This is our last day of classes in High school. My Mom is next to Oleg – she was our Math teacher and homeroom teacher for 7 years. The little bells symbolize the very last school bell we heard on that day.
And this is our wedding day!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Our Anniversary
21 years ago, on April 9, 1987, Oleg and I got married! We’ve been married for more than half of our lives, and we’ve met on the first day of school in first grade in 1974. Here is the picture of the day we met. I’m the second from left, and Oleg is staying next to me :)
This is our last day of classes in High school. My Mom is next to Oleg – she was our Math teacher and homeroom teacher for 7 years. The little bells symbolize the very last school bell we heard on that day.
And this is our wedding day!
This is our last day of classes in High school. My Mom is next to Oleg – she was our Math teacher and homeroom teacher for 7 years. The little bells symbolize the very last school bell we heard on that day.
And this is our wedding day!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Gymnastics
This week both girls had open lessons in their respective gymnastics classes. Of course we made sure to make lots of pictures, and both girls were very proud to show us what they can do. Especially Rachel! You should’ve seen her face – she was so happy she had her parents coming in to see her in class, she kept looking at us and smiling for an hour and a half non-stop. That’s something the kids who grew up with parents take for granted – what’s the big deal? It is a big deal for Rachel. She finally has her Mama and Papa cheering for her!
Victoria is helping her big sister with the bridge:
In other news Rachel’s made a lot of progress with multiplication tables. Even a month ago it was a hit or miss – she would get it right at about 50%. Now she’s more at 90% mark, and I’m very proud of her. She also started to understand the concept of division, so I think we are going in the right direction.
Victoria continues to improve her reading. Yesterday she read me a book about Spot the dog. She looked at the word “Spot” and told me: “Mama, if you read this word backwards, it will be Tops (this is the name of our local grocery store)” Then she looked at this word again and said: “If you swap “t” and “p”, it will be Stop!” Isn’t she one smart cookie?
Now that she started reading, she corrects my pronunciation more often :) Since I only started learning English at 29, I have a very thick Russian accent, and there is nothing I can do about it. Recently she corrected me when I pronounced the word “it” as “eat” or vice versa. I even consulted with my friend from work about pronouncing long and short “e”, but I still can’t get it right :)
In addition to English reading, Victoria started reading in Russian this week! Even though she knew Russian alphabet, I didn’t teach her to read in Russian on purpose – I wanted her to become a solid English reader first. But a couple of days ago she looked over her Grandma’s shoulder, who was reading Russian book at the time, pointed to one word and said: “Grandma, isn’t this such and such word?” It was a short 3-letter word, but she got it right! My Mom was speechless, and then she showed Victoria how to read in syllables. It’s very easy to read in Russian if you know the letters, it’s somewhat like Spanish: what you see is what you read. Of course, there are some rules, but most of the time, you just put the sounds together, and that’s it. By the time I got back from work, she was reading simple sentences! So now every evening we have a new ritual – both girls read to me in both languages!
Victoria is helping her big sister with the bridge:
In other news Rachel’s made a lot of progress with multiplication tables. Even a month ago it was a hit or miss – she would get it right at about 50%. Now she’s more at 90% mark, and I’m very proud of her. She also started to understand the concept of division, so I think we are going in the right direction.
Victoria continues to improve her reading. Yesterday she read me a book about Spot the dog. She looked at the word “Spot” and told me: “Mama, if you read this word backwards, it will be Tops (this is the name of our local grocery store)” Then she looked at this word again and said: “If you swap “t” and “p”, it will be Stop!” Isn’t she one smart cookie?
Now that she started reading, she corrects my pronunciation more often :) Since I only started learning English at 29, I have a very thick Russian accent, and there is nothing I can do about it. Recently she corrected me when I pronounced the word “it” as “eat” or vice versa. I even consulted with my friend from work about pronouncing long and short “e”, but I still can’t get it right :)
In addition to English reading, Victoria started reading in Russian this week! Even though she knew Russian alphabet, I didn’t teach her to read in Russian on purpose – I wanted her to become a solid English reader first. But a couple of days ago she looked over her Grandma’s shoulder, who was reading Russian book at the time, pointed to one word and said: “Grandma, isn’t this such and such word?” It was a short 3-letter word, but she got it right! My Mom was speechless, and then she showed Victoria how to read in syllables. It’s very easy to read in Russian if you know the letters, it’s somewhat like Spanish: what you see is what you read. Of course, there are some rules, but most of the time, you just put the sounds together, and that’s it. By the time I got back from work, she was reading simple sentences! So now every evening we have a new ritual – both girls read to me in both languages!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
2 months home
We’ve been home for 2 months now, and it already feels like Rachel’s been in our family forever. She’s such a sweet little girl, very well behaved, trying to please us, always doing what she’s asked to do, etc. She and Victoria are a very good friends even though there is a healthy sibling rivalry between them :) Lately they started bickering a little bit more than before, but I think this is very normal after their “honeymoon period” has ended. There is still some jealousy between the girls in regards to the attention they are getting from Oleg and I (especially from Rachel, which is expected). We are trying very hard to spend an equal amount of time with both girls, and I think we are doing very good.
