Developmental Evaluation

This morning we had a developmental evaluation for Lucy. After not doing this when I adopted Gwenn, and early intervention would have been beneficial, I'm all in favor of doing the evaluation even if you think that your adopted child is on target.

So the news today is that they believe that for the most part Lucy is on target developmentally - for a 20-24 month old child, which is how old they assume that she really is. Now keep in mind, with a 4/24/05 birthdate, that puts her currently at 29 months - so they are thinking that she is 5-9 months younger than her paperwork states. That is in sync with the pediatrician, who is thinking that she is 6-7 months younger than her paperwork states.

At this point I've now started to think about changing Lucy's birthdate. I'm not emotionally tied to her birthdate, especially with mounting evidence that her birthdate may be either a work of fiction, or what I really think happened - the dates of another child whose paperwork somehow got mixed up with Lucy's. Somehwere out there is a child whose adoptive parents are thinking they have one of the most mature 2 year olds with congenital heart disease....

I'm not sure how I'll lean for birthdays. Right now I'm thinking about meeting in between somewhere - maybe a late August birthday (one less year of childcare) - she'll get into kindergarten early, unless at the time I feel that I need to hold her, with an August birthday I can make that decision. If she gets into school and is only a little behind folks will think "well, she has a late birthday" - but if I keep an April birthday and she is behind it would be more like "what's up with this kiddo!" I know a lot of folks in the adoption world think that you should keep the birthdate. But - if the date is fiction, or one that you have due to a paperwork mix up, let's not be emotionally tied to it - and deal with what might be best for the kiddo. I'm still in the decision making process, but I am leaning towards the date change.