Questions for "The Call"

I've been working on my list of questions to ask/things to write down when we get "The Call". Here's what I've got so far:

1. Date and time of call.
2. Name of person calling.
3. Baby's full Chinese name.
4. Translation of baby's name.
5. Full name of baby's orphanage.
6. City and province of orphanage.
7. Foster care?
8. Date of birth.
9. Height, weight and date taken.
10. Other information about the baby - likes/dislikes, appearance, etc.
11. Abandonment information (finding location, date found, note, etc).
12. Travel group #.
13. Other families in our travel group.
14. Can we get a care package to the baby's orphanage?
15. What does the orphanage need most?
16. Can we request updated information on the baby?
17. What is our estimated date of travel?
18. Please email a picture and baby's information to
19. When will you send the full referral packet? Can I have the tracking number?
20. Is there anything else I need to know?
21. What should I do next?

I know that sounds like a lot, but I practiced asking them out loud and they went really quickly. Is there anything else that I should ask? Is this an inappropriate time to ask about her abandonment?

Thanks!!!

Nora's sweet new ride

Rob and I had a really nice day today - lunch out, some errands and a nice walk with Maddie this evening. One of our afternoon stops was at the big REI annual sale. I was looking for closed toe sandals to wear in China, which I didn't find, but they did have 20% off BOB strollers. Irresistible!

Here's photo of Nora's new ride - an orange BOB revolution:

We're keeping it in the basement for now. As you can see, we haven't done the baseboards there yet, mostly because we don't want to stress out Abigail (our 18 yo cat who likes to hang out down there). Trust me, we do have baseboards in the rest of the house. Probably I should have taken it somewhere better for the photo, but it didn't seem worth the trouble at the time.

Obviously we'll also need an umbrella type stroller for trips to the mall and stuff like that. Any recommendations? I was thinking maybe a Maclaren - the Volo is the lightest, but it's also the most bare bones and only has one seating position for the baby. I'm wondering if the Quest might be a better choice because it has 4 seating positions. Does anyone have one and either like it or hate it? Do you have another brand/model that you love?

Choosing a pediatrician

Thanks to some suggestions from my friends at The Packing List Challenge and the recommendations from several folks in our local FCC group, I think we have a good prospect for a regular pediatrician for Nora (we still plan to use the IA clinic for her initial post-adoption examination). I talked to someone at the office today - she is going to mail me some materials and physician information because their website is in the process of being updated. Once I review those materials, I am supposed to call her back to schedule a consultation. She said that I could even meet with each of the doctors individually if I want to. I think it's great that they offered that, however I'll probably start with the physician who was so highly recommended by members of the local FCC group.

So, now I'm trying to come up with a list of questions for the initial consult. This is what I've got so far (list was compiled from a variety of sources including adoption.com, Adoptive Families magazine and Dr Sears' Baby Book):

• What are the office hours?
• Does the office have evening and weekend appointments?
• What is the average wait for well-baby appointments?
• Does the office see children urgently on the same day for sick visits?
• Are laboratory facilities on site? If not, where would we be sent for these?
• Is screening for hearing and vision done in the office?
• Where did she go to medical school and more importantly where did she do her Pediatric residency training?
• How long has she been in practice?
• Is she board-certified?
• Are the physicians in the office board certified?
• Does she have any special medical interests?
• What experience does she have dealing with the complex issues of the internationally adopted child?
• How many of the physicians within the group actively see Internationally adopted children?
• How do I reach her for routine questions or urgent problems?
• Does she have specific telephone call-in times?
• Can I reach her by e-mail?
• What if Nora becomes ill?
• If Nora is ill, will she usually be seen in the office?
• When would she be referred to the emergency room?
• If a hospitalization becomes necessary, does the office admit to a local community hospital or do they admit to a hospital that is geared towards the care of children?
• Who would be responsible for Nora's care if she were to be hospitalized?
• Who covers the pediatrician when she is away?
• What type of staff is in the office?
• Are we likely to see different providers at each visit?
• How much time will the pediatrician spend with us at a typical visit?
• What is her recommended check up frequency?
• What are her views on well childcare and early childhood development?
• When does she prescribe antibiotics?
• What is the her view on vaccines and what is her recommended vaccine schedule?
• We would like to use the U of M IAC for Nora's first Post-Adoption Medical exam. How does she feel about this? When would she want to first see Nora? How do we coordinate care with the IAC?
• Would she be willing to write prescriptions such as Elimite and Tobrex for our adoption trip or will we need to go elsewhere for that? Does she have concerns with this?
• How does she feel about raising a child as a vegetarian/pescatarian?
• To whom does she refer children who are developmentally delayed?

Am I missing anything?? Are any of these questions unnecessary?

TIA for any advice!

Blogging in China

Have any of you had any experience using Blogger while in China? I've heard from a few people that it doesn't work at all, but then I've seen a couple of people use it with some success (good success posting, limited success with photos, no success with video).

I would really like to use this blog to post updates while we're in China, but I don't want to create headaches for myself either. I realize that we'll be busy and, obviously, Nora will be our first priority. If blogging is going to be a big headache or eat up a bunch of time, then I don't want to mess with it. Our best other alternative is our little-used family website, but that requires that I publish updates via FTP and I don't know if that will work either.

Any words of wisdom? If neither of these will work, what about one of the commercial sites like BabySites or JourneytoMe? I really would like to avoid creating a personal Yahoo! group or emailing to someone else to post on my behalf. I know that both of those would work, but the way I see it, this is my problem and I don't want to create any difficulties for anyone else.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions! I also emailed our agency this evening - if I learn anything from them I'll let you know.