Rachel started gymnastics a couple weeks ago, and she loves it! She also started ballroom dancing lessons! Our local “Fred Astaire Ballroom Dance Studio” has a spring session for 4th-graders at our elementary school, and Rachel is a natural! Ballroom Dance is my weakness – I used to dance back in Ukraine, and Alex took several years of Ballroom Dancing as well, so my goal now is to find partners for both girls and start the formal lessons ASAP :)
Now that Rachel is getting more comfortable with her new life in America, I’d love her to find friends her age, but it’s not an easy task because her English is almost non-existent. One would argue that it’s because of the fact that we speak Russian at home, and I agree. According to Dr. Gindis, the leading expert in international adoption, a second language is usually acquired based on two models: "additive" and "subtractive". Internationally adopted children replace their first language by a new language, it’s a subtractive model, and the immigrants learn a new language in addition to their native language, which is an additive model. Since Rachel is speaking Russian at home, she acquires English by an “additive” model, and her language acquisition is supposed to be slower. But we’ve been through this before! Oleg, Alex and I started learning English virtually from scratch. All our friends came to the country not speaking any English and were able to learn it and go on to receive BS and even MS degrees. The process to learn English in immigrant families is usually the following: start with learning some basic vocabulary, then able to translate simple written English sentences into Russian, then being able to build simple English sentences, then start understanding native English speakers, and then finally start speaking. After this stage many kids (depending on age) usually stop speaking Russian, but still understand it, so when their parents ask them something in Russian, they reply in English.
After 2 months we see some progress with English, but it is VERY tiny. Oleg and I even decided to speak to her in English, but it doesn’t work! She starts crying when she doesn’t understand us! So what’s more important for us – her language development or her happiness? Of course her happiness! Yes, she’s very behind, yes, it takes her more time to memorize things, but hey – she has all time in the world to catch up. We are working very hard tutoring her, and I’m sure she’ll get there, even it will be later then we we’d want her to.
She still loves school :) Her teachers are AWESOME! I had a parent-teacher conference last week, and even though her academic progress is not as fast, her social progress is much better! She’s trying to communicate with other kids at school, which is a huge plus with her lack of language, and she seems much more comfortable in the classroom. She’ll probably repeat 4th grade with the same teacher, and hopefully by the end of next school year we’ll see more results.
Though I’m a little bit disappointed with her slow progress, it’s something that was expected. The post-institutionalized children are usually developmentally behind because they didn’t have a chance to be nurtured and educated by their parents. Of course a child whose parents started reading to him from birth, and a child who never had an individual attention, will have different results. I firmly believe that parents play a huge role in their child’s academic progress. It’s a parents’ job to prepare the children for school, to tutor them as needed, etc. Though all children have different abilities, I can say from my teaching experience that the kids whose parents work with them at home usually are better students.
Speaking of students, I recently connected with my former students in Ukraine! There is a new social-networking website http://www.odnoklassniki.ru/, where I found my old friends, classmates, neighbors, and even students! I used to teach Math for 6th – 9th graders, and imagine my surprise when I received a message from one of my former students! Then another, and another, and now I’m in contact with many of them! I only taught them for 3 years, but they still remember me! It was so nice to hear that I was their favorite teacher :) These “kids” are now almost 30 years old, married with their own kids, and it’s so strange when they address me formally with my patronymic name: “Nataliya Vitalievna”!
