Let's just drug the kid.

Nobody said that. Not exactly anyway. Miss S had a psychological evaluation yesterday at the request of her mom. The doctor wanted to talk to me first and asked me several questions about her history and behaviors. Then he talked to Miss S for about 90 minutes. Last, he talked to her mom for a while.

The most surprising thing to me was when he told me that in the 25 years he's been working with CPS, he's never had a mother refer her child to get a psych eval. It's always been the CPS worker or teacher, etc. NEVER the mom. What does that tell you?

However, the most disturbing thing to me was what he told me after meeting with Miss S. He said he saw a strong possibility of ADHD. Gee, never saw that one coming... I'm not saying this guy is a quack or even that he's wrong. I just would've bet money that it would at least be a possibility. He told me he's going to go over his notes from talking with her and look at the answers from the questionairre I filled out, but he's thinking about ADHD.

I had my own thoughts about it but I held off until talking to Denielle last night. She and I both strongly disagree with ADHD because of the progress we've seen in her in the last 8 months. When she first came here, she couldn't sit down to read a book, watch a TV show, or a movie. Now, she'll sit in her room and read several books. She has no problem sitting on the couch to watch a TV show or even an entire movie. Sure, she'll get up and switch positions or come sit by one of us but it's not like she's losing focus.

One thing she does that he pointed out is this: if you're talking to her (especially when you're correcting her or punishing her) she has a very hard time looking at you (which our training said that most foster kids won't look adults in the eye). She'll even look around the room or fidget with something else while you're talking. But, if you ask her what you just said, she'll tell you and it's if it's short enough she'll tell you word for word. She also used to cry immediately upon making eye contact with adults if they were teaching or disciplining her. She gets bummed out when she's being disciplined but she can maintain eye contact without crying now. I don't see an ADHD kid doing that.

The thing we keep thinking about is that she needs structure, consistency, and discipline. The time when she's the most relaxed is at night when she's laying in bed. She knows there's nothing else to do and the only thing she can do right then is lay there and talk. She makes good eye contact and carries a conversation very well.

At this point, all we can do is wait for his report to be filed with CPS and talk to our case worker about it. The doctor also said we could most likely read the report at the CPS office. We definitely will let our case worker know what we've observed from Miss S and the improvements she's made.

One last thing: the visits are ramping up now. This weekend will probably be their first entire weekend with mom. We're planning on dropping them off Friday night and picking them up Sunday night. If all goes well, they'll spend an entire week with her after that. Then they'll probably head back to mom permanently. Please pray for a smooth transition and good visits.

Thanks for all your emails, comments, and prayers!