I hatched an evil plan....

Knowing that my boys both are in need of funds for Christmas gift buying I made a deal with them.
I made a bet that Austin couldn't go one week without saying "Don't tell me what to do." Which is his standard response to EVERYTHING I tell him to do. Actually it's the standard response when anyone tells him anything. It's not in an angry voice or threatening or anything, it's just a quip-y Austin response.
As of tomorrow he will get his ten dollars for making it the whole week. He's come close a few times with "Don't tell me...." but then caught himself.
Alex's word of choice is "man". He says it after everything.
"Hey man!"
"Cool man!"
"Okay man!"
"No way man!"
Honestly? He probably says the word "man" about fifty times a day!! It's especially annoying to me and his sisters as we are NOT men. His bet started Wednesday night.
Thursday afternoon he let the first "man" slip. Since it's only one word instead of a sentence where you can stop yourself before he finishes-like Austin-I just took one dollar off our bet. Within three hours Alex lost the other nine dollars! He teared up a little at "man" number six but pulled it together quickly. We talked about how it's important to be in control of our speech and the habits that can easily over take us. The last "man" he said was because it wasn't worth a dollar to abstain from saying it for six more days. At least he knows the value of a dollar.
"I just work" he told us after the last dollar was gone and James found him a job to do for money.
He has been better however and I don't notice him saying "man" after every word and sentence like before so hopefully my little experiment worked. However, once he had lost all the money he said "Man, man, man!" And "I love Man!" and made up for his 24 hour restraint.
James was appalled at first when he heard I had made bets with his sons (not so much the betting part but to pay them for such a dumb thing!) but then I whispered to him "I'm going to have to give them money anyway for Christmas, I might as well get something out of it!" he laughed and laughed.

We have a secret Santa elf.....

living amongst us!
I first became aware of him when a cute little note was left on my chair at dinner.
Then this morning HE MADE MY BED!!
I really wonder who it could be??
Alex has no idea. He came down stairs and asked me. "Mom you make your bed?" No I said. "Oh," he shrugged, "Maybe secret elf? You go look Mom." Yep, sure enough a secret elf had made my bed!! How in the world did Alex know that?? But, whootwhoo!! I LOVE secret Santa elves.
On the other hand, I was getting worried that an evil elf had also invaded our home. I could not find Devree's packet of school pictures anywhere. Now not to brag or toot my own horn but I don't lose things. I don't do piles of clutter and I don't stick things in places where they do not belong. I just don't. Yes, it's hard to live with a person like me that is constantly picking up, reminding others to pick up and running things from room to room to place them in their proper place but that's how I am. Often times I am guilty of putting away dishes, tools, and/or homework before the person using these things is through using them. Again, I can't help it. I'm just that way. So imagine my confusing and dumbfound-ness when I couldn't find Devree's packet of pictures. I must have and evil elf in addition to my cute secret Santa elf.
After pulling apart and cleaning every part of my office hutch, looking through my filing cabinet-three or four times-especially the file where I keep all the pictures. I resorted to looking in odd places throughout the house, thinking maybe I had been under some sort of medication, stress or having some out of body experience when I misplaced these pictures.
So just minutes ago, I was putting my wallet, and envelope of Christmas receipts back in my purse and I walked by Kambree's locker. A thought occurred to me, could the pictures be in this deep, dark hole that Kambree claims as her locker? (I had already thoroughly searched Devree's locker-twice-and I must say that those gene's that possess me to tidy up constantly have been loving passed on to this second daughter-why they skipped the first is beyond me!) And low and behold under piles of papers, books, shoes and other Kambree items-there was Devree's pictures! Hurray! I am not going crazy!! (I was beginning to think I was losing it!)
So I guess there is not an evil elf lurking amongst us after all.
In addition to the secret Santa elf. We have someone giving us a sweet Christmas surprise. Someone is giving us a nativity scene one piece at a time. First we got Mary and last night we got Joseph. I don't know if my secret nativity scene elf reads my blog but if they do.....THANK YOU! WE LOVE IT!
Not only is it a fun thing to look forward to each night. Each little figure has a scripture about the birth of Jesus. This morning in our crazy rush to get breakfast, lunches made and the regular morning rigmarole we didn't have time to read scriptures. (We try to get one verse in per person-but usually were short as a certain older daughter who shall remain nameless- is always rushing around-not ready-eating breakfast on the fly.) So, I grabbed Joseph (and Mary because I hadn't read her scripture to the kids yet) and read the scriptures printed on them. Whew! THANKS AGAIN secret nativity scene elf!
Well, kids are home and work is beckoning me....

