Three Days of School ! ! !

Well, she has made it through 3 full days of school, and she seems to be doing fine. Although we did discover yesterday evening that the weight of the whole deal is affecting her. We had our friend Yulia translate the "school rules" and "classroom expectations" to her and had her sign them. After about three of them she broke down and cried. Yulia explained to her about homework requirements (she really hasn't had any assignments, because they can't assign her anything to do). I told her that she might have some homework in Math since that was numbers, and that's when the tears started to flow. She said she had never seen the kind of math they were doing in her class. It was a real let down to her, because she likes math more than any other school subject. I tried to comfort her and told her that I would help her with math and that she didn't have to worry about not understanding what they are doing in class.

I emailed her math teacher and she is going to try to get some suggestions from the ESL teacher. I hope we come up with something.

She has done some things at school and she seems kind of proud of it, because she pulls out her big binder and shows us what she's done. I think she wants us to be proud of her. Most of the work is just copying English stuff from the board. When I tell her it looks good and try to make a big deal out of it, she shrugs her shoulders and makes an expression that says "it really isn't that good". I hope she will let us help her at home. I haven't pushed to do school stuff at home in the evening. All the things I have read about adopted kids adjusting to an new family, new school and new country is that they shouldn't be pushed and that they need down time for them to deal with the huge amount of stress. It makes sense to me, so I'm going with that philosophy for now.

The reality of being a parent again is sinking in. I had to miss a church youth leaders meeting last night. Youth ministry has been a big part of my life for the last 18 years. I usually make every meeting and event unless out of town on business. I knew I did the right thing though when Katya broke down about the math and school stuff. I would have felt badly had I not been with her.

We went for a short bike ride this evening (at my request). It is getting dark so early now that it will be harder and harder to fit in those rides after I get home from work.

Oh, she had her first experience with Mexican-American food last night. She order chicken fingers and french fries, because she knew what they would taste like. After the food came, I gave her a taste of my chicken burrito and she liked it, so next time she can get that.

She is a sneaky little thing. She pulls this stuff of watching a video right up to a few minutes before 10:00pm (her bed time), and then goes to take a bath, AND THEN starts messing with stuff in her room. Getting her down for bed proves to be the hardest thing of every day.

Last night she was looking at pictures on my computer and found some of kids roller skating and she got excited and conveyed to me that she wanted to go skating. Now to some parents that would just be "okay so every kid likes to skate", but for me that is like one of the funnest things ever. I used to roller skate at roller rinks a lot when I was a kid. I like ice skating and roller blading, but roller skating is my favorite. I guess I have a good excuse now to go, even though I am 61 years old.