Calm Waters

Ever since we had the talk on skype with our friend translating, Nicholas and Nadia have been happier. Nadia seems like a new girl, she approaches everything with more enthusiasm and confidence. Nicholas seems even happier and his English is quickly approaching Andrew’s.

We are working hard on homeschooling. Mark picked up a small chapter book, Mouse Soup, by Arnold Lobel, and each day they read and translate one story. The same story actually. The goal is to get each story down pat so that they understand what they are reading. We still go to the library for Rosetta stone and I watched Nick writing sentences like “I need the keys” which is very impressive. I can hardly do that in German and I’ve been working on it each session.

Both kids are almost ¾ of the way through the third grade math curriculum I got for them on the computer. They like math time. I supplement it with lessons. This week, they were learning about American money so I got out real coins and bills and spent about a half hour working with them. Thant night, Nadia and I wrote menus for dinner and gave each person a bag of money. Everyone had to pay for their dinner. Nicholas was the waiter and had to tell if the amount was right and if not, give change. They all loved it.

We are attending a homeschool convention next week in Atlanta so I’m holding off on purchasing more curriculum until then. I’m researching my dream list so I’ll know what to look for. I’m hoping there will be other families there who have adopted older teens from other countries and I can build up a support group of some kind!

We are still planning to join a homeschool co-op next year so the kids have more opportunities to socialize and so I get out of the house, too! There is a great option right here in Fayette County.

Nicholas has improved so much in gymnastics that he is moving up to a more challenging class which will meet four hours a week. He loves it.   The gym had a fundraiser going where the kids needed to sell tubs of cookie dough. Nick and Andrew were thrilled about going to every house in the neighborhood.  I practiced what to say with them and was amused when we got to the part where a customer graciously declines a sale. Andrew smiled and said, “Thanks anyway!” But Nick said playfully, “I see you want my socks?” We have a running joke about his socks because they were so stinky in Ukraine. He was supposed to wash them himself and you can imagine how well that worked out. I don’t know if he had to pull out that line, but he did sell over $200 worth of cookie dough!

Andrew is continuing playing baseball and loves that. We are looking for a sport  that Nadia will want to do, but in the meantime she is happier with craft projects to do and with her upcoming first time as a mother’s helper. Next week she will watch two preschool age kids while their mama attends to other things. She is so excited. I told her about another possible opportunity to watch a two year old and she said, “Come to me, two year old boy!” I’m glad she loves children.

Mark’s parents came to visit for the afternoon. The kids were very excited. That night at evening prayers, each of them prayed thank you prayers for their grandparents. It was very sweet. They love their families and love having a family.

As happy as they are this week, they still were very grateful for a taste of home when my brother Frank and I took them to the International Farmer’s Market on Buford Highway. There were three aisles of Eastern European foods and they excited picked out things they loved. When we got home, it was time to pick up Andrew from school. Andrew loves food and could hardly believe what we got. He said, “I never thought I’d have those tastes again!”

We had a late lunch of delicious fresh bread, mushroom pate and some kind of mushy looking bratwurst. They loved it. The boys drank Kvass and Nadia and I had tea. I mostly ate bread and cheese from Publix, but the kids had a feast. We continued the feast with vareneky at dinner that night. It was fun to see how happy they were to eat these healthy (well, not so sure about that fat content in the sausage) foods.

We’re glad the adjustments are smooth this week. Everyone is happy.

While I’ve been updating, Mark has been doing a reading lesson. Nick just passed him this note: dad plese co away is worck.

Dad, please go away to work.

Now, that’s impressive English for two months!