To the man behind me...

Dear Gentleman Turning Left Behind Me On 9th East,
Although I could have sped through the yellow turn light and allowed you to run the red one, I opted to stop as I have a 15 year old in my car with a learners permit. In an effort to be a good example and a safety conscious parent, I choose to wait for the next green light.
I saw you-in my rear view mirror hit your palms against your steering wheel and then tap impatiently as we waited for the next green arrow. I also could not help but notice as you sped around me (illegally) when we did (2 minutes later) get the green turn arrow the lovely gesture you made towards me with your middle finger.
How becoming of a grown man. What a fine example you were to my young son who aspires to someday soon carouse these very streets.
As luck would have it, you were headed the same direction as we were and we were able to observe you swerve around other cars, screech around the corners and follow much to closely the cars in front of you as you continued down the road.
My son, who also saw your lovely finger salute was trying to convince me to get closer so he could throw the remains of his hamburger at your vehicle. I was tempted. But opted to teach this young bear cub of mine a lesson. As we followed you for a mile or two, watching your erratic and angry driving that got you ONE car length ahead of us, my son and I talked about what an imbecile you must be. And since you were speeding to the Costco parking lot- not like you were rushing to witness the birth of a child, perform emergency surgery or rescue a sick kid from school-chances of you having an emergency/life threatening event/bathroom issues were slim and none. Were you afraid they'd run out of something @ Costco? Please....
My son and I discussed how driving in such a manner didn't really get you anywhere faster, made those around you unsafe or at the very least-feel unsafe, and that you may-if not already-have blood pressure issues, ulcers or headaches due to your raging anger and frustration to the world around you.
Thank you for being such a stellar example of manhood, dignity and respect.
Although we spoke, your actions taught my son more than my words ever could.
Sincerely,
Austins Mom
PS (Throwing the hamburger at your vehicle was tempting-and as my son pointed out, our car could totally blow yours away-yep Infinity G35 vs your mini-SUV type vehicle-but thanks to my mother instincts we did restrain. Next time you may not have a mother in the car or you may run into a hot headed man like yourself. In that event, I hope he has mayo & guacamole on that hamburger, is a good aim and that your sunroof is open!)

Decorating The Tree

I told the kids not to look at me, that I just wanted to get candid shots.

But first we had to pull Devree away from the Twilight series:

Then Kambree gave me this candid pose:

And not to be out done, here's Austins:

And one when he wasn't posing:

Such concentration from Rylee:

Devree finally put down the book:

And Alex:

The final product:

I realized how cool and glowy the tree looked when I turned off my flash so I called Alex and Ry down to pose for more picture. They were happy to oblige as it was bedtime. So here's some cool glowy pics:

Rylee

Alex has such a serious expression

So I asked him to smile a little:

And then I got this one:

So, I dragged everyone back in from homework, book reading, dog toy playing and whatever Austin was pretending to be so busy with and got this one:

Sweet huh?

