Mondays thoughts

I decided to change the title of this blog, because I really started it to share my experiences with the adoption of both daughters. My older daughter was adopted at birth, so I had her as an infant (and must therefore take the blame for anything that goes wrong, right?) My second one, on the other hand, was adopted from Russia at the age of 12 (so does that mean I don't have to blame myself for anything that goes wrong?) These were vastly different experiences, and not just due to the age of the children. The first language Caitlin ever heard was English, so even though she did not really talk until she was 2, what she heard and absorbed was in English. Allie spent 12 and a half years hearing only Russian. Well, she had an English class or two in school, but really had only about 20 words when she got off the plane with us last August.

So while the older one was learning English from early on in her life, the younger one is having to learn English over her first language. She is doing a great job with her conversation, but everything she says has to be translated in her head before it can come out her mouth. How difficult that must be! I know that at some point she will begin to think in English, and while that is great for her here in America, I hate for her to lose her Russian. My hope for her is that she will be able to pick it back up later pretty easily.

So back to the differences - the older one learned early on that school - education - is paramount in our home. I got this from my parents, although to their chagrin I did not "get it" until I was in my 30's! By that time, I had missed some opportunities that might have changed my life. On the other hand, had I not lived my life as I did, would I now have these two wonderful kids in my life? Probably not, so I am not wishing for a different past. I would not change a thing that led to my kids.

The younger one has not been encouraged in education while in Russia; in fact, she has been discouraged by people who did not think she was smart enough to do well in school. I happen to disagree. This child has a lot of potential - potential I want to encourage and nurture. Unfortnately, I am NOT a teacher - in fact, I am a terrible teacher! I have no patience for teaching, and have been spoiled by the fact that my older child somehow (osmosis maybe?) inherited from my dad, her grandfather, the special abilities in math and science that are far beyond mine. So I have not had to teach, because she just "gets it".

The younger one I have to help (I pray for her all the time because of this!) She is quite bright and has made pretty good grades, but has not been taught some of the things I take for granted - like how to look up information, how to cross reference, how to study. So it is falling to me (the absolute worst teacher of all time), to help this child! Help! Kidding aside, its easy to take for granted what she understands at this point, because her conversation is very clear, so I forget that she has not had some of this, and try to slow down a bit to teach her.

These are my thoughts for today - I focused on education today probably because we recently received report cards, so I guess this was on the brain! As usual there were kudos due but also there was the inevitable (What happened to THAT grade?") Well, we live in hope that all will work out next time.