Anyway, back to my thoughts about parents working with their kids. I taught Alex to read by 4 years old, and I felt guilty that Victoria still didn’t read at 5. She recognized alphabet since 23 months old, she was doing “Color by number” and “Connect the dots” activities by 3 years old, etc., but I didn’t know how to teach her to read in English. Well, I’m happy to report that she’s reading now! These tutoring sessions with both Rachel and Victoria were good enough to get her started! Yesterday she even took one of the books to preschool and read a story to her class. The kids were very impressed :)
My other “baby” Alex doesn’t need my tutoring anymore, and even if he needed it, I wouldn’t be able to help him. Last semester he took a “Differential Equations” class, and even though I wrote my Master’s thesis in Differential Equations many years ago, I don’t remember ANYTHING :) His program requires several co-op blocks as a part of curriculum, and he’s looking for a job now. So if any of you are hiring a computer engineering/computer science/information technology intern, please let me know! Yesterday he attended a huge student job fair, and it was so neat to see him in suit and tie – he looked like a real professional!
We still didn’t have a chance to take a new family portrait, but I’m working on the plan to get everyone together for a photo session :)
Rachel started gymnastics a couple weeks ago, and she loves it! She also started ballroom dancing lessons! Our local “Fred Astaire Ballroom Dance Studio” has a spring session for 4th-graders at our elementary school, and Rachel is a natural! Ballroom Dance is my weakness – I used to dance back in Ukraine, and Alex took several years of Ballroom Dancing as well, so my goal now is to find partners for both girls and start the formal lessons ASAP :)
Now that Rachel is getting more comfortable with her new life in America, I’d love her to find friends her age, but it’s not an easy task because her English is almost non-existent. One would argue that it’s because of the fact that we speak Russian at home, and I agree. According to Dr. Gindis, the leading expert in international adoption, a second language is usually acquired based on two models: "additive" and "subtractive". Internationally adopted children replace their first language by a new language, it’s a subtractive model, and the immigrants learn a new language in addition to their native language, which is an additive model. Since Rachel is speaking Russian at home, she acquires English by an “additive” model, and her language acquisition is supposed to be slower. But we’ve been through this before! Oleg, Alex and I started learning English virtually from scratch. All our friends came to the country not speaking any English and were able to learn it and go on to receive BS and even MS degrees. The process to learn English in immigrant families is usually the following: start with learning some basic vocabulary, then able to translate simple written English sentences into Russian, then being able to build simple English sentences, then start understanding native English speakers, and then finally start speaking. After this stage many kids (depending on age) usually stop speaking Russian, but still understand it, so when their parents ask them something in Russian, they reply in English.
After 2 months we see some progress with English, but it is VERY tiny. Oleg and I even decided to speak to her in English, but it doesn’t work! She starts crying when she doesn’t understand us! So what’s more important for us – her language development or her happiness? Of course her happiness! Yes, she’s very behind, yes, it takes her more time to memorize things, but hey – she has all time in the world to catch up. We are working very hard tutoring her, and I’m sure she’ll get there, even it will be later then we we’d want her to.
She still loves school :) Her teachers are AWESOME! I had a parent-teacher conference last week, and even though her academic progress is not as fast, her social progress is much better! She’s trying to communicate with other kids at school, which is a huge plus with her lack of language, and she seems much more comfortable in the classroom. She’ll probably repeat 4th grade with the same teacher, and hopefully by the end of next school year we’ll see more results.
Though I’m a little bit disappointed with her slow progress, it’s something that was expected. The post-institutionalized children are usually developmentally behind because they didn’t have a chance to be nurtured and educated by their parents. Of course a child whose parents started reading to him from birth, and a child who never had an individual attention, will have different results. I firmly believe that parents play a huge role in their child’s academic progress. It’s a parents’ job to prepare the children for school, to tutor them as needed, etc. Though all children have different abilities, I can say from my teaching experience that the kids whose parents work with them at home usually are better students.
Speaking of students, I recently connected with my former students in Ukraine! There is a new social-networking website http://www.odnoklassniki.ru/, where I found my old friends, classmates, neighbors, and even students! I used to teach Math for 6th – 9th graders, and imagine my surprise when I received a message from one of my former students! Then another, and another, and now I’m in contact with many of them! I only taught them for 3 years, but they still remember me! It was so nice to hear that I was their favorite teacher :) These “kids” are now almost 30 years old, married with their own kids, and it’s so strange when they address me formally with my patronymic name: “Nataliya Vitalievna”!