Alex update

So, I'm sitting in my office and my little niece is sitting on the floor next to me playing barbies. Apparently her nanny had jury duty this morning and my sister called me in a panic. Today is pretty mild in terms of scheduling so Syd can just hang with me. However, I will have to brush up on my little girl hair skills before I take her to lunch with me this afternoon. Her daddy dropped her off and my sister never lets her out of the house without darling hair but with daddy's we're just glad their clothes match!
So last night we put up the tree. Of course everything about this holiday season is new and wondrous to Alex. He asked if we would hang "toys" on the tree. Rylee said, no we put toys under the tree, we decorate the tree. "With toys?" No with ornaments. Alex was puzzled. Apparently everything he knows about Christmas is from watching American made movies and of course ornaments look like toys. When we broke out the ornaments he remarked that none of them were his. I told him I have one for him this year-I give my children a new ornament each year and I always buy them on clearance the year before-but I just needed to find where I put them. However, I told him there were ton's of ornaments so just put up any he'd like.
I thought I had thought this Christmas thing through. I have bought new stockings, had an ornament just for him-somewhere-bought a new little lighted tree for his room, had a nativity for his room and got out the Father Christmas I bought in Ukraine that I've been hiding since we got home. But as I pulled things out I couldn't help notice all the personalized crafts and decorations lacking Alex's name. I'm going to have to get out some paint and fix some things. Alex didn't seem to mind or make a big deal out of it but it sort of stabbed my heart. Rylee was impressed that I had an ornament for Alex. "You knew Alex would be here last year?" Well, I had hoped and fortunately for us, he is here!
I eventually found the ornaments I bought last year and they're little picture frames. I quickly put everyone's picture in their ornament and Alex was so pleased to put HIS OWN ornament on the tree.
I took lots of pictures to document this first time event in Alex's life. Today I plan to have wrapped gifts under the tree for everyone. I know that will really get Alex excited.
Over the weekend I took Rylee, Alex and Devree Christmas shopping. Alex drew Brach's name in the cousin drawing and was excited to get him a gift but we soon found that Alex is not a very good gift picker. He kept showing me junky toys and candy at the store. I asked him what HE would like and he'd come back with more junky gift ideas. I realized that IS what he likes because he likes EVERYTHING. So I helped him find a gift for Brach.
He drew Kambree's name for the sibling drawing and was dismayed. "Oh no Kambree." (In his defense-she is hard to shop for.) And because he spends most of his money on candy and crap he doesn't have enough money for her gift. I've been trying to find him odd jobs he can do for money. He cleaned the inside and outside of my car on Saturday and did a great job. Anyone need an eleven year old for odd jobs??
We had an incident over Thanksgiving involving Austin's missing wallet. We looked for it for at least and hour and then it magically "appeared" on the floor in the kitchen. Alex was laughing and very mischievous about it. It was very fishy. I asked Alex if he took the wallet. He told me "I no stole." but soon his happy, laughing countenance fell and he could no longer look me in the eye. I told him I had a hard time believing that the wallet just magically appeared on the floor and that I can't help but think he had something to do with it. He got upset saying "I no stole" than stormed out of the condo. I let him go for awhile and then went out with his coat. At first I couldn't find him and begin to panic a little. Where in the world did he go? He doesn't know a soul here? I was heading back in to get everyone to come help me search when there he was-he had moved himself to be strategically right were I'd have to see him. Standing next to the van with his face in his hands. Sobbing. "I no stole." he kept saying over and over. I wrapped him in his coat and told him I believed him. Then I mentioned that maybe he was just trying to play a trick on Austin? That just telling me what happened might clear everything up and he broke down sobbing again and told me he found the wallet in the van and wanting to play a trick didn't tell Austin but hid it back in his coat. I had just picked up Austin's coat feeling the pockets and it must have fallen out on the floor. So he DID have the wallet but he's right, he was not stealing it. I explained that in the future, he just needs to come clean. When I asked how the wallet got on the floor if he had just come forward and explained what had happened, there would have been no tears and no mistrust. Hard lessons to learn. He went in and told Austin and I helped him explain. I'm glad the truth came out because I knew he was involved and if we hadn't cleared things up, then every time something went missing I know we'd first think it was Alex.
On the way to Wyoming we stopped at a gas station and Alex bought himself a Slush Puppy which is similar to a Slurpee. (See why he doesn't have any money?) He proudly offered all of us a sip of his "Sloosh Poop-y" when we piled back into the van. We laughed about that for awhile.
His English improves everyday. Last night I had him sit down with some flash cards my friend Amy lent me. She works with kids and their speech at Primary Hospital. He did the "what" set. One card says "What do you.." and it asks some basic questions like "What do you feed a baby with?" "What do you mow the lawn with?" Then there are cards with the answers to match to the cards with the questions. He did fabulous.
His reading has greatly improved. I wish I could say the same for his pronunciation. This morning he got in the car and asked.
A: I valk-in good?
Me: What?
A: I valk-in good?
Me: (With puzzled exasperated expression) Yes, Alex you walk good...?
A: No, valk-in the car.
Me: Vacuum the car?
A: Yes!
Me: Yes, you did vacuum the car good.
(Good grief-that sounded nothing like vacuum!)

