Today was another milestone for Nathan: he started school. He will be attending just ELL classes for 2 or 3 hours each day until we decide what is best for him. The class has about 15 kids in it, in grades K-2, with a teacher and an aide. They appear to be all over the place as far as their grasp of spoken and written English goes. Nathan is probably the oldest child in the class, but a couple of them are as tall as he is, thankfully. There is one other adopted child in the class- a little girl who came home from Ethiopia last July. She is already reading at about first grade level. I sure hope this is the direct result of the ELL teacher's amazing abilities. I stayed for the entire time today, and enjoyed it very much. I would love to work with these kids if I had the time. Though I must say I felt a little panicky as I watched and realized how very far some of these kids, including Nathan, have to go. I well remember this feeling after bringing Trisha and Vania home over 8 years ago. Since things are going so well with both of them in the academic department, I refuse to give into the panic this time!! Yes, it will take time, but he will get there. And if there is one thing I have learned after 15 years of parenthood, it's that academics are not the most important thing in life (though a Nat'l Merit Scholar in the family would be nice...I can still dream...;-)
Nathan seemed to enjoy the class. Afterwards, he gave me a 'thumbs up'. Of course, after we got home, he resorted to his usual 'revving' type behavior that always seems to follow a new experience, a new place, or new people. We are seeing overall improvement in this regard, but we can pretty much predict when there will be an onslaught of annoying or toddler-like behaviors. I am so glad that I can talk on the phone every week with my friend Stacey who is going through the same stuff with her newly adopted son from China. Somehow, I just feel better afterwards!
Nathan handled the holidays SO WELL. I was so proud of him! Especially since we did all the things I would tell any new adoptive parent NOT to do. The hypocrisy! We traveled to Grandma's and stayed 4 days. Nathan met lots of new people, we stayed in a strange house, we went to parties, we ate too much sugar, you get the picture. I knew there would likely be some sort of fallout when we got home, and I was right. Sunday, he was a bear at church- we saw behavior like we hadn't seen in a couple of weeks- rolling around on the floor afterwards, yelling out during the service, getting angry with his brother about a picture he had drawn, running away from us, etc. I realize he is bored and has trouble sitting still, but I even let him have his ipod during church, and he still struggled. He has more trouble there than in any other setting. I feel so discouraged about this, because I desperately want to be able to worship, and it's just impossible right now. Especially since I am usually the only parent there since Drew is in a basketball league that seems to schedule all of his team's games on Sunday morning...grrrrr.
On a happy personal note, I have been able to start up my running training again and hope to get back to my normal daily routine very soon. Amazingly, despite over 2 months of hardly running at all, I seem to be bouncing back quickly into shape. I'm having to really hold back and not do too much, too fast, too soon, for fear of injury. The curse of 47 year old legs (actually, feet are my main problem!) I would so LOVE to go up to the track and just sprint my legs off! Instead, I am carefully plodding miles and rebuilding some base. Which is what I need to do. I just feel so happy and thankful to be running at all, it is such a stress reliever for me and really adds joy and contentment to my life. I am sure some of you think I am NUTS, but I just love to run. I still think indoor track season is a wash for me, but maybe I will be able to compete during outdoors, which would be so GREAT.
Here are a few photos from the last couple weeks.
Yes, she really wanted a pillowpet.
The whole gang
The chaos. Amazing how it takes about 2 minutes to open all the presents that took hours to wrap!
Our Ohio cousins
Legos
I too am very glad that school resumed today....tomorrow I will be home ALONE!!! Wonder what I will get done?
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