Anyway, back to my thoughts about parents working with their kids. I taught Alex to read by 4 years old, and I felt guilty that Victoria still didn’t read at 5. She recognized alphabet since 23 months old, she was doing “Color by number” and “Connect the dots” activities by 3 years old, etc., but I didn’t know how to teach her to read in English. Well, I’m happy to report that she’s reading now! These tutoring sessions with both Rachel and Victoria were good enough to get her started! Yesterday she even took one of the books to preschool and read a story to her class. The kids were very impressed :)
My other “baby” Alex doesn’t need my tutoring anymore, and even if he needed it, I wouldn’t be able to help him. Last semester he took a “Differential Equations” class, and even though I wrote my Master’s thesis in Differential Equations many years ago, I don’t remember ANYTHING :) His program requires several co-op blocks as a part of curriculum, and he’s looking for a job now. So if any of you are hiring a computer engineering/computer science/information technology intern, please let me know! Yesterday he attended a huge student job fair, and it was so neat to see him in suit and tie – he looked like a real professional!
We still didn’t have a chance to take a new family portrait, but I’m working on the plan to get everyone together for a photo session :)
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
First Road Trip
This past weekend we drove 6 hours to New Jersey to visit our dear friends Anya and Dima. We’ve known each other forever – Anya, Oleg and met in 1st grade and were classmates all the way to the High School graduation. Then Anya, Dima and I were classmates at Odessa State University studying Math and Computer Science. So every time we get to see them it’s a treat.
It was a first road trip for Rachel. She loved it! Both girls had fun in the car watching cartoons as well as educational phonics DVDs :) We had to drive through downtown Philadelphia, and Rachel finally experienced bumper-to-bumper traffic in America! The traffic in Odessa is very bad, so she was very surprised not see it in our every day life in Rochester (there is no traffic on her school bus route :)
The weather was gorgeous – 60s and sunny – a welcome change after snow and 30s! All 5 kids (they have 3 kids ages 9, 12 and 14) had a blast riding the bikes, fishing and even riding the boats! So overall we had a great weekend, and the girls can’t wait to see their friends again.
In another news I’m happy to report that our post-adoption paperwork is done! Here is what we’ve accomplished:
- Social Security Number: applied in 2 days after arrival, received 10 days later;
- US Passport: applied 2 weeks after arrival (could’ve done earlier, we didn't need SSN to apply), received 3 weeks later;
- Certificate of Citizenship: received by mail 37 days after arrival;
- Ukrainian Consulate registration: sent last week!
Some people do these steps in a different order, but I wanted to get Rachel’s US passport before sending her Ukrainian passport to Ukrainian Consulate for registration. They take a loooong time returning Ukrainian passports (like several months!), that’s why I didn’t feel comfortable sending the only document verifying Rachel’s immigration status. But now she has her US passport, so I don’t really care about her Ukrainian passport anymore. Knowing from other people’s blogs how the Ukrainian Consulate tends to lose important paperwork, I sent Rachel’s registration by certified mail with return receipt. This way they won’t be able to lie and say they didn’t receive it. I intend to do the same when sending annual post-adoption report to them next year.
For those of you waiting to go, I would really recommend getting “Adoption Certificate” in Ukraine. It’s not required for American families, but it’s very handy! This certificate is issued at the same place where you get a new Birth Certificate, and it looks very similar – one page with parents names, adopted child’s old and new names, the court date and court decree number. It’s much more convenient to show this one page document than a multi-page court decree written in legalese. I also ordered certified translation of both Birth and Adoption Certificates from Hudson Translations, and used them everywhere. They have a raised seal and look very authentic!
It was a first road trip for Rachel. She loved it! Both girls had fun in the car watching cartoons as well as educational phonics DVDs :) We had to drive through downtown Philadelphia, and Rachel finally experienced bumper-to-bumper traffic in America! The traffic in Odessa is very bad, so she was very surprised not see it in our every day life in Rochester (there is no traffic on her school bus route :)
The weather was gorgeous – 60s and sunny – a welcome change after snow and 30s! All 5 kids (they have 3 kids ages 9, 12 and 14) had a blast riding the bikes, fishing and even riding the boats! So overall we had a great weekend, and the girls can’t wait to see their friends again.
In another news I’m happy to report that our post-adoption paperwork is done! Here is what we’ve accomplished:
- Social Security Number: applied in 2 days after arrival, received 10 days later;
- US Passport: applied 2 weeks after arrival (could’ve done earlier, we didn't need SSN to apply), received 3 weeks later;
- Certificate of Citizenship: received by mail 37 days after arrival;
- Ukrainian Consulate registration: sent last week!
