First Week Home

Well, we're settling in.  Everyone seems to be sleeping fairly well and eating fairly well.  We do a lot of correcting of behavior - like how they let us know they don't like a certain food or not to run out in the street.  Hanna is getting very good at parroting, "on your bottom," as we tell her ALL THE TIME to sit down on her bottom.

After the excitement of church and the shower, we've been to the farm twice, to Taekwon Do, to Target, to the grocery store and to AWANA.  Seems they are handling it all fairly well.  Both big kids enjoyed TKD and AWANA.  We went to the farm this morning for their official Occupational Therapy evaluations.  Good news all around.  Turns out that Lena is the most affected by sensory issues.  Hanna needs some oral motor therapy to help her with the tongue thrusting and sucking difficulties.  Oleg just needs some social skills with kids his age (and a physical activity outlet).

When we got home last week, Cliff was not feeling well.  On Monday he went to the doctor and found out he has pneumonia.  He's now on medication and feeling better, but he's still not 100%.  And now, as of this morning, I am running a fever.  Not sure where it will go, but I definitely DON'T need to be sick right now.

School work is going well with Oleg.  He spends about half and hour or so on an English language program and then does some math.  I have determined that his basic facts are solid.  He does not know how to regroup in addition/subtraction or in multiplication.  We haven't looked at division yet.  Not sure how to explain it to him given the language difference, but we'll figure it out.

Lena has no formal schooling, and given her activity level, she's a challenge to "teach".  But she does want to learn, so we will figure it out.

Emma and Vivian are a great help.  They are tired, as they are not used to this activity level or starting their day before 8 am.  But we're getting used to the new routine.

Please continue to pray for adjustment, for health for Cliff and for me (as we are both under the weather), and for me as Cliff leaves Monday for 2 weeks in DC.