Thanksgiving in Wyoming!

So, this year, with James being on location for work, we thought we'd pack up and take Thanksgiving to him! Wednesday afternoon we loaded sleeping bags, overnight bags, fixings for Thanksgiving, five kids and half the kitchen into the van and made the four hour journey to Pine Dale Wyoming.

Once we passed Evanston and turned off toward Kememer it was so boring driving that we left Austin to most of it. (Hurray, he got four hours of road time in towards getting his license!)
James stays in a pretty nice condo and his roommate-knowing we were coming-graciously stayed somewhere else during our stay.
Although I brought a ton of food for Thanksgiving, I had no plans for Wednesday night so James took us to Wind River Pizza and we ordered their biggest pizza.
Have you ever seen a bigger pizza?

That night the kids sacked out in the living room together. Although they look asleep-don't be fooled-this is a posed picture. Notice Kambree's toothbrush?

The next morning we stuffed the 25 pound turkey and stuck it in the oven and went to "see the sights" and go rock hunting.
These would be some of the sights:

Pretty boring huh? But ever so often we came across one of these:

Yep, natural gas drilling rig. This is not one that James works on. I sort of figured out what he does up here. I knew he works "completions" so I assumed he oversaw the safety when the drilling rigs were done drilling and maybe they were dismantling or covering up the hole? Um...nope. Completions is when they get the drill completed READY for drilling. He oversees everyone's safety then. Gives them pep talks about wearing their safety gear, obeying the safety rules, makes sure the contractors are licensed etc and tries to make sure no one is intoxicated.
Lucky for us it was a beautiful day to go "hunting rocks." James is laying some decorative rocks in our yard and has become an avid rock hunter. Not just any rock will do, they need to be smooth and have "personality". I found out that I don't know how to pick out a good rock. (I think if we were diamond or ruby hunting I would have fared better but plain old rocks??)

Heading up the hill.

Ry, James & Kam

Austin with a rock from the very top of the hill

"Look at my beautiful rock!"

Kambree rock climbing...

"What about this rock Dad?"

Devree posing like a "rock star"!

Sorting through the collection and picking the best one's...

Then we went back and watching TV!! Amazing how enjoyable TV is when you've been without it for awhile. We would laugh and laugh at commercials!
Did I take pictures during the actual Thanksgiving event....NO!
But we had TONS of food. I had brought nine pies and went home with seven. We had four of James co-workers stop in for dinner. Nick, Chuck, Steve and someone else-I can't remember. Nick was a funny Louisiana boy that told us a very long story about wrestling an alligator one Thanksgiving.
It wasn't your normal Thanksgiving in that we didn't sit at the table (there was only two chairs) and we ate on paper plates (However, I did buy Chi-net to make the event a little more classy!) and drank out of paper cups but everything tasted yummy and the best part is that we were all together!
The next morning James had to get up early to get to work and accidentally took my cell phone with him. (The beauty of having identical cell phones!) So we had to drive out and meet him on way home.

We stopped in Kememer and shopped at the original JCPenny's. It was black Friday you know.

