Our Return to the Blogosphere

It's been a long while since we were active on this blog. I don't know where the time went or how it got away from us. We never really intended to go dark... we just had other things come up that always seemed to demand our attention. We'll give this thing another go and see where it leads us.

Look for some new posts over the next few weeks as we try to catch everyone up with our family and the AMAZING progress we've seen since the spring. I almost can't believe that we are the same family most of the time.

Here we go :-)

Luke's Spring Concert

Luke recently had his spring elementary school musical, called "How Does Your Garden Grow?". Luke was a farmer... the straw hat and plaid shirt helps give that away. Here is a little taste. In the later part, he and his buddy Ryan from Cub Scouts are doing their best "Dancing With the Stars" audition... or maybe not. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Grandma

Grandma: Just wanted to let you know we are thinking about you today.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Congratulations Beth

Beth missed the second half of her soccer game to perform with a clarinet quartet at the OMEA Solo and Ensemble contest. She was all fidgety beforehand to the point she didn't even play the right note during the warm up. Then it was time for them to play and they did a wonderful job.


Afterwards she was convenced that they had earned a "II" or "III" but when the raking went up on the board it was a "I" or a score of Superior.

Nice work.

Happy Easter and our first night away from home

We spent Easter at Mark's parents. It was our first overnight trip anywhere since coming home from Russia. Everyone had a great time and all four kids did well... especially considering this whole Easter things was sort of new to half of them. We had a big dinner with a lot of the family. Enjoy the photos.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!!

Losing Their Language

We have always said that it was important to us that Kim and Peter keep their Russian language. We talked about this before we even went to Russia for trip 1. We have emphasized it repeatedly with the kids, the agency, our interpreter in Russia, the Director of the orphanage, the judge... just about anyone who would listen. We've brought home books in Russian and videos in Russian. The kids love the videos (they watched the Jungle Book yesterday)... Peter could never read in Russian and Kim doesn't like to read very much, so the books aren't too much of a hit. We actively seek out opportunities for the kids to speak Russian with other Russian speakers in our city. We also thought that since we adopted two Russian speaking siblings, that their speaking Russian to each other would also help them keep their language.

It isn't working.

They now mix in a lot of English words when they speak to each other in Russian... even when we aren't in the room. Yesterday they played checkers and as they set up the board, Kim told Peter "Ya brown" and Peter answered "Ya white" (our checkerboard is wooden and we have brown and white pieces). This alone doesn't mean much, but we've noticed that Kim is having a harder and harder time reading in Russian. Peter keeps forgetting the Russian word for things or tells us that the English word is Russian (for words where even I know that it isn't).

The first two videos were made in March 2009. These are 3 months, almost to the day, after our adoption became offical and we took custody of Kim and Peter. Mom shot these as a condition of the kids being allowed to play "Mama Hachish"... one of their favorite homeschool games... more on that later. In the first one, we asked them to say their alphabet... first in English and then in Russian. After they struggle doing the Russian together, Kim says "Ya snaiyish" (I know... BTW, it should have been "Ya snaiyoo"... they no longer conjugate verbs correctly) and tries doing it by herself... and can't get it right. She then says "OK, Ya ne snaiyish Russian" (OK, I don't know Russian... it should have been "Ya ne snaiyoo").



In the second video, Mom is holding a book where they can read the Russian alphabet. Kim had disappeared between the two to get one of her Russian books so she could look at it and remember. She was troubled that she didn't remember the Russian alphabet. Even with Lisa holding up the book, notice how much they struggle with it.



This last video is from our first trip to Russia back in July 2008 where the kids said the alphabet for us. Peter (Gyena back then) does not know his Russian alphabet, even though he is supposedly 8 years old. He had never had any schooling at that time. Kim (Yana back then) had just finished second grade and does know hers.



We need to rethink our stance on their native language. Do we put a lot more time and resources into trying to help them keep it or do we allow it to continue to slip away?