Merry Christmas!

We had a pretty laid back Christmas here– church on Christmas Eve, gifts, cinnamon rolls and big meal on Christmas day.

I haven’t asked them all what their favorite gifts are. Reed seems to be loving his snap circuits. Lena has been playing with her new tamagotchi quite a bit. Gus is enjoying his new cars and box to organize them. I’m not sure what Luda is enjoying most– she’s not one who eagerly accepts gifts.

The kids are one week into Christmas break, and I think for Reed and Lena, cabin fever is in full swing. Fortunately, they’re out playing frisbee golf with Aaron right now.

Gus is thrilled to have Luda here.

His world is pretty awesome right now.

Luda is glad to be here and an eager helper, around the house, with Gus, and cooking dinner. She can act like a typical teenager at times, wanting to be talking to her friends online. I can’t blame her, as it’s undoubtably a challenge to be immersed in a totally different setting with people who don’t speak your language and also are more geared towards younger kids.

Language– this has been a big topic here lately. I’ve been working hard on my Ukrainian. I was studying it a lot before N came– then I stopped for awhile, as other priorities took over. A mother adopting from the same region said how the judge had her demonstrate her Russian in court and all she could say was “sandwich”. That spurred me to start practicing again.

I’ve finished all of the lessons on Duolingo. I started Skype lessons with a teacher on italki a few weeks ago. She is helping me put my knowledge together in different ways and gain confidence with speaking. I highly recommend italki if you’re interested in learning a new language. For Ukrainian, there are many teachers available for $10/hour.

Luda is also doing Duolingo and has a teacher on italki. She seems to be enjoying the lessons– I scheduled her for an hour lesson today, and their lesson was closer to 90 minutes, plus the teacher sent a bunch of homework! I’m glad– she has a long way to go with English.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!