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David was 2 1/2 when we brought him home and will now be 4 in May. He was very sick with an upper resp. infection and wheezed very badly when we got him. In fact, he could not run 20 feet without stopping to catch his breath. He had no stomach muscle tone and could not sit up from a laying position without using his arms to help him. He had very little hair.
He had circumcision & tongue clipped 6 months home and has just had adenoid removal surgery and sinus' washed out March 2nd.
David has been a very sick child - in fact I had to cut back work to 3 days a week b/c after being in day-care 3 days a week - by Thursday he had picked up something else at school - or his ear infections would re-occur from the bacteria that remained in his sinus' after 10 days on Omnicef.
David was removed from his bio at 17 months old and was at the hospital 4 months (no room in the orphanage) and at the orphanage 9 months. He began to bond with us immediately never cried with us from gotcha day forward - but he was overly friendly with strangers almost to the point of trying to win over their approval in the Wal-Mart aisles. It was not until this past November that we could see David's drastic change and he would initiate hugs & kisses us and tell us he loved us. He is now just as any "American Born Child" as far as his actions are concerned - and it is as though he is our bio child. He is very quick to tell his friends "that's MY mommie" and is very protective of me & his Daddy.
He is a very smart child - learned english very quickly and could speak more English than he knew Russian in 3 weeks here in the USA. Now he can point, click and drag and put together 20 piece puzzles on the computer as well as keep up with his peers in 3-K.
The first year was very hard - the bonding was tough - but with instructions from our International Adoption Clinic on how to promote eye contact and how to use sign language to begin to teach him English plus his exposure in 3-K and watching other children play (he didn't know how) we have made it to where we are today.
There is also a site here on PAD's parents you should visit to read about other parents experiences with post adoption disorders in their children.
It is hard - but in the end one little hug and peck on the cheek and you know it was all worth the hard work.
May God guide you on your decision.
Susan
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