Some people do these steps in a different order, but I wanted to get Rachel’s US passport before sending her Ukrainian passport to Ukrainian Consulate for registration. They take a loooong time returning Ukrainian passports (like several months!), that’s why I didn’t feel comfortable sending the only document verifying Rachel’s immigration status. But now she has her US passport, so I don’t really care about her Ukrainian passport anymore. Knowing from other people’s blogs how the Ukrainian Consulate tends to lose important paperwork, I sent Rachel’s registration by certified mail with return receipt. This way they won’t be able to lie and say they didn’t receive it. I intend to do the same when sending annual post-adoption report to them next year.
For those of you waiting to go, I would really recommend getting “Adoption Certificate” in Ukraine. It’s not required for American families, but it’s very handy! This certificate is issued at the same place where you get a new Birth Certificate, and it looks very similar – one page with parents names, adopted child’s old and new names, the court date and court decree number. It’s much more convenient to show this one page document than a multi-page court decree written in legalese. I also ordered certified translation of both Birth and Adoption Certificates from Hudson Translations, and used them everywhere. They have a raised seal and look very authentic!
Friday, March 7, 2008
International Women's Day
Tomorrow marks 6 weeks since Rachel came home. It’s also a second biggest holiday in Ukraine (after New Year’s) – International Women’s Day! Women of all ages receive gifts – daughters from mothers, teachers from students, aunts from nephews, etc. And since it’s a national holiday, everyone gets a day off! We don’t celebrate it with the gifts in our household anymore - Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are enough – but it still feels like a holiday to us!
We’ve come a long way during these 6 weeks at home. I’ve become a strict disciplinarian, which is a totally new role for me :) We have a routine for everything: playtime, study time, TV, bedtime, etc. Of course, Victoria had a routine before, but now I really enforce it, and I think it’s the reason Rachel is doing so well. All children are different, and it wouldn’t even occur to me to send Alex to bed at 8:00 pm when he was 10 years old. But Alex was always very mature, so this approach wouldn’t work for him. As most post-institutionalized kids, Rachel is emotionally much younger than her biological age. She’s more like 7- or 8-year old, and she needs a totally different approach than home-grown 10-year olds. I’m tutoring her every day in Math and English, and she’s really making progress! We started from scratch with the kindergarten and first-grade level work, and both Victoria and Rachel are doing amazingly well. I’m sure Rachel will be able to catch up very soon on her age-appropriate level when she learns the basics. Victoria really benefits from these sessions, and I’m afraid she’ll be bored in kindergarten next year :)
What else is new? Rachel experienced a lot of “firsts” during these 6 weeks.
First visit to the Strong Museum, which is one of the best children’s museums in the nation. The girls had a blast “working” as cashiers at the children’s Wegmans:
doing the weather forecast on TV:
and riding the carousel:
First visit to the mall, with an ice cream at Maggie-Moos:
First visit to the zoo:
First haircut! The hairdresser just trimmed the ends, but the result was awesome:
First gymnastics lesson! Rachel is very good in gymnastics, she should definitely try out for varsity team in high school :)
I started thinking about summer and already signed Rachel up for soccer and swimming. Both girls will go to day camps, it should keep them busy :)
Overall I’m very pleased with our transition so far. Rachel’s attaching very well, the girls are the best of friends, and our life is slowly getting back to our “new” normal.
We’ve come a long way during these 6 weeks at home. I’ve become a strict disciplinarian, which is a totally new role for me :) We have a routine for everything: playtime, study time, TV, bedtime, etc. Of course, Victoria had a routine before, but now I really enforce it, and I think it’s the reason Rachel is doing so well. All children are different, and it wouldn’t even occur to me to send Alex to bed at 8:00 pm when he was 10 years old. But Alex was always very mature, so this approach wouldn’t work for him. As most post-institutionalized kids, Rachel is emotionally much younger than her biological age. She’s more like 7- or 8-year old, and she needs a totally different approach than home-grown 10-year olds. I’m tutoring her every day in Math and English, and she’s really making progress! We started from scratch with the kindergarten and first-grade level work, and both Victoria and Rachel are doing amazingly well. I’m sure Rachel will be able to catch up very soon on her age-appropriate level when she learns the basics. Victoria really benefits from these sessions, and I’m afraid she’ll be bored in kindergarten next year :)
What else is new? Rachel experienced a lot of “firsts” during these 6 weeks.
