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HelpRe: BeautifulButterfly's Adoption Agency!
in reply to a message by BeautifulButterfly
LN: Vincent
DH: Christopher Jacob - 33
DW: Summer Jeanna - 33
AD: Katya Savannah - 14
AD: Elizabeth Sonya "Eliza" - 10
AS: Theodore Scott "Teddy" - 8
DS: Damian Connor - 7
DD: Anika Faith - 4
It has been a year since we adopted Katya, Eliza, and Teddy. The three have fit into our family splendidly and we all have learned so much. Because Christopher was also adopted from Russia at a young age and his family practiced Russian with the family, he has retained his native language. This has been of great comfort for the kids and they don't take it for granted. When we have met up with other families in the area that have adopted children from Russia, ours realize how lucky they are to have Christopher who always has been able to communicate with them and help them transition from Russia to America.
As a family, we talked about changing names. Although hesitant, they realized others (especially school aged children) would benefit from having either a more English name or nickname. Each name was close to his or her original name. Fyodor's changed the most, but after finding out what a Teddy Bear was, he decided that Teddy would be the best name for him.
Katya has struggled the most throughout the year and she is going to repeat 8th grade. Thankfully, with a May birthday, she will be far behind her age-level peers. We have helped her immensely, but learning another language is difficult, even with Christopher and her siblings being able to help her. She often gets upset about this and will run to her room and slam the door. She has a love of music and will blast that to avoid us. The best thing for her has been playing soccer on the school team. She loves it and is a great middle fielder- she can run up and down the fields barely breaking a sweat.
Eliza, opposite of Katya, has skyrocketed in the classroom and at home. She is fluent now in spoken English and is blasting on with written language. We are sure she will be at grade level by middle school. We worry then that the pressure will be hard for her and we fear if she is not at grade level, she'll only fall behind for the rest of her schooling. We have worked a tremendous amount with her due to her constant desire to learn. She has a good group of neighboring girls that she is friends with and this has encouraged her all the more. Of all the kids, Anika looks up to her the most. She loves following her big sister around and Eliza rarely seems to mind.
Finally, our boys are thick as thieves. They are our trouble makers by far. Being a year apart and in the same grade at school, they are inseparable. Teddy is doing well in school and always receives high marks in his second grade class. He's a go-go-go personality type, but all of our kids have to read at least a half-an-hour a day too. He's found a few books that have really helped him catch onto written language. He has been a little violent when playing sports and we are working on this. His teacher warned us that he could get into serious trouble of his competitive streak is not dashed now. Dance, however, has helped him with controlling these emotions too as we only enroll him in non-competitive dance. Thankfully, there is another boy in the group too and the kids in school haven't teased him because of it.
It has been an adventure this last year but we love our family and it is working splendidly. Thank you!
DH: Christopher Jacob - 33
DW: Summer Jeanna - 33
AD: Katya Savannah - 14
AD: Elizabeth Sonya "Eliza" - 10
AS: Theodore Scott "Teddy" - 8
DS: Damian Connor - 7
DD: Anika Faith - 4
It has been a year since we adopted Katya, Eliza, and Teddy. The three have fit into our family splendidly and we all have learned so much. Because Christopher was also adopted from Russia at a young age and his family practiced Russian with the family, he has retained his native language. This has been of great comfort for the kids and they don't take it for granted. When we have met up with other families in the area that have adopted children from Russia, ours realize how lucky they are to have Christopher who always has been able to communicate with them and help them transition from Russia to America.
As a family, we talked about changing names. Although hesitant, they realized others (especially school aged children) would benefit from having either a more English name or nickname. Each name was close to his or her original name. Fyodor's changed the most, but after finding out what a Teddy Bear was, he decided that Teddy would be the best name for him.
Katya has struggled the most throughout the year and she is going to repeat 8th grade. Thankfully, with a May birthday, she will be far behind her age-level peers. We have helped her immensely, but learning another language is difficult, even with Christopher and her siblings being able to help her. She often gets upset about this and will run to her room and slam the door. She has a love of music and will blast that to avoid us. The best thing for her has been playing soccer on the school team. She loves it and is a great middle fielder- she can run up and down the fields barely breaking a sweat.
Eliza, opposite of Katya, has skyrocketed in the classroom and at home. She is fluent now in spoken English and is blasting on with written language. We are sure she will be at grade level by middle school. We worry then that the pressure will be hard for her and we fear if she is not at grade level, she'll only fall behind for the rest of her schooling. We have worked a tremendous amount with her due to her constant desire to learn. She has a good group of neighboring girls that she is friends with and this has encouraged her all the more. Of all the kids, Anika looks up to her the most. She loves following her big sister around and Eliza rarely seems to mind.
Finally, our boys are thick as thieves. They are our trouble makers by far. Being a year apart and in the same grade at school, they are inseparable. Teddy is doing well in school and always receives high marks in his second grade class. He's a go-go-go personality type, but all of our kids have to read at least a half-an-hour a day too. He's found a few books that have really helped him catch onto written language. He has been a little violent when playing sports and we are working on this. His teacher warned us that he could get into serious trouble of his competitive streak is not dashed now. Dance, however, has helped him with controlling these emotions too as we only enroll him in non-competitive dance. Thankfully, there is another boy in the group too and the kids in school haven't teased him because of it.
It has been an adventure this last year but we love our family and it is working splendidly. Thank you!
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