Get together for the kids.

Liliya(English tutor) organized a get together for the kids that have been adopted so far. She thought it would be a good idea to go to skating so we met in Altoona at Galactic Ice.  Since everyone lives within an hours drive, it is fairly easy for us all to get the kids together and see one another.  It is also very nice for us to see the kids and their parents.  The kids seemed to have a lot of fun together.  It was crazy busy in the rink so we couldn't race each other like we did when we were in Ukraine.  Here is only picture from skating.  It was too crazy to take pictures of the kids skating.

Dima and Erik

Ice skating in Altoona made it easy for my parents to come as well.  My dad even got out his old ice skates and was trying some of his old tricks.  After skating, we all went out for dinner.  It was nice to be able to talk with the other parents and how their transitions are going.  It was interesting to see Dima with the other kids as he not once tried to speak English.  With us, he tries to speak as much as he can in English. He will only speak in Russian when he doesn't know what to say or when he gets upset, which has become less and less since he's able to understand a lot more now.  Here are a few pictures of the kids at dinner.

Vika who just came to America a few weeks ago and Ana who has been here since last May.

Vika and Ana having fun.

Ana, Dema(who came a few weeks after our Dima), Vika with Dima and Erik giving them antler ears.

This Friday two more girls will be come to America, Anslee and Vika.  They were adopted by Cheri and Russ Walk.  On March 11th, Dima's best friend Artyr will be here as well.  Dima know exactly what day Artyr is coming and is trying to hide his excitement!  Other families are to follow after that and we are excited to hear about their experiences and to see them again in America!  

First Valentine's Day

Before I start this blog, Dusty and I wanted to thank everyone at the Altoona Surgery Center for a wonderful party you put on for us adopting Dima.  You guys know how to put on a great party!! We truly appreciate how thoughtful it was to do that for us.  Your donation is going to help more than you know!!!

Now back to my the blog......

I get the feeling the holidays are going to be a blast with Dima! It was a three ring circus trying to get everyone a gift without each one knowing.  Dima was learning about Valentine's Day with his English teacher and was really getting into the spirit.  He pulled Dusty aside on Friday to ask if they could get something for me for Valentine's Day.  He later came to me and said he wanted to get something for Papa.  This seemed like it would have been easy, but it was more challenging than we thought since Dima wanted it to be a secret.  Sunday, Dusty was not feeling well and decided to take a nap.  I told Dusty that Dima and I were going to "hang out" and Dima played along with me.  We went out to find something for Dusty and started looking at the cards first.  As we were looking, Dima found a card that was for a Mother and Father and I noticed he was looking at it for a while.  We kept looking and found Dusty a card from Dima.  Then Dima picks up a card and hides it from me.  He said he wanted this card too.  I gave him his space and we checked out.  Dima hid Dusty's Valentine's gift way back in his closet.  Later that day, Dusty told me he and Dima were "going to the store".  Dima played along and repeated Dusty.  I had to pretend I didn't know what they were doing.  Dima was having a blast with this game. Later that day, Dima asked Dusty if we could exchange gifts, but we had to explain to him that we would exchange on Valentine's Day. He was so excited that he was even willing to get up with Dusty at 5:30 in the morning to exchange gifts.  We finally talked him into doing during dinner.  We also have not had a chance to get Dima something from us since we were so focused on helping him.  We had to do it the next morning after Dima went to school.  Later that evening, I hear this giggling and through the kitchen doorway I see these flowers! Dima could not wait to give them to me. 

The next day after school we were trying to all get our gifts downstairs without everyone seeing what they were.  Dusty and I were laughing so hard.  I think Dima was more excited to give gifts than to receive.  The smile on his face was priceless! I hope this excitement never goes away for him and that holidays don't become routine for us all.  Having Dima has opened our eyes to so many things and has helped us appreciate the little things in life.

