Progress Report

We're still around, but life is hectic, school is crazy, and blogging time has been virtually non-existent. We don't have any earth-shattering news to share. We're enjoying the last few weeks of our summer routine, before William starts kindergarten on September 2nd. We're hoping to get in another trip or two down to the lake before then, but in the words of William "we'll see!"

William finished swim lessons, and I'll try to post pics and/or videos soon. He did great, and was promoted to GS2 (grade school level 2).

Everywhere I go people ask, "how is William? Is he adjusting well? How's he doing learning English? Is he forgetting Russian?". So I'll answer those for now, and try to add pics later...

How is William?/Is he adjusting well?
He is great!! A typical, all-American 6 year old. He wants to eat chicken nuggets, pizza, or hot dogs at every meal (although he still loves his vegetables & fruits). He loves to play outside, watch cartoons, "read" books, and rough-house. He enjoys helping me grocery shop, and also likes to help in the kitchen.

He loves school, and is counting the days until he can go back. He practices writing his letters and numbers almost every day, and has gotten quite good at sounding out & spelling 3 & 4 letter words. We won't be able to spell things out around him for much longer!

Unfortunately, he has also picked up the typical American I Want's. I reminded him of how little he had in Ukraine and how much he has now. His response? Yes, and I want more, more more. So we had a long talk about being content (I'm slowly learning to put grown-up concepts into simple kid-friendly terms). The result? For nearly 10 minutes, he named off things that he was thankful God has given him. If he knows you by name, you were on the list! Otherwise, you were covered with "people" or "chivren" (that's how he says children). I am trying to get him to do this more often, and it seems to be helping.

He talks about Ukraine fondly, but says he only wants to live in America with Mommy & Daddy. His adjustment has been amazing, and for that we are truly thankful. Our prayer all along was that God would provide him with caregivers that gave him adequate attention, and that he would not have attachment issues. God answered those prayers in amazing ways.


How's he doing learning English? Is he forgetting Russian?
He only speaks English now. He had kindergarten testing in July, and his language skills were tested to be at a 4 year old level - not bad for 8 months home! (He tested above age level in other areas including numbers!) I said to Zack that while his actual language is at that level, the thoughts and ideas he attempts to present seem to be age appropriate.

His sentence structures are less & less European as the days roll forward. He rarely gets frustrated at not knowing the word to convey his thoughts.

I will share that there were a couple of months that seemed especially frustrating for him. We'd probably been home a month or two - he'd lost most of the Russian, but didn't have nearly enough English to speak what his mind was thinking. That must be a horribly frustrating feeling. I experienced a little of the helpless feeling while in Ukraine, but nothing to the extent of what he must have been feeling - and I always had Zack there so there was always at least one other person speaking my language.

William only knows about 7 or 8 Russian words now. That's it. He can only count to maybe 2, remembers Malinki and Balshoy (little and big), a few colors, and a few other random words. I speak to him in Russian, and he has no idea what I'm saying. It's exciting that he's come so far, but also a little sad that he's lost his native tongue so quickly.

So that's the latest with the Dove fam.