Dusty and Tina's Adoption Journey: School, Cross Country and Citizenship Oath!!

What a month! September began with Dima starting school and cross country season. What a difference in Dima this year with school! Every time someone would ask him if he was ready for school, he said no. I think he was more ready than he thought. The first week of school Dima would come home from cross country practice and start on his homework!! I remember last year we had to remind him to get his homework out most of the times. He has all Academic classes along with his one period of English. It is going to be a challenging year, but I think he is ready for it. Dima has been amazing as he is trying his best to do all the work himself. Obviously since he's only known English for about 9 months, he needs a lot of help. We have been spending at least 1-2 1/2 hours on homework every night. He has been a trooper as we are the ones, not Dima, who are exhausted after homework. He has been even going to school early some days so he doesn't get behind in his Algebra and Computer classes. We are extremely proud of him and his efforts.

Dima on his first day of school. He wouldn't let me take pictures so I had to surprise him.....that should explain the look on his face.

With all that being said, he still struggles with his ESL class. So frustrating as the teacher is an absolute sweetheart and has been nothing but nice to Dima, however, he does not like the one on one class. He so badly just wants to be like all the other students, but he is the only student that has to go to this class. I am hoping over time he will realize how important this class and teacher is for him. I continue to explain to him what she does for him while he is still learning English and he could not survive all his other classes without her help.

Cross Country started out great for Dima until he injured his foot. The team has been great for him as he has gained more confidence. His foot has been slowly getting better but had to miss a few meets to let it heel.

Dima running in the Mt. Lion meet. He finished 12th in the JV meet.

Not a great picture, however, this is Dima after receiving his award.

Last but certainly not least, Dima finally got to take his Citizenship Oath! After getting Dima's passport issue fixed, he received the letter to take his oath. I am glad that it he understood English more and thanks to Civics class, he was able to understand what was going on. He did a great job reading the oath, even with the huge words. It was an exciting moment for us all! He was so excited afterwards because I think in his mind he finally is an American, even though technically he was when we landed in New York on January 1, 2011. We treated him to a dinner at the Cheesecake Factory afterwards and his smile did not leave his face.