A new school year

Today was the first day of school for Sarah and Almira. Yesterday I spent the morning at school with Almira for middle school orientation. She was tested and they decided 6th grade would a good fit for her. Her math tested out at almost 7th grade, but reading comprehension was lower. The principal and I talked last week and we agreed since she has not even been in the country 3 months and is reading at a second grade level, just think how much better she will be by Christmas. She seemed pretty comfortable once we walked through her entire schedule and I showed her where everything is located. I had an opportunity to talk to most of her teachers and tell them about her and that English is a second language for her, one she is still learning. They were very understanding. All of Sarah's teachers from last year were so excited to meet her and promised to look out for her. I have no doubt she will be well taken care of. There are only 14 kids in her class. As I was leaving the school this morning I remembered that I forgot to take a picture of the girls on their first day of school. I will try and capture one tomorrow.

I received an e-mail this afternoon from Boris with the Antares Foundation about Almira's going away party and also about Vika's birthday party.

As some of you may not know we are now sponsoring Roza, the pretty girl with the dark features. While Mom and Dad have started sponsoring Vika (aka The Darling Vika).

Here is a link to the post about Almira's going away party in May and Vika's birthday party.

Thanks, Kathy

http://www.antares-orphans.com/activity.aspx?id=70505

Full fledged citizen

Someone had asked me for pictures of the judge in Petro that heard our case. I can't remember where I saw that. Please send me an e-mail and I'll send to you personally.

Well, we headed down south Sunday after church to New Orleans. We received a letter about 2 weeks ago telling us to come to New Orleans for Almira to take an oath of allegiance to the country. We spent the night in a nearby hotel and got up Monday morning and headed across the interstate to the immigration office.

We could not bring in a camera at all, so Mom had to take it back to the car. There was only room in the small office for Almira and I so Mom and Sarah stayed out front in the waiting room. The waiting in the waiting room took longer than the entire process. They had a big thick file on Almira (or maybe it was on Jon and I). They pulled out her Certificate of Citizenship and she signed a few places and then took an oath and that was it. We were done by about 9:30. Our appointment was at 9AM and we got there about 8:40. They truly do not call you back until it is your appointment time. We got called back at almost 9:15.

Then we took our time coming home, stopping in Baton Rouge and taking the girls to the big mall there and then having lunch. Back to work today for me and another day hanging out with Memmie and Pawpaw.

Almira will go to the school on Thursday and get tested to see what grade they think she can go into. We are still thinking 6th, which would only be 2 grades behind where we are now. But she might surprise me and do well enough for 7th. I do worry about her being mature enough for 7th grade here in America. At times she seems much younger than 14 and at other times she seems older than her years.

Tonight we had Russian night at our house, kind of. We stopped at the grocery on the way home and bought stuff to make chicken salad. We just baked our chicken and then I put it in a food processor with lots of mayo (courtesy of Almira). Then she cut up tomatoes and cucumbers with lots of salt and pepper. We made Jon some without the veggies. Then we cooked Blinys. Almira wanted to do them almost all by herself. I helped her get the ingredients out and measure them. She cooked them all by herself and did pretty good. They were of course thicker than the ones we had in Almaty, but I think it is an art form to making blinys.

She is a pretty good cook and really enjoys cooking. I just wish I could get her to love cleaning up, although she does pretty good.

Things are going well here and the countdown is on for school to start. The girls go back on Wednesday, August 22nd.

Till later,
Kathy B.

What a fun weekend

These are the dress-up night pictures, not the wedding, just in case you're wondering.

Thursday night started the fun with dress up night.

Almira and Sarah got in the play makeup and had a great time. Then came the costumes. Almira threw something together and Sarah went to the closet after last year's Halloween costume. I just had to snap a few pictures it was wonderful.

Then Friday after work we went shopping for Sarah a hamster cage. Now we have two hamsters in our family, the hermit crabs didn't make it long. After that we had dinner, just me and the girls. Then we headed to the mall and shopping for Almira a special dress to wear to a wedding. We found her a new dress that she liked and also some shoes she was comfortable with. We had such a good time and shut down the mall on Friday night.

Then on Saturday Svetlana came and did English lessons with Almira while Sarah and I ran a few errands, which included us bringing home Simon, the newest family member. Then after we got home the girls went swimming for a couple of hours. Then inside to get ready for the wedding. This was Almira's first wedding to attend and she had a wonderful night. We attended the wedding and then stopped by Mom and Dad's house before going to the reception. I knew they would want to see the girls all dressed up.

Almira ended with saying it was a wonderful night and when could we go to another wedding. I hope you'll like these pictures.

Good night,

Kathy

A few more pictures ...

Just a few more. Check out the hat that Almira and Memmie made. These others are Almira at the camp. She is showing off her proud catch. For those not from the south, that is a catfish she is holding. They are yum yum! She loves them now.