School Work

I just thought I'd give the future families a heads up about school work.  You get so focused on adopting your child, then helping them transition and then life starts to happen.  Dima seems to be settling into school well and is now bringing home schoolwork.  We are discovering that it's not as easy as we expected.  Fortunately, Dusty is better at Algebra than me so his job is to help Dima with that homework.  We have some great friends that have been able to help us out since it's been so long since we've had Algebra. I think it looks different from when we did it so long ago. It's hard enough to figure out Algebra problems and then it's even harder to try and explain it to Dima somehow.  It takes a while to do a few problems, but they are figuring the problems out.  We haven't been able to find of if the problems are correct, watch us find out we are teaching him incorrectly!  I have been helping Dima with Google Translating questions in his other subjects and helping him find the answers.  It is still a little overwhelming, but he is really handling it well.  We have to be patient with him.  If we start to get impatient, he picks up on that and gets upset. 

He loves his Earth Science class and luckily has learned some of the material before.  The difficult thing now is learning it in English.  It is time consuming to type up the questions in English and then try to have Dima find the answers in his book, but it seems to help him.  He is actually starting to help read the questions to me where as before he seemed embarrassed to read out loud. For those that are adopting an older child, expect it to take some time at first trying to translate, but it is worth it.

 Dima was not expected to do all the work that the others kids are doing, but he didn't want to just sit in class.  He still has some classes where he is not able to do the work, but the teachers have been great in including him but not putting too much pressure on him.  He seems to be responding well to that and looks forward to going to school.  He is starting to talk about other kids in his class and we've heard that he is more comfortable in talking with other kids now.  I am sure it will take some time until he can actually gain the courage to speak in class, but for now we are very happy with how he is progressing!

This past weekend, Dima finally got to Skype his good friend Artyr from Ukraine.  His soon to be parents from Pleasant Gap, Pa are currently in Ukraine going through the adoption process.  Dima was very happy to see his friend as were we.  In just another month Artyr will be an American citizen! We are praying for them and can't wait for them to come home safely!

No School....again!

Dima REALLY likes school here in America! He has quickly learned how the delays and cancellations work.  Last night he kept saying to us and looking outside.....ICE..NO SCHOOL!!! Dusty and I didn't want him to get his hopes up so we kept saying that he'd better get to sleep because there may not be a delay.  Well, after seeing this morning that Punxy Phil didn't see his shadow, school was cancelled due to ice.  For my brother and sister...this picture is for you guys since you live in warm climates now:

My brother is getting married in Hawaii today!!! So excited for him and Gina as I am gaining a great Sister-In-Law!!

Back to how Dima is doing.  I have had people say they are missing the blogs everyday so I promise I will try to keep updating everyone.  Dima's getting better and better everyday with his English! His little meltdowns are getting a lot less since he is getting more comfortable as well.  It was nice to hear him on the phone with his Aunt Sherri and Grandma Nora last night.  He is  now able to carry on a basic conversation.  He constantly asks questions how to say things.  We only use Google Translate to help with specific words in English or he types the Ukrainian word so he can see the English word.  He seems to be getting more comfortable with school and his teachers as well.  His English teacher told us a funny story the other day.  Dima is known to hide as it's a sign he is comfortable with whom he's hiding from.  I mentioned before that he was giving her a hard time in class.  The other day he went into class and when she went into the room, she could not see him.  She looked around and saw his sneakers from under her desk.  She went along with him and said "I thought I saw Dima come in here".  That was good to hear that he is finally opening up.  He seems to like his classes and wants to do his work.  It is still hard to do what all the other children are doing.  One example is his Reading class.  He still can't read what book they are reading, but I am going to see if I can find out what book and see if I can get it in his language. 

Dusty and I continue to see little things each day that just amaze us.  He is one special boy and I am just amazed that he is not mad at the world for having to live 14 years in an orphanage.  He is full of laughter and loves to joke around.  He constantly makes us laugh with his little sayings and quick comebacks.  We are truly blessed!

