office I said to Gary, "I like her a lot, and wow, we have a pediatrician!"

Weird how in this process you have a pediatrician first then your child. But another to do to cross off our list. Vaccinations started-check! Fingerprints re-done on the State level-check! Paperwork sent to New life on the I600 extension-check! More and more gets checked off the list!!!

We should be sending out the final paperwork for the switchover by the end of this week! Then we just wait for a list-WOW!!!!!!! & Hope that we have a child on it!!-CHILLS!!

Love to everyone~
~Alli  :)