First visit to the Strong Museum, which is one of the best children’s museums in the nation. The girls had a blast “working” as cashiers at the children’s Wegmans:
doing the weather forecast on TV:
and riding the carousel:
First visit to the mall, with an ice cream at Maggie-Moos:
First visit to the zoo:
First haircut! The hairdresser just trimmed the ends, but the result was awesome:
First gymnastics lesson! Rachel is very good in gymnastics, she should definitely try out for varsity team in high school :)
I started thinking about summer and already signed Rachel up for soccer and swimming. Both girls will go to day camps, it should keep them busy :)
Overall I’m very pleased with our transition so far. Rachel’s attaching very well, the girls are the best of friends, and our life is slowly getting back to our “new” normal.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Making Progress
Busy-busy-busy… That’s how I can describe the life in our household now :) Where to begin? We accomplished a lot during these 3 weeks home. Just 2 days after Rachel and I came back, we went to our local Social Security office to apply for her Social Security card. I know that many adoptive parents had a hard time getting it: some of them were asked to show CoC (Certificate of Citizenship), which usually comes about 45 days after arrival, the others were requested to bring something “American”, i.e. insurance card, etc. Luckily, the Birth Certificate, Adoption Certificate and Ukrainian passport with the Visa were enough for our local SS office. Just 10 days later we received her Social Security Card!
My next goal was to apply for her US passport. Some parents are usually waiting for the CoC, but since internationally adopted kids are the US citizens upon arriving on American soil, it’s not necessary. So a couple of days ago we went to apply for Rachel’s passport. I specifically ordered another translation of her Birth and Adoption Certificates from the Hudson-Neva translation. Their translations are notarized and have a raised seal, so they look very official, and the price is very reasonable. We had to leave the original adoption certificate with the translation as well as her Ukrainian passport with the Visa, but we were assured that everything will come back to us safe and sound in 4 weeks. After that our last step will be to register Rachel at Ukrainian Consulate, and our after-adoption paperwork phase will be done until the next January when we are required to send the yearly post-placement report to Ukrainian Embassy.
The school work is not easy for Rachel, but her teachers are amazing. I met with her homeroom teacher and ESL teacher last week, and we had a very good discussion about what’s the best for Rachel and how we can help her to catch up with her peers. Academically she’s very behind – I would guess she’s at about 2nd grade level in math, and Russian reading. But this is very normal for a post-institutionalized child, and with proper tutoring she should be able to catch up. Currently she is in the 4th grade being one of the oldest in her class. I thought it would be better to place her in the 3rd grade, but now I see it won’t make any difference. With her teachers’ suggestions we decided to leave her in the 4th grade, but take a totally different approach to her school work – we are starting from scratch! She’s given homework appropriate for her level, and we are taking it one day at a time. There are 2 girls speaking Russian and/or Ukrainian in her 4th grade class (and none in the 3rd grade), which is a huge plus since she can communicate with them and get help as needed. The other kids in class are trying to include her in all activities, so she’s making new friends even without speaking the language!
On Valentine’s Day I sent her to school with the cards for all kids in the class, and she came home with LOTS of Valentines! She was ecstatic! I don’t think she’s ever got so many cards and presents before, especially on Valentine’s Day!
Rachel’s riding the bus like a pro, and last week she even took the late bus after she stayed in school for intramurals! She also started buying her own lunch in cafeteria, which is not easy for a girl with almost no English!
Last week we went to the dentist, and she was a trooper during her first ever dental cleaning! She has a lot of cavities, but luckily for us, all of them are in the baby teeth, so no need for fillings :) Though she’ll need to have braces next year when she turns 11, which is earlier than most kids, so we need to start saving :)
So overall I’m very pleased with her transition. Each day makes a difference, and at the end of 3 weeks she made a lot of progress. And I can finally calculate the amount of groceries we need :)
Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks:
Getting ready for bath:
Valentine's Day party at Victoria's preschool:
Playing outside:
My next goal was to apply for her US passport. Some parents are usually waiting for the CoC, but since internationally adopted kids are the US citizens upon arriving on American soil, it’s not necessary. So a couple of days ago we went to apply for Rachel’s passport. I specifically ordered another translation of her Birth and Adoption Certificates from the Hudson-Neva translation. Their translations are notarized and have a raised seal, so they look very official, and the price is very reasonable. We had to leave the original adoption certificate with the translation as well as her Ukrainian passport with the Visa, but we were assured that everything will come back to us safe and sound in 4 weeks. After that our last step will be to register Rachel at Ukrainian Consulate, and our after-adoption paperwork phase will be done until the next January when we are required to send the yearly post-placement report to Ukrainian Embassy.