School

We have been so proud of Dima starting school.  I could not imagine how overwhelming it must be for him to start a totally new school that is really big.  We were a little afraid that he would not want to get up in the morning and give us a hard time about going to school, but he's been really good.  It helped having 2hr snow delays his first two days of school. They still had all the classes but were shortened.  His first full day of school was yesterday. When I picked him up, he was in a good mood.  I received a phone call earlier from his English as a Second Language teacher.  She had to talk to me about Dima's mood.  He is giving her the cold shoulder and not being very nice to her.  We are trying to work things out as to why he is acting like this.  My guess is that he doesn't like to have a class by himself.  His second period he is with her for English.  He will not open up to her so she is starting with the basics.  I am sure he is not happy and feels like she is teaching him things he already knows.  We need to work on him opening up to her to prove he has been learning English and to show her respect.  I am hoping overtime he will start to trust her and that maybe Liliya can help him as well. 

Dima is showing that he does not want to just sit in class and learn English.  He wants to participate by doing work.  It will be a while until he gets up enough courage to talk.  He says he can understand a good bit, but  can't express himself yet in English.  This is not bad considering he's only been here for 3 weeks! His big thing he will need to work on is his patience.  He gets extremely upset if he can not doing something correctly.  He is his own worst critic.  Dusty and I are trying to get him to relax and not be so hard on himself.  We are not sure if this is the way he always has been or if he feels pressure to do well to make us happy.  This is something that is going to take a long time to work on.  We need to continue to be patient.  I lost my patience with him for the first time the other night after he was refusing to work on his hand writing.  He is very impatient and not confident in his writing and scribbles fast.  I got upset with him after he got frustrated and scribbled all over a piece of paper and told him sternly he had to try.  He was taken back of how upset I got at him and he said "Sorry Mama".  It was the first time I had yelled at him and the first time I saw him respond with emotion.  I think it was a good sign to see he is opening up more about his emotions.  When he was here during the hosting program, he gave me the silent treatment for hours one time so we are improving!

Last night I wanted him to relax and forget about school for a while.  I asked him if he wanted to go cross country skiing.  He got very excited when I asked him.  When we got to where we ski and I tried to explain as best as I could what to do.  He was having a really hard time trying to keep his skis going horizontally.  He started getting very frustrated.  I thought.....here we go again, he is going to want to give up.  I used this as a lesson to try and teach him that just because something is challenging at first, you need to keep trying.  He is very talented and can usually pick things up quickly. This is something that was not going to come easy to him. He continued to mumble in Russian but he kept going.  I tried to joke around with him and he would give a little smile every once in a while. He kept falling and his hands were getting cold so we called it a night.  I asked him if he wanted to go another day and he said no.  I am hoping after some time away from it we will go again.  Hopefully he will see some improvement and gain some confidence.

He was so tired from his first full day of school and skiing that he actually went to bed at 8pm! He woke up on his own this morning.  He got himself dressed, made his bed and ate breakfast by the time I was finished with my shower! 

      

Dima's First Day of School!

Today was Dima's first day of school and we were extremely pleased that it went a lot better than we expected! On Wednesday, Dima met his English as a Second Language teacher.  He absolutely did not want to go to school and meet anyone there.  I had to call Liliya at one point to translate something to him and he told her he did NOT want to go to school! I tried to ignore his attitude and continued with the meeting.  He at least somewhat acknowledged everyone he met, but you could tell he was not happy.  After we went home, I sat down with him and asked him if he would explain what he was feeling through Google Translate.  He said he thought he should wait to go to school until he knows English.  I explained that going to school would help him learn English.  He also explained that he didn't want the teachers to ask him questions in front of the class and that he felt he would look stupid just sitting there.  I explained that all we asked of him was to listen and learn more English.  His attitude changed after our discussion and seemed to feel better the next day when we went and registered him.  What a difference in attitude.  I think it helped that Dusty was able to come as well. All the teachers seemed extremely nice and willing to help Dima.  They also told us the students were excited to meet Dima.