The boys were done shopping way before we were so they went outside to scoop out a place for lunch. When we came out they were no where to be found. Evidently they found some swords and were sword fighting somewhere. Probably some Kememerer relics or antiques. I really didn't want to know the details. We found a Chinese food place and we were the only people there for lunch.
The little waitress could hardly speak English. She kept trying to explain something to me about the chow-mein but she didn't make any sense. I had a flash back of being in Urkaine and I actually looked to Alex to see if he understood her, but he was as baffled as the rest of us. Finally I just nodded and told her I'm sure it will be fine. And it was! It was actually really yummy.

And since we had two more hours or more of driving I sent the kids out to play while I paid. They had a great time sliding on the ice in the gutter.

Yes, that would be Austin in his pajama pants and NO jacket!

Despite the spills and crashes, no one was hurt and we piled back in the van with all our leftovers and headed for home.

I am so grateful for my little family. I know that we don't seem little to many of you, but to me we are. (Especially after we watched that show on TV this past weekend about the family with 18 kids! Good grief!)
I am also so very thankful for my extended family. I realized just how much I missed not being with them at Thanksgiving. (While rock hunting I realized that if I had been home I would have been shopping with my mom & sis and eating Cherry Cordials. We do that every year while the turkey cooks!)
I am so grateful for James and his willingness to work so hard and so far away. It's a sacrifice for us to have him gone but we still have each other, he's up there all by himself. (James, no wonder I couldn't find a good rock on that mountain, I've already found you-you're my rock!)
I am grateful for the ability I have to work from my home and not go to an office and worry about what to wear, lunch and what to do if my kids get sick.
I am so grateful for my friends, the gospel, Jesus Christ, this great country, the men and women who fight to keep our freedoms, our warm house, my new kitchen, my car with heated seats, our fridge of food and many things that may be insignificant but are significant to me.
Last year at Thanksgiving I remember worrying about Alex in the orphanage and wondering if we'd ever get him home. And this year, he's home and for that I am truly thankful. And I'm thankful for each of you that followed our adventure and continue to follow, comment and give us love and support.

Austin's Debanding....

Ukraine consulate....

I was vaguely remembering that we're suppose to submit an update to the Ukraine consulate sometime soon. Was it this November or next? I finally pulled out that pile of paper work I came home with and it's THIS November. How hard can that be, right? Well, the hardest part was finding the form I needed to fill out. Here is a link for those who are following me.

http://www.ukrainesf.com/

It's a little more in-depth than I had planned on and I don't know why they think they need pictures (plural) ? I just sent his new school picture. But I remember thinking when we came home that this report was due MONTHS from now, where has the time gone?

