When you are adopting you read ANY and ALL books you can get your hands on. Especially when you are adoption an older toddler. Not that Dennis and I were "new" at this parenting thing (we do have the 2 boys), but hey - why not be as prepared as we possibly could. We read books on transitions, incorporation of customs, sleep routines, discipline, and language. Out of all of the issues that we expected to be hard - we thought language would be the worst. I started listening and learning Russian as soon as I could. I would speak Russian to her, and Dennis would speak English to her, and maybe the transition for her would not be so difficult. Well - difficult is not the world I would use for her language skills. Cassidy is speaking FLUENT English and has had no issues with the transitions of such. The 1st week or so was difficult. Learning her Russian slang vs. my broken Russian. However, by the time we got home we could understand almost every one of her needs. By 3 months home, he vocabulary had increased by almost 200%, and now at 6 months she has the speech recognition of a 45 month old (according to CHOP) HOW AMAZING!!!!!! Her voice inflections are correct when she uses sarcasm (yes, already she is adapting to the ways of our house) and when he is adamant about something (usually making her brothers do something she wants) he tones gets very stern. It is AMAZING to see the changes. Every day she learns something new and teaches us something else.
I thank God every day that we were blessed enough to have the resources to bring her to our family. We joke that we can't remember what life was like without her. Maybe because she was always meant to be ours!!!
I thank God every day that we were blessed enough to have the resources to bring her to our family. We joke that we can't remember what life was like without her. Maybe because she was always meant to be ours!!!
4 comments:
Glad to hear how well things are going. That is funny that she is already starting to "talk" like your family. How is she coming with Italian? Didn't you say something about that "way back when" in your posts before she came?
I'm so excited to hear how well Cassidy is doing with her language! Very impressive! Colin seems to be doing well for a two year old. We do have a developmental specialist working with him once a week to help give his vocabulary a boost. I'd love to see a new photo of Cassidy!
heather
www.russianblessings.wordpress.com
Oh this is great! I was thinking about using CHOP to have my daughter evaluated too.
Joy
She sounds like she has picked up beautifully!! I find it amazing what these kids learn in so short of a time. Now if only we could pick up a foreign language in a few months!!
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