The school work is not easy for Rachel, but her teachers are amazing. I met with her homeroom teacher and ESL teacher last week, and we had a very good discussion about what’s the best for Rachel and how we can help her to catch up with her peers. Academically she’s very behind – I would guess she’s at about 2nd grade level in math, and Russian reading. But this is very normal for a post-institutionalized child, and with proper tutoring she should be able to catch up. Currently she is in the 4th grade being one of the oldest in her class. I thought it would be better to place her in the 3rd grade, but now I see it won’t make any difference. With her teachers’ suggestions we decided to leave her in the 4th grade, but take a totally different approach to her school work – we are starting from scratch! She’s given homework appropriate for her level, and we are taking it one day at a time. There are 2 girls speaking Russian and/or Ukrainian in her 4th grade class (and none in the 3rd grade), which is a huge plus since she can communicate with them and get help as needed. The other kids in class are trying to include her in all activities, so she’s making new friends even without speaking the language!
On Valentine’s Day I sent her to school with the cards for all kids in the class, and she came home with LOTS of Valentines! She was ecstatic! I don’t think she’s ever got so many cards and presents before, especially on Valentine’s Day!
Rachel’s riding the bus like a pro, and last week she even took the late bus after she stayed in school for intramurals! She also started buying her own lunch in cafeteria, which is not easy for a girl with almost no English!
Last week we went to the dentist, and she was a trooper during her first ever dental cleaning! She has a lot of cavities, but luckily for us, all of them are in the baby teeth, so no need for fillings :) Though she’ll need to have braces next year when she turns 11, which is earlier than most kids, so we need to start saving :)
So overall I’m very pleased with her transition. Each day makes a difference, and at the end of 3 weeks she made a lot of progress. And I can finally calculate the amount of groceries we need :)
Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks:
Getting ready for bath:
Valentine's Day party at Victoria's preschool:
Playing outside:
Friday, February 8, 2008
2 weeks home
After being home for almost 2 weeks, we are slowly adjusting to our “new” normal routine, which is not an easy task :)
Rachel started school last Wednesday, and all this week she rode the bus to school as any other American 4th-grader. Luckily I have my Mom who’s getting Rachel ready for school in the morning and picks her up on the bus stop in the afternoon. It’s obviously harder for her to take care of both girls now (even though Rachel is in school for most of the day), but she’s a trooper! Alex is helping out as well – yesterday he picked Rachel up at the bus stop since my Mom had an appointment.
Most of the time the girls are getting along very well. However, I noticed some sibling rivalry between them, nothing unexpected, but totally new to me because Alex and Victoria never experienced it with the 14 years age difference. It started just a couple of days ago when the novelty of having a sister wore off for each girl :) “Mama, she’s doing this and that!”, “Mama, she’s not doing this and that” and so on. After growing up in the former Soviet Union, I’m very intolerant of tattling since in the communist times people were forced to tell authorities on each other. So I told them I don’t want to hear this nonsense unless it’s something really important. Rachel is craving our attention, but we can’t spend all the time with her only, so we have to be inventive and make sure we have quality time with Victoria as well. And with Alex when he’s available :)
Next week Rachel has a dentist appointment, and I’m afraid she’ll eventually need to have a lot of work done :( But at least the dentists in America are not as scary as in Ukraine, so I hope it won’t be to so hard for her. Our pediatrician declared her very healthy (I’m knocking on wood :) and the only thing left is the Eye Doctor appointment.
Overall I’m very pleased with our transition despite our daily ups and downs. It helps a lot to be able to seek advice from the other parents who also adopted older kids. My friend Tami returned home last week with her new daughter. Kathy and Kelly are in Ukraine now adopting older kids. And Melissa and Steve returned home a couple of weeks ago with their 3 sons, so now they are the parents of six kids having 3 boys and 3 girls! They created a very touching video of their story, make sure you have a tissue in hand when watching it:
Rachel started school last Wednesday, and all this week she rode the bus to school as any other American 4th-grader. Luckily I have my Mom who’s getting Rachel ready for school in the morning and picks her up on the bus stop in the afternoon. It’s obviously harder for her to take care of both girls now (even though Rachel is in school for most of the day), but she’s a trooper! Alex is helping out as well – yesterday he picked Rachel up at the bus stop since my Mom had an appointment.
