Today is our one year anniversary of meeting our children. It seems like Rey, Maxim, and Sasha have been a part of our family forever. They have learned so much and changed so much it amazes us. You would never know that Sasha has ever lived anywhere other than America. They are doing so well at everything that is expected of them. The busy summer I had working on teaching English, getting used to having three more children, figuring out what they would eat and getting them to trust us enough to try new foods, learning ways to communicate until we learned enough of each other’s language, figuring out that toys are to be played with and not put on display, stepping into arguments that I only understood two words of, … all seems worth every minute of it. At the time I never thought I would survive but now look at all of them. Rey is doing well in school but like any other teenager he can think of one million things he would rather be doing. He is going to school, making friends and getting good grades. He is working on an adjusted curriculum but he is able to do more work every day. Learning to speak and understand English has been easier for all of the children. Reading and comprehension is the hardest. Sash knows her ABC’s and is reading small books. She tested at the 50% range for her first grade class. Maxim is reading at a 3rd to 4th grade level. Rey is reading at a 2nd grade level. He is speaking very well but reading is hard, understanding what he reads is even harder. They now love to play outside, can be trusted to get along most of the time, are eating us out of house and home, have a since of humor, rarely have temper tantrums, and are so full of love and happy it makes your heart explode at times. They are still normal children and with that comes all of the great wonders and joys of motherhood (and fatherhood) that I would never trade for anything.
