It is so hard to believe that we have been home 6 weeks already! The time is flying by! Oleg is keeping us very busy. We have two soccer practices a week and one or two games on the weekend. We have a break for 3 months from games now, but the practices continue. Oleg love to go to Andretti Thrill Park and ride the go karts and playing in the arcade. He also loves going to an indoor skate park. He has been using his scooter there but wants to get a skate board soon. He loves to be on the go!
School is going ok, though he says he doesn't like it. He is picking up more and more English. We can tell that he understands more and he is speaking more English. We had one of Oleg's friends here for an overnight. They had a couple hours at the skate park and then were home for the rest of the time. I expected more noise but they were pretty quiet. No complaints here!
Oleg is very talkative. He is pretty quiet since he doesn't speak the language well yet. When he gets home he likes to Skype with friends and relatives from Ukraine. As soon as he gets on with friends he talks a mile a minute. It is amazing how fast he can speak Russian. I look forward to when he can speak English as fast, I think.
There are challenges as we all adjust. Oleg gets frustrated sometimes when we don't understand him and when the app on our phones doesn't translate right. Sometimes we tell him something and think he understands only to find out later that he didn't. We can tell that he doesn't like rules. He has been very independant up to now. He is affectionate and happy, most of the time. God is good and we know He is working and has great plans for us all.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
Oleg has been here one month!
Sorry we haven't posted for such a long time. We have gotten really busy! Oleg is playing soccer. They practice twice a week and usually have one game on the weekend, sometimes two. Believe it or not, a 14 year old boy is not content to sit at home in the evenings after school. Our quiet lives have changed so much! Tonight when I got home from work Oleg asked what we were going to do tonight. He and Darwin went over to the community center to play basketball while I did a little shopping.
Yesterday Oleg said that he wanted to go to a park to ride his scooter. He said he wanted to find a beautiful park. In my mind that meant a park we could ride bikes and he could ride his scooter. We got to the park and he said, "Mama, park?" I could tell it was not what he wanted. We found out through our translation apps that he wanted a park where he could jump with his scooter. He wanted a skate park with ramps, etc. We tried to find a skate park for him but nothing was open. We took him to Andretti Thrill Park. He loves the go karts and the arcade. I'm sure we will be there again.
Oleg seems to be learning English slowly but surely. We had a conference with his teachers last Friday. One of them said that she has heard Oleg talking to other students in English. He doesn't talk to the teachers much in English but is comfortable enough with the students to speak English with them. Each of his teachers is doing something to help him with English. His science teacher has a phonics program she is using with him. His Language Arts teacher showed us the program she is using with him so we can do it at home too. We can tell he is understanding more and more when we talk to him. We still use the translation apps on our phones quite often though.
Oleg has interesting eating habits. He doesn't really like to eat breakfast. I am glad that he eats a little something before starting school. At lunch he eats a lot! He likes the food at the school cafeteria. It is much better than the food he used to eat at the orphanage. His teachers have commented that he eats well at school. When he gets home he is starving! He eats a snack and then sometimes isn't hungry for dinner. He loves bananas and sometimes eats 4 or 5 per day. We have some banana trees in our front yard. He will enjoy the bananas when they ripen.
We will try to be better at posting. Thanks for going through this journey with us!
Yesterday Oleg said that he wanted to go to a park to ride his scooter. He said he wanted to find a beautiful park. In my mind that meant a park we could ride bikes and he could ride his scooter. We got to the park and he said, "Mama, park?" I could tell it was not what he wanted. We found out through our translation apps that he wanted a park where he could jump with his scooter. He wanted a skate park with ramps, etc. We tried to find a skate park for him but nothing was open. We took him to Andretti Thrill Park. He loves the go karts and the arcade. I'm sure we will be there again.
Oleg seems to be learning English slowly but surely. We had a conference with his teachers last Friday. One of them said that she has heard Oleg talking to other students in English. He doesn't talk to the teachers much in English but is comfortable enough with the students to speak English with them. Each of his teachers is doing something to help him with English. His science teacher has a phonics program she is using with him. His Language Arts teacher showed us the program she is using with him so we can do it at home too. We can tell he is understanding more and more when we talk to him. We still use the translation apps on our phones quite often though.
Oleg has interesting eating habits. He doesn't really like to eat breakfast. I am glad that he eats a little something before starting school. At lunch he eats a lot! He likes the food at the school cafeteria. It is much better than the food he used to eat at the orphanage. His teachers have commented that he eats well at school. When he gets home he is starving! He eats a snack and then sometimes isn't hungry for dinner. He loves bananas and sometimes eats 4 or 5 per day. We have some banana trees in our front yard. He will enjoy the bananas when they ripen.
We will try to be better at posting. Thanks for going through this journey with us!
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Week Two
All of you who are parents will not be surprised by this post. Darwin and I have never been parents so this is a big adjustment for us, and of course for Oleg. He has been in school for one week and has taken the bus to school three times. Oleg is not a morning person and does not like to get up. We start waking him up 30 or 40 minutes before he has to leave. The first day on the bus he forgot his phone and Darwin jogged back home and got to the bus stop with the phone, with a minute to spare. The school allows Oleg to use his phone for translation only.
Oleg has made some friends at school. We met one of them. P.J. seems to be a very good boy. He is helping Oleg get to his classes. He also put the translation app on his phone to help. Soccer started this week and we were happy to see that P.J. is on his soccer team. I never thought I would be a soccer mom!
The son of very good friends of ours, Sergey, is helping us with translation and has become a good friend to Oleg. He went with us to soccer and the coach asked him to be an assistant coach, to help with translation and coaching. Sergey has also taken Oleg to the Jr. High youth group at our church. We at hoping he will make good friends there and get well connected at church.
Darwin and I have been married for almost 10 years. We have had such a quiet, easy life. It has just been us and the dogs. We love Oleg and have no regrets about adopting him. Things are just different. :-)
Before we adopted we took a parenting class at church. That is really helping us. We are trying to be consistent and set boundaries. Believe it or not, Oleg is testing the boundaries! Right now we have given him yard work to do and taken his laptop away for a period of time. I won't go into the reason, but it had to be done.
We are excited about what God is going to do in Oleg's life and in our lives. We know it is going to be good. We are really looking forward to Oleg learning English well. He is learning more every day. He is saying simple phrases and is understanding more of what we say to him.
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