Most of the time the girls are getting along very well. However, I noticed some sibling rivalry between them, nothing unexpected, but totally new to me because Alex and Victoria never experienced it with the 14 years age difference. It started just a couple of days ago when the novelty of having a sister wore off for each girl :) “Mama, she’s doing this and that!”, “Mama, she’s not doing this and that” and so on. After growing up in the former Soviet Union, I’m very intolerant of tattling since in the communist times people were forced to tell authorities on each other. So I told them I don’t want to hear this nonsense unless it’s something really important. Rachel is craving our attention, but we can’t spend all the time with her only, so we have to be inventive and make sure we have quality time with Victoria as well. And with Alex when he’s available :)
Next week Rachel has a dentist appointment, and I’m afraid she’ll eventually need to have a lot of work done :( But at least the dentists in America are not as scary as in Ukraine, so I hope it won’t be to so hard for her. Our pediatrician declared her very healthy (I’m knocking on wood :) and the only thing left is the Eye Doctor appointment.
Overall I’m very pleased with our transition despite our daily ups and downs. It helps a lot to be able to seek advice from the other parents who also adopted older kids. My friend Tami returned home last week with her new daughter. Kathy and Kelly are in Ukraine now adopting older kids. And Melissa and Steve returned home a couple of weeks ago with their 3 sons, so now they are the parents of six kids having 3 boys and 3 girls! They created a very touching video of their story, make sure you have a tissue in hand when watching it:
Friday, February 1, 2008
Mama, I’m so fortunate!
Those were the words I heard from Rachel when I picked her up from school! Yes, you read this right – she’s already enrolled in school! Originally I wanted her to start school a little bit later, but when the school district indicated she can start on Wednesday, I decided to go for it. The sooner she starts school, the sooner she starts learning English! I tried to teach her English, but it doesn’t really work since we speak Russian at home all the time.
Anyway, we survived the first 6 days at home, and Rachel is adjusting remarkably well, which can’t be said about her mother :) I’m still adjusting to the time difference, and recuperating from everything I’ve been through in Ukraine.
The first couple of days we did a lot of administrative tasks – applied for a Social Security Number, registered for school and had a physical done. On the first day of school both Rachel and I were a little bit apprehensive – it’s always scary to go to a new school, and if you don’t speak the language it’s even scarier. But all my worries were unnecessary. When I came to pick her up, she came out with a huge smile on her face and said: “ Mama, I’m so fortunate, I love my school!” She started her first day of school with a one-on-one session with ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher and spent the rest of the day in the regular class setting. There is one Russian and one Ukrainian girl in the class, so Rachel has somebody to talk to and ask questions if needed (she speaks Russian and understands Ukrainian). Currently the school assigned her to be in the 4th grade, but I’m thinking she’ll be better off in the 3rd grade, so I’m going to talk to the school counselor about it. But overall I’m very pleased with the school so far – we have great public schools in our town.
Our house is much louder now with the 2 girls :) We haven’t set the routine yet – it’s hard for me to go from 1 to 2 kids (Alex doesn’t count :) – who takes the shower first, who goes to bed first, etc. But I’m sure we’ll be able to set a schedule that works for everybody.
The other change I need to get used to is the amount of groceries :) Victoria hardly eats anything, and I don’t mind since she is in the 85% in weight. Luckily she loves to eat her vegetables and to drink her milk, so I don’t have to worry about it. Alex is never home, and Oleg and I are not a big eaters. Rachel is totally different :) This tiny girl can eat! So far I can’t get the amount of groceries right – we went to Wegmans on Sunday, and on Monday night I needed to go again. Then another Wegmans visit on Wednesday night. Today is Friday, and it looks like we need another grocery run before the weekend :)
So far Rachel is on her best behavior, and though I know it’s still a “honeymoon”, I hope it will continue! The fact that we speak the same language is a great help, and she feels very comfortable in our house. She had a lot of “firsts” since she came here 6 days ago, and it’s a joy watching her to discover something new. The garage door opener was a hit – how come the door is opening by itself :) The next one was the fact that Mom can drive. “Mama, can you drive? REALLY? Are you a good driver?” And on and on and on. But the most remarkable “first” was her first ever English sentence. She told me “I love you” in English, and I didn’t teach her that!
Here are some pictures from our last week in Ukraine:
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