TTT

I lurk Essie on her blog Accidental Mommy. She started Too True Tuesdays. Each Tuesday she picks a topic to write about and invites her readers to do the same:
TTT! Too True Tuesday is your chance to tell the truth to the world. Forget your nicey nice voice, and screw polite conversation. Abandon the fake smile and let the little voice inside your head come out. Tell it like it is sista- fren!
I have never participated before but thought I would this week and I invite the three of you that follow me to do the same!
This weeks topic:
Your least favorite holiday and why. And just for fun and balance, your favorite holiday and why.
Oh where to begin....
Growing up my life revolved around Christmas. I would get sick to my stomach Halloween night (not from candy-mind you) with the thought of Christmas approaching. I LOVED it!! Best time of the year. Early on I started taking over decorating the house, helping my mom wrap, holiday baking etc. I-being the oldest and the bossiest-would get my siblings to sing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs in the back of my parents old Chevy Luv. (Growing up there were a few years where we rode in the bed of the truck-under a shell mind you-sitting on an old truck seat. Nope, no seat belts-but that was in the 70's. It wasn't a lack of parental responsibility or negligence to have your five children bumping around in the back of a truck in the dead of winter singing Christmas carols while you sat up front in the heated cab. Everyone did it. ) Yes, it's true that my brothers refused to sing Christmas carols before Halloween in fact each year after Halloween they remind me that now I can play Christmas music. I also wrote plays and programs for Christmas Eve and again, being the biggest and the bossiest-convinced my siblings to participate. The day after Christmas was the saddest day of the year. Realizing I had to wait another 365 days for the blessed event to happen again. I believe that I was born January 9th just to have a birthday to look forward to sixteen days after Christmas so as to not plunge into total depression and despair. That is how much I LOVED Christmas.
Is Christmas my favorite holiday now....heck no!
Nor is Thanksgiving, 4th of July or Easter. Nope.
In fact I don't think they should be called Holidays.
The definition of holiday is:
1. a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person.
2. any day of exemption from work
3. a period of cessation from work or one of recreation; vacation.
I don't' know about you, but our holidays are not a day exempt from work!! (Just like most our vacations are not a vacations-they're more work! Especially camping with children!)
Yes, I do love getting together with my family. Eating good food, enjoying each others company but to call it a holiday, at least as far as #2 and #3 definition are concerned is an outright lie.
My favorite holidays are Labor Day & Memorial Day.
Why you ask?
Because they do not require WORK!!
There is NO pressure to make some dang huge meal!! Meals that require hours of cooking, preparation and house cleaning. (Or in the case of the 4th of July-yard cleaning and borrowing bbq's!) Hauling chairs and tables up and down stairs, assigning food dishes-hoping that your single brothers will remember to bring the chips or drinks you've assigned them (because they don't cook or have wives they are assigned things they can pick up at the store) worrying if you have enough food, too much food or if this recipe will turn out. Then everyone eats in 10 minutes flat and guess what?? It's time to clean it all up, put it all back and return all the borrowed tables, bbq's etc.
Not only that, there is no parades to get up early for and worry about putting chairs out for, no presents to buy and list of people to buy for, no special holiday cooking, dance concerts, school programs, parties, no Easter dresses, Christmas dresses, matching 4th of July shirts, no....nothing! (Unless you count flowers for the graves and even so, it's not like your dead relatives give a rat's butt if you show up ON that Monday or the day, week or month after!)
BUT with Labor Day & Memorial Day you do get a day off of work (or at least most people do-real estate agents never have day's off-months off unbeknown to them-but that's because the market sucks not because you planned on not working or getting paid for months at a time-but not specific days-unless you count the day your cell phone battery dies and you don't know and you don't get any calls-but that's not a day off because you spend the next day apologizing to everyone that left you message after message!) and the kids are out of school and no one expects you to make anything special, buy gifts, clothes or attend any major events. They are GREAT holidays and by far my fav now that I am the one doing all the planning, preparing and post-party putting back together!
As for my least favorite holiday...again, are they really holidays???

Laguage & Alex....

I came across this article about older internationally adopted children and language. It was enlightening and discouraging at the same time.
In a nutshell it's saying that internationally adopted children are not necessarily bilingual. Which is true in our case. I would hardly call Alex bilingual. He can't remember basic words in Russian anymore. He can't read it and claims to not understand it spoken. Now, I had my doubts. Just weeks after he got here he told me he couldn't understand because "Me American boy." but lately I'm believing he's truly struggling. Then I read this:

Loss of the birth language occurs quickly after adoption even in older children. Russian children adopted at ages 4 to 8 lost expressive use of their language within 3-6 months of adoption and all functional use of the language within a year.

We have been home almost seven months. Now, I realize that Alex was ten almost eleven when we adopted him but I think socially and educationally he is more like and eight year old. The article also talks about how difficult it is for these children to learn English when they're not strong in their birth language.

Cummins studied second language learning in a large number of bilingual children.He determined that proficiency in the first language was the single best predictor of learning a second language to proficiency. It is important for parents to determine if the child had difficulty understanding or speaking the birth language. Children who spoke the birth language well should easily pick up English. In contrast, children who had difficulty speaking or understanding the birth language will likely need extra help to learn English.

