Tess's age...

Tess on the day we got her in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia...
Tess today, 6 months later...

One of the biggest challenges of adopting an older child (and there are many!!)  is that we do not really know how old she is.  There are no birth records for any of these kids.  When you adopt a baby, the margin of error is less because the chld is so young.  We were told at the time of Tess's adoption that she was 7 1/2.  The government had assigned her  birthday as January 2001, which means she just turned 8.  The problem is that because she is so bold and so smart and sassy that she seems to be much older.  She has lost 7 teeth in 6 months including 2 back molars.  I have had several talks with her dentist and he told me it's hard to acurately give an age based on teeth.  He told us she is for sure between 7-10 years old.

A friend who has a little girl from Ethiopia took her to the International Children's clinic in Long Beach and had a dr. there x-ray her hand and wrist.  I guess that is another way to get a better idea of age.  Her little girl ended up being 1 1/2 years older than they thought ( not 4 1/2 but 6 yars old).  This all really only makes a difference in school.  We currently have Tess in 1st grade.  We knew turning 8 in 1st grade was old but thought she needed to start there since she had no english. But now that she may even be older, we really need to move her up.  She plays much better with her 8 and 9 year old cousins and friends than her 6 year old classmates.  She is doing really well in school and her language is amazing for 6 months of english.

Friday I have a meeting with the principle and her teacher...I'll keep you posted.