Hi,

Today and yesterday we had really good days. Yamile found out today that in December she will be going to the ballet with school. She is very very pleased and in October she will be going to Chuckee Cheese with them. Again she is pleased Jorge on the other hand is very sad that he can not go : (

Jorge and Yamile have been asking for a few days to go out to eat. Their two favorites are Chinese and Colombian. Tomorrow we will go out for Colombian food.  Yupee. It’s one of my favorites too.

Good Night and God Bless,

Gina

Hi,

My allergies are still really bad. I can’t breathe, I can’t smell or taste anything. I am sneezing a lot and coughing. The kids were playing for the most part alone in their rooms. Coming in to visit me and eating fruit roll ups.

Jim had to work a bit and I called him there to ask that he come home early because my equilibrium was also off. He said sure.

Yamile came in to show me a picture she drew and asked who was on the phone. I said daddy- he is coming home soon. She said she didn’t believe and wrapped her hands around my neck and squeezed. She did not hurt me but really upset and the look on her face was really angry. She refused to apologize and refused to say why she did it. Then she refused to speak to me or Jorge.

Jim came home and she refused to speak to him. We sent her to her room. She eventually (5 hours later) said she tired to hurt me because I was playing with Jorge and not her. Jorge at the time was actually playing by himself in his room.

She really needs a lot of attention and I work really hard to give them both attention. Sometimes it is easier with Jorge I told her because when Jorge does something wrong. He usually immediately apologizes and tries to make up for it. She never does. Also Jorge is always giving and asking for hugs and kisses. She rarely wants them.

This behavior is not going on at school or day care so I am assuming it has something to do with parenting or more specifically mothering. She wants and needs unconditional love which I have for her. I will love her no matter what but I will continue to try to teach her how to get along with others. How to respect herself and others, how to show compassion and caring.

By the end of the night she was very huggy and kissy with me. She said I love lots and that she was sorry.

Loving a child who has been hurt as much as Yamile can be difficult at times but she is more than worth it. She could not be more my child than if I had her myself. She is like me in so many ways stubborn, funny, silly, fiercely loyal and sensitive.

Good night and God Bless and please keep in your prayers all of the kids who like Yamile have been hurt so badly that they keep themselves closed off from love,

Gina   

Hi,

 I have’nt written in a few days because my allergies have been really acting up and by this time at night I have been in bed sleeping or rather trying to sleep. Yamile had two bads days in a row followed by two really good days. She had started pouting like her brother which is funny because she knows the pouting does not work for him but I guess she is hopeful.

As I said above my allergies have been crazy and Jorge has another cold. At first I thought I caught his cold so I spent two days on cold medication with no affect.

We have some good news Yamile got back 4 tests two were 100%, 1 was 90% and one was 20%. WE are not worrying about the last one 3 out of 4 is GREAT.

 Good night and God Bless,

Gina

Hi Everyone,

We are all doing really well. Yamile has been moved to first grade at least temporarily for language arts and reading. We we able to do homework, work on her little computer and do extra math. We also had time to play and make pretzels. I also had time to help Jorge with his homework. It was great.

Good night & God Bless,

Gina

Hi,

I  don’t like to focus on the negatives but this is really important to talk about. We had a great time driving home from school singing songs esp its bitsy yellow polka dot bikini. Then I got Yamile out of the car. I had her stand on the side walk right in front of it. It was about 20 feet from our door.

I went to get Jorge out of the car and in the time it took me to do that she was gone. Jorge  started yelling for her saying she was gone. I started calling for her and after a few minutes she appeared.

I was so scared; she however thought it was very funny. So I said to her it was very dangerous and we were worried and so she would have to sit in La silla for three minutes to think about it. She screamed “NO” and hit me. She has never been aggressive before so I was suprised. I said ok your room. She refused to go and would not stay in it. She refused to study. Refused to get out of her school clothes just kept screaming at me and hit me twice more. She was also crying at the top of her lungs. She is very small and did no damage but I was shocked and worried. When Jim came home, we talked to her again and she will have her toys taken away for two days. Jim was very forceful and clear with her. He emphasized that hitting, and leaving mami were not acceptable and a lack of respect.

