Looking Brighter

Okay, I think we are headed in the right direction. We are seeing improvement now with the way things are going at home, and are beginning to loosen the reigns some. She now knows I mean what I say and that if she doesn't listen up and DO what she needs to do, there will be a consequence that is less than favorable. Hallelujah!!! Anyway, she has improved her behavior and I am so thankful for that. The key words now are, "Your not listening to me" and then she snaps into shape :) Today I am taking her to spend the day with her new friend Piper while I go take the little girls to a class at our science center and go some other places as well. She'll get to spend a nice long day with her and I hope they form a wonderful friendship. Both girls are homeschooled, both are from Ukraine, they are 12 and 13 years old, and I think this could be a really good thing for her. It will help her to feel less homesick and more comfortable here.

I have contacted an international adoption clinic here in St. Louis out of Children's Hospital and we will probably set up an appointment to meet with them in January. What they offer is a host of professionals (doctors and social workers, counselors, etc) who specialize in dealing with kids adopted internationally and their families. What my hope is, is to be able to meet with a psychologist when needed to discuss her feelings and her actions, and to be able to better understand what she is going through and have another PROFESSIONAL opinion of how to best deal with her actions. However, I do believe we are on course now and things are improving. It's just nice to have a support system of people who "have been here and done this" before.

This is our last week of school now until January 7, when we will start back into things. I am ready for the break as I am sure the girls are too. Yesterday Marina was doing her math work and on the LAST problem she had a complete meltdown and couldn't finish. She was three steps away from being done and gave up all hope, started crying and couldn't pull it together. So, I told her that was fine and suggested she take a nap and rest and try to finish it later in the day. So, around 4pm she came back to it and finished her work without anymore problems. It's not that the work is too hard . . . she can do it, maybe it's just more than she was used to before, I don't know. I only gave her one worksheet to work on and it only had maybe 8 - 10 equations on it . . . not a lot at all. Anyway, I was glad to see her come back to it and finish. I just have to learn how to "deal" with these breakdowns the best I can. I think being sympathetic AND still requiring her to finish her work is the best thing I can do. I can remember getting very frustrated while doing schoolwork in certain subjects and so I can empathize with her. But, I don't want my little ones to see this either and decide, "Oh, if I cry and say I can't, I won't have to do my work" because then we'll never get anything accomplished. I hope Marina doesn't have many of these meltdowns. I have seen 4 or 5 of them thus far.

Well, everyone is waking up and I can hear their feet above me so they will be coming downstairs any minute. That is my cue to wrap this up for now.