Day Twelve – Good News From Dr. Yuri

Before the details, here's the bottom line – Dr. Yuri was very positive about Peter's health and we're starting the adoption paperwork!

Dr. Yuri's visit was initially complicated – his 'patient' (Peter) was on a walk when we arrived and no one knew when they might return. He put the time to good use in reviewing Peter's medical records with the doctor at the orphanage. It wasn't long before Peter and his group arrived and Dr. Yuri started his evaluation.

After getting past the obligatory offering of sweets, Dr. Yuri moved right into having Peter building a stack of blocks and and identifying colors. The next round was matching different block shapes with the corresponding hole. I was amazed at some of the things Peter could do at Dr. Yuri's request, but was especially thrilled with Peter's real interest in books. Dr. Yuri got Peter to identify items pictured in books and to correctly find 'the biggest' in a group or 'what item doesn't belong', among other age-appropriate tasks. Without the ability to speak Ukrainian, we had no way to really do similar things with Peter ourselves. Peter was able to assemble a couple of easy puzzles and, when the 'tests' were over, he continued to look in Dr. Yuri's bag and pulled out more books. After a final round comprised of some physical checks, Dr. Yuri gave Peter a clean bill of health. He's small for his age and has some delay in speaking (pretty normal for kids in orphanages), but appears to be otherwise normal for a 3.5 year old. We're thrilled (but not surprised – we thought he seemed quite normal even before Dr. Yuri's confirmation).

So, now the administrative efforts really begin – well, not until Monday. We have some immediate legal paperwork to complete before finalizing the document package required to get a local court appointment. Even if these next steps happen early in the week, there will be a 10 day waiting period after the court appearance before much else can happen. Unless something completely unexpected happens in the next few days, the Giorgio family will grow to four!