She then apologized and was very loving. Sometimes I wonder about the pressure of her school work and will she ever learn some basic safety skills. Her new life is so different than her old life and having adults tell her what she needs to do is at times really difficult for her. She had to be an adult at an age when no child should have to be one. Now she is expected to be a kid all of the time and it is hard. How frequently did she wander around Colombia without anyone caring or worrying where she was? How odd it must be to her that now someone worries. When she cared for herself for so long. Sometimes I think it makes her angry. God bless all of the parents who have adopted teens especially teens who have been alone for a long time.

 Right now she is working hard with her papi. She and I worked on Math for awhile. Papi and she are doing spelling. She has to create sentences so he needs to help her with those.

She is such a great kid and about 95% of the time wonderful but that other 5% is rough. You know though she is worth every minute of it.

Good Night and God Bless,

Gina

Hi,

We picked up our professional pictures from JC Penney. They came out really well. Then we went for brunch. Everybody at la peep gave the kids lots of attention. Yamile told us at brunch that she did not understand why I did not do her homework for her. Doriella did all of her work in Colombia she said. That explains why the writing in the book is nothing like hers and we have been suspecting this for a long time.

After Le peep we went to a for stores and then Borders. We did not find anything but the kids had a good time. When we came home I feel asleep but they watched Jungle book and Dumbo. Thanks mom and Maria.

Goodnight and God Bless,

Gina

Hi Everyone,

I am feeling much better today. Lots of very sage people have given me some really good advice and encouraging words. Muchas Gracias. I have decided that first we are going to start the spelling words early. Concentrate on a few a time. Take lots of breaks and not worry if she does not learn them all. It is better that she really learn a few than sort of learn them all. I am also going to start exploring educational alternatives for her- private school, home school, tutors, bi lingual language tapes/DVDs etc.

Most importantly, I am going to work with Yamile where Yamile is not where educational standards deem that Yamile should be. We have to work with what we have not with what others would like.

Hey mom, if you are reading this the kids love the presents you sent and watched most of Lady and the Tramp tonight. We also went to a Colombian restaurant as Jorge likes to say delicio (Yes, I know this is not a really word, it’s a Jorge word- it means delicious/delicioso)

Sorry for the awful spelling tonight, I am very very tired.

Good night and God Bless,

Gina 

Hi,

Yamile is having so much trouble with her spelling words. I really need to vent about this.

She is only in 2nd grade and in bilingual education. Every week she gets between 22 and 24 words. She has to write them five times each the first night, write sentences for each the second, put them in syllabels (sic) the next night. Then write them ech fives times again. It takes us between 1.5 and 3 hours each night. It seems to me that she just has too many words. It is exhausting. She still has trouble recognizing the Spanish Alphabet!

The first week she had no clue so then I got a dry erase board and letter manipulatives which she likes. I feel so terrible when she asks to go to sleep and I tell her no she has more spelling. Tonight we spent almost three hours.

If anyone has any ideas of ways I can help her please let me know.  

Good night and God Bless,

Gina

Well sort of. I bought Cresent rolls and the kids got hot dogs and put them in and then we baked them. They were so impressed with themselves and said the hot dogs were wonderful. They also had a slice to cake tonight that we made. Not the most nutritious meal I know but they really enjoyed it so much. It was so cute.

Good Night and God Bless,

Gina

Hi,

Yamile is having a lot of trouble with her homework. She really lacks focus, and does not seem to comprehend that we have not given her the homework. It is something her teacher has sent home. When doing her homework. She will do odd things. Tonight she put checks all over her paper, other times when I went to the bathroom she has erased it all. She has also taken works spelled correctly and gone back and misspelled them. Any insight anyone out there may have about this I would love to hear. When asked about the checks it took her 15 minutes to say that daddy did not say not to put checks on her paper.

We are not sure what she did at her old school but she seems to really lack formal training. Tonight with Jim’s help it took 1 hour and 45 minutes to do 24 sentences. She likes school a lot but just seems to really lack an understanding about it and what she is expected to do. We hope and pray she picks it up.

 On the positive side we made a yummy chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

Good night and God Bless,

Gina