Is Alex strong in his birthday language? I don't know. What was I told over and over with Alex at the orphanage? That he has a speech disorder-which has not manifest it's self in English-apparently the sound he struggled with is not a sound you need in English?-which is not an indication of language but the fact that he was labeled and told repeatedly that something was wrong with his speech makes me think he probably didn't feel comfortable talking too much. We were also told that he's a terrible student, won't study etc. His brother Ivan, has told me he reads English better than he ever read Ukraine. So I'm not thinking he was very strong in his birth language. Which makes me think back to that first day in the orphanage when he had to write a letter stating he wanted to be adopted. He was nervous and scared and had to leave the room to write his letter-which I know Oxana helped him write. I thought it was about being adopted, in hindsight I think it was the idea of writing a letter in his birth language with his limited skills. I showed him one of the beautiful penned letters he sent to me while he was in Ukraine and he told me his teacher wrote it. (And all this time I thought he had such lovely penmanship!)
So here's some more info:
Internationally adopted children are not bilingual. Prior to adoption they learn a first language, the birth language, which is prematurely stopped when the child is adopted because most adoptive parents do not speak the language. The child then begins learning a new adopted first language (or second first language). The process of prematurely halting language development in the birth language before it fully develops is known as "arrested language development"
And more info...

Although English as a Second Language Programs are better than nothing, they do not fit the internationally adopted child because the child is not truly bilingual. As stated before, bilingual children have a first language that can be used for instruction if a concept isn’t understood in English. In contrast, when internationally adopted children do not understand concepts in English, there is no other language to fall back on. A better classification for newly adopted school-age children is to consider them as having Limited English Proficiency (LEP).

That makes sense, so even if I or his teacher could speak Russian to explain, it wouldn't do any good as he can't understand it either.

The loss of the first language before the new adopted language develops leaves the internationally adopted child in a linguistic and educational limbo. Unlike the bilingual child who has a strong first language to fall back on, the internationally adopted child has no language until English develops. This lack of a functional language is not an issue for younger children who have several years to develop English before starting school. It is a significant issue for older adopted children who need to begin school right away. Because the children are not proficient in English, cognitive and linguistic development is often negatively affected.

So he's in limbo. A boy with no language. (That would make a good title for a book don't you think?) Now here's the part that left me overwhelmed:

Consider these facts. The typical 6 year old understands over 20,000 English words A 5 year old child adopted from another country would need to learn an average of 54 new words every day in order to fully catch up in language comprehension abilities by age 6. If the catch up time frame is stretched out to 2 years, the adopted 5 year old would still need to learn an average of 27 new words every day to fully catch up by age 7. However, while the adopted child has been playing catch-up, his 6 year old friends have also added an average of 5,000 words to their vocabulary. By age 7, the typical child understands 25,000 words. In order to fully catch up within a 2 year window, the adopted 5 year old needs to learn an average of 34 words per day. In summary, expecting older adopted children to develop proficient English language skills within 1 or 2 years of adoption is unrealistic.

Oh my heck! 25,000 words?? At six?? What about at eleven?? See what I mean about overwhelming? The article goes on about being an advocate for your child in the educational system and how the ESL (English as a Second Language) and having them tested for speech & language delayed programs and that I SHOULD have had him tested in his birth language before bringing him home or at the least in the first month or so of him arriving.
I just wanted to cry at the end of this article.
I guess all we can do is take it one day at a time. Alex is not learning 27-34 words a day, more like one or two and even then he doesn't always retain them. (He keeps calling floss-elastics-things like that.)
However, he is reading. In fact this weekend he's decided he's going to read Harry Potter-on his own! I still make him read out loud to me (or another fluent reader) for twenty minutes a day but he's spent a few hours this weekend reading Harry on his own. That's promising right?
He does try. He gave a talk in Primary yesterday. He forgot to tell me until Rylee reminded him Sunday morning then we quickly put something together and he did pretty well, all things considered. He told me "You best Mom." When I came up and demonstrated the talk I had hastily thrown together for him.
Anyway, I'm off the take Austin to get his braces OFF. Yes, that's right Alex got his on last week, Austin gets his off this week. Always an adventure at the Richhart home...
I'll post pictures later!