Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of Elizabeth's favorite holidays. Most would think it would be Christmas, but not Elizabeth. I believe I know why too -- FOOD! Elizabeth still has issues with food. She will literally eat until she is sick. At first we let her eat as much as she wanted but after 3 years of that we started limiting the amounts, especially when she was getting sick. The rule was that I started her out with a VERY generous portion given her age. If she started eating it too fast the meal was over. She usually did this so she could get seconds before anyone else just in case there was none left over (which is rare). By doing this she started being able to feel when she was full and not finishing her generous portions and no more getting sick. I started easing up on these tactics when I thought she had improved but watching her eat today it is obvious this may be an ongoing problem. She was eating with both hands and would have kept going if I had not stopped her. As soon as dinner was over she was obsessed with pies and dessert. It is still much better than how she ate at first, but we still have some work to do.

Merry Christmas

Well not quite yet, but we had our Christmas pictures taken today.

National Adoption Day

November is National Adoption Awareness month and tomorrow, November 15, 2008 is National Adoption Day. Please pray that one day all of the children waiting will find their forever families.

Continued Progress

Elizabeth is now in the 3rd grade. Her comprehension still lags behind, but she is a straight A+ student and she is making gains very quickly. Based on the information available at her first parent teacher conference this year, it is very possible that she will be at grade level for reading and comprehension by the end of this school year, if not sooner. The biggest struggle is that Elizabeth does not recognize how well she is doing or how smart she is. She requires constant reinforcement that she is doing very well. She also loves to talk and feels she has to be the "mother hen" in her classroom and is always concerned about helping out other students instead of doing her own work. As a result we are very strict regarding her school behavior calendar and even minor infractions result in consequences at home. Her teacher this year is very supportive in this also and so far she is doing very well in this area. for the most part she is very easy to discipline and always wants to please.
Elizabeth is a girly girl and loves to wear dresses, and the fancier the better. She loves to have her hair fixed but it is so thick that there is only so much that can be done with it. Curling it requires lots of hair gel and more curlers than you can imagine! Hairdressers are always amazed that one little girl could have so much hair!

Memories

Elizabeth still has many memories of her life in Guatemala. Some of those memories are better than others, but she holds no hard feelings for the negative ones. She is very open about her memories, good or bad. Last year during National Adoption Month I did a book reading in her second grade classroom. I read the book Forever Fingerprints and all the kids got to make their own fingerprint pictures. Afterwards the kids were allowed to ask Elizabeth and I questions about adoption and Elizabeth's life in Guatemala. I was amazed at the questions these kids came up with at such a young age! Elizabeth stood at the front of the class and answered each question openly and honestly.
One of Elizabeth's best memories is of the orphanage director, Aracely. One day I came home to find her crying and missing Aracely. I emailed Bob at International Families and as luck would have it he was traveling to Guatemala in a few days. He made arrangements to go to El Jardin and made a 3 way phone call from Guatemala so that Elizabeth could talk to Aracely with a translator, since by that time she was no longer speaking Spanish. Both Elizabeth and Aracely enjoyed the conversation, but I wish Aracely could have seen the smile on Elizabeth's face! Hopefully one day we will return to visit.

Transitional First Grade

Elizabeth started transitional 1st grade at Kingsgate Elementary. It was not long before I realized that there is no set curriculum for T1 and the teacher in this school was doing Pre-K work with the kids. Elizabeth wanted to be able to read and already knew her colors! I made a request to have her transferred to Wayland Bonds Elementary at the suggestion of another parent and it was approved. What a difference that made! Mrs. Strange was a wonderful teacher. Elizabeth continued in daily ESL as well. She continued to amaze both of her teachers in her progress. Of course there were still some lags in comprehension but by the end of T1 she no longer qualified for ESL since she was now able to speak, write, and read English. She is still tested yearly for progress though and her comprehension is continuing to make progress as well. It is hard to believe knowing where she started out at that she could progress to this level so quickly. After T1 Elizabeth returned to her home school, Eastlake Elementary, for her regular 1st grade year.

Language

I prepared for Elizabeth's homecoming by listening to a CD made specifically for families adopting from Latin America. I would play it in the car to and from work. I was also amazed at how much of my High School Spanish came back to me. I found it pretty easy to communicate with Elizabeth most of the time. Her understanding of English came pretty quickly and by Christmas we were speaking to her completely in English and she was responding mostly in English with occasional Spanish words thrown in.
There were some funny moments along the way though. Chuck did not practice any Spanish so would rely on me when he did not understand her, for example when she asked for huevos (eggs) for lunch. One day he came into the other room and was so proud of himself as he had understood what she had said. He told me that Elizabeth told him she wanted to go to "Montana". I was confused as at that point she did not even understand that she lived in Oklahoma much less knew there was a State called Montana! I thought for a while and asked him if she had said "manzana". He said, "That's it!" I told him to go give her an apple. He still has not lived that one down!
As much as we wanted Elizabeth to be bilingual, she wanted nothing more than to be like everyone else and refused to speak Spanish once she started speaking English. Eventually she lost all ability to do so. Now she would like to learn it again and we hope to be able to provide her with that opportunity. Her comprehension is still lagging, but it takes approximately 7 years for it to catch up with the ability to speak the language.
One of the things Elizabeth needed to learn for school was her full name - Elizabeth Marie Fatima Baxter. She would get very mad and upset whenever we got to Fatima. Finally one day I asked her why. In a mixture of English and Spanish she told me that she had never liked the name Fatima and that other kids had made fun of her name and she did not want it anymore. It was her choice so we dropped Fatima completely.