The night before school Dima had his English lesson with Liliya.  We told her to tell Dima we were proud that Dima was very polite to his teachers when he met them. After his lesson, Liliya told us that she did most of the class in English with Dima!! Dima also explained that he was 50/50 with his thoughts on school.  That is a heck of a lot better than the day before when he said he did NOT want to go to school.

This morning when I woke up, I saw the school was on a 2 hour delay.  I figured I'd let him sleep in a little so he wouldn't have all morning to think about school.  He woke up at 7:30 and showered on his own! I had to explain what a snow delay was and he seemed ok about it.  Luckily I checked my email as his English teacher was so nice to email me that they were also going to have a fire drill at the end of the day.  I thought how in the world am I going to explain this to him! He seemed to understand but got a little frustrated.  I can only imagine how overwhelmed he must have been feeling at this moment. 

Before we got ready for school, I asked Dima if I could take some pictures for Papa since he was at work.  Here are a few.....

As you can see.....he didn't want his picture taken.

Unfortunately, Dima didn't want his picture taken.  He was in a good mood so I didn't want to ruin it and force him to be serious and get a good picture.  I drove Dima to school and pulled up to the front of the school.  I kept explaining to him that he was to meet his English teacher and not go anywhere until he sees her.  I gave him a hug and said go ahead and go in.  He pointed to me and said "You go too?".  My heart just melted and said "No, you have to go in yourself". He opened the door and went right in! What a brave boy! I couldn't even imagine how he was feeling at this moment.

Dima's schedule is basically normal except he has one period with his English teacher. The English teacher and another 8th grade student helped Dima get to his locker and get from class to class.  Luckily, two of Dima's teachers are great friends of ours so they both let us know that he was doing great.  His English teacher also let us know how his day went.  I went early to pick Dima up so he would not get nervous if I wasn't there.  Since they were to have a fire drill at the end of they day, I wasn't sure what door to meet him at.  Luckily, I parked where we did before because Dima came straight to the car.  The big smile and huge hug told me that he had a good day! He told me in English that he had some papers from school, what he ate for lunch and that he had friends!!! He was so excited! I think he was proud that he conquered his fear of school as he has been so happy all night.  Dusty and I are extremely proud of him too!

On a side note....Dima has only been here for 19 days and he has gained 10lbs already!!!

Finding Time to Post!

Whew, we have been busy! I keep trying to find time to post, but seems like we always have something going on.  I have just a few minutes before I have to wake Dima up.  We are trying to get him up a little earlier so he gets used to getting up for school.  He LOVES his new bed and likes to sleep in.  Yesterday morning didn't start out well as I tried to get Dima up early.  He was very cranky while eating his breakfast.  I warned my parents that he was in a bad mood and to just ignore it.  He ended up laying down again after breakfast until his English lesson.  When I came back from work, he and my Dad were having a blast playing marbles, shooting darts and other games.  It was special to watch how they've bonded.

Dima had a really great night.  We actually carried on a decent conversation while we waited for Dusty to come home from work.  It was so nice to be able to communicate.  He explained to me that he was tired this morning because he didn't fall asleep until 11:55pm because he was studying his English! After Dusty came home, we went to my work to lift.  He was very polite to people we knew and introduced him to.  We are so proud of Dima and how far he's come in a few short weeks.  His confidence level is higher.  I am sure once he goes to school he is going to have some issues, but overall I think he will like school.  Everyone so far has been great to work with.  Hopefully we will have his schedule ready to meet his teachers on Thursday before he goes to school Friday.  I know Dima will feel better seeing his teachers before he is put in their classes.

We are getting very excited for the other families that are either in Ukraine now or are going very soon.  Dima is looking forward to getting Artyr home as he said March was far away! We will be praying for all of you guys!!!!