Kindergarten

We spent 2 1/2 weeks getting Elizabeth used to family life and then started her in Kindergarten. She was so excited to go and loved her backpack full of school supplies. Her teacher was more nervous than she was since she spoke no Spanish but I assured her that it was easier than she would expect. I assured Elizabeth as well, in Spanish, that I would be back soon. Two and a half hours later I was waiting in the Kindergarten line to pick her up. When she got in the van I asked her how her first day was. I was not prepared for the response. The little girl who had hardly spoken a word in 2 1/2 weeks started talking non-stop! It was all in Spanish, but I was able to understand most of it. She told me how her teacher had introduced her to all her new friends and told them she had just come home from Guatemala. She told me about everything she had already learned and she was so excited about all the things that were just HERS. The most amazing part was that she knew all of this even though her teacher was speaking only English and she had been home such a short time. From that moment on she did not stop talking!
Elizabeth started ESL two times a week for 30 minutes each time almost immediately. She was making progress, but it was slow. At her first parent teacher conference her teacher expressed that she could tell Elizabeth wanted to learn but was frustrated with language issues, even though by 4 months she was speaking mostly English. I asked that her ESL be increased and was told there was not enough money or time to do so. Wrong answer! I contacted my Congressman's office. They contacted Senator Wilcoxen who in turn contacted the Superintendent of Moore Schools. The very next day her ESL was increased to daily and her learning took off.
By the end of Kindergarten she had made great strides, but was still somewhat behind so we enrolled her in Transitional 1st grade. We knew this would always make her the oldest child in her class but knew it was also important for her overall success.

Elizabeth's Journey From Guatemala

In August of 2003 we made the decision to add another little girl to our family, but not a baby this time. The baby years were over for us, and Giorgi needed someone closer to her age as well. I contacted my friend at International Families and asked him what the possibility was of making this happen. Within hours I received photos of a little girl who was just about to turn 5 years old -- just 2 1/2 months younger than Giorgi. Fatima Cesibel was living in Hogar El Jardin in Guatemala City since she was 4 years old. She looked so sad, but much like when we first saw Giorgi's pictures for the first time, there was an instant connection. We had our work cut out for us though as we had not made any preparations as we never expected such a quick response!
By January we had immigration clearance and everything was in place and moving in Guatemala. We were hopeful that the adoption would be finalized by April. but in April we encountered delays when Guatemala rejected some of the required documentation feeling it had been intentionally altered. That created quite a bit of headache as we worked to get it corrected and resubmitted, but we were not about to give up. There were several more delays, but finally right at the end of August we got the word that the adoption had been approved and the final signature had been obtained making Fatima our daughter.
On September 25, 2004 Giorgi and I traveled to Guatemala. We were met at the airport by an attorney and were driven directly to El Jardin where we were greeted by Aracely, the orphanage director. She called for Fatima to be brought out to the patio where we were waiting. Fatima was very shy but came right up to me and gave me a hug. Through the attorney, Aracely asked me if we were going to change Fatima's name. I told her that I wanted her to discuss that with Fatima -- that we had chosen the name Elizabeth but it was up to Fatima whether she wanted to change her name or not. She immediately told Aracely that she wanted the name Elizabeth. We started using the name Elizabeth immediately.
We left El Jardin and Elizabeth never looked back. She was in awe of everything she saw and experienced. She and Giorgi were immediate friends. She was shy and quiet, but boy could she eat! She was very tiny for 6 years old, wearing 4T and even a few 3T clothes. I did a lot of walking around Guatemala City trying to keep two 6 year olds occupied.
The plane ride home was uneventful. I thought Elizabeth would be scared, but she was so well prepared and ready to start her new life. My favorite memory was the big smile that erupted on her face when I showed her the bedroom with her OWN big bed. She was so excited about everything that was just hers and did not have to be shared.
The next day we drove Giorgi to school and enrolled Elizabeth in kindergarten and applied for ESL services. She would not start for another 2 1/2 weeks though to give her a little chance to get used to us and to get her medical exam and immunizations up to date. I had prepared for speaking mostly Spanish and communication was amazing easy for us.
In upcoming posts I will blog about Elizabeth's early days and months with us up until the present.

Welcome

I decided it was time to start a blog for Elizabeth as well. She does get jealous of the attention that Giorgi gets out of necessity. She gets her share too, but it is harder for her to realize. Pretty soon I will show both of them how to manage their own blogs -- with my help.