Pictures from June and July

Just a few of the girls. Almira at the zoo in New Orleans. Sarah, Almira and I on the back deck of the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, MS, overlooking the ocean. Sarah and Almira in a gift shop in New Orleans hugging a bear. Also, Sarah and Almira in a carriage on the grounds of the Houmas House.

All is well here in Monroe

Sorry to everyone that I have not posted in so long. I went back to work 3 weeks ago and also back to school too. I am taking Finance 476, a Sr. Financial Management class and it is keeping me pretty busy. I'm also trying to take a Biology correspondence course through LSU. I only have 6 classes left to graduate, but I have these 6 science credits hanging over my head. I'm trying to find a way to get through these before next May when I should graduate. Yikes, I love finance and hate science.

Anyway, on to the subject that everyone is really interested in, Almira. She is just doing wonderfully. As I type this she is at the lake fishing with her Pawpaw. She went up to the camp with Mom and Dad yesterday afternoon and spent the night. She just loves it and really loves fishing. I can't believe how much she loves to fish. I called to check on her this morning and she told me that she woke Almira up at 6:15 this morning and she went out fishing with my Dad. I couldn't believe she got up that early, but Mom said she was so excited to go fishing, it didn't seem to bother her.

Almira is doing so well on her English. She is speaking almost all English now and is making full and complete sentences. We still have a way to go on her social skills. She is fine around adults, but is so intimidated around other children. We really have to work on that as school starts in less than a month.

I do have some new pictures to post. I finally got them all downloaded off Mom's camera from our trip down south last month. There may even be a few more. Just wanted everyone to know that all is well. The girls are still having a blast together. Oh, I almost forgot. Our family has really been growing. Sarah got 2 hermit crabs a few weeks ago and the next day Almira got a little hamster. She had been wanting a pet of her own so badly and I couldn't add anymore cats or dogs, since we already had 2 cats and 1 dog. I told her she could keep her hamster in her room and take care of her. She is just loving having her. She is a robo hamster and so she is just tiny.

Almira has also been sewing a lot. Last weekend we went baby doll shopping. That's all she could talk about, that she wanted a baby doll. So we went and spent over an hour with her looking and comparing until she finally found the one she wanted. This week she started sewing her clothes. She hand sewed her a full outfit, shirt, pants, booties and a bonnet. I could not believe how well she did. Mom is just blown away at how well she can sew. She is already working on sewing her another outfit.

I will try and do better on posting and will get some pictures to you now.

Thanks,
Kathy B.

Places to go and people to see ...

The pictures are of the famous Houmas House and also the bend in the Mississippi River in Natchez (taken by Almira). The girls are sitting on one of the limbs that lays on the grounds of the Houmas House. Those trees are just unbelievably beautiful. Almira was washing her feet in one of the waterfalls on the grounds after her swan and fire ants incident. I'll post more pictures from Mom's camera.

Sorry it has been so long since I’ve updated. We have been busy this last 2 weeks. Almira has been busy working on her English lessons and her ESL. We took a break last week and headed down to Baton Rouge on Thursday and then on to New Orleans on Friday. Mom and I headed down with Sarah and Almira and Jon drove down to meet us after work on Friday night.

We drove across the Mississippi River and into downtown Natchez. We stopped at the overlook over the river to let the girls see some of the big antebellum homes and the river. We took the girls on a tour of Stanton Hall, one of the most beautiful white column houses. We then had lunch at the Carriage House restaurant on the grounds of Stanton Hall. After lunch we drove down through St. Francisville, just north of Baton Rouge. We stopped at the Myrtles, which is supposed to be the most haunted house in America. We were going to take a tour, but would have had to wait about 45 minutes. We decided to head on down to Baton Rouge and visit the State Capital. The State Capital was beautiful and we sat in on a session of the House of Representatives and the state senate.

We spent the night in Gonzales, which is just out of Baton Rouge on the way to New Orleans. The girls swam that evening and then we had dinner. The next morning we got up and headed towards New Orleans. We stopped at the Houmas House, which is truly one of the grandest houses in the south. We did not tour the house, because it was $20.00 a person to tour, but we could tour the gardens for $10.00 each. The gardens were just beautiful and there were swans on the grounds and walking paths. There were also 300 + year old live oak trees on the grounds.

One of the funniest things that happened, but also was scary, Almira was taking lots of pictures of the swans and their babies on the front yard at the Houmas House. I was standing close to Sarah about 100 yards from her. She had on her crocs and all of a sudden I heard her scream "Mama, mama!" She was running across the lawn as fast as she could kicking off her shoes. I knew right away what had happened, she had stepped in a bed of fireants. I started towards her as she ran to me. I checked her feet and went to gather up her shoes she had run out of. While we were walking to a fountain to put her feet in, she stepped in a pile of swam poop. After I knew she was okay, we had quite a laugh. But I have to say it also made me feel good that she cried for Mama and ran for me as fast as she could.

We headed on down to New Orleans and went to the zoo. We had a good time at the zoo and Almira was so excited to see the Louisiana part. They had a lot of alligators and one big grand daddy alligator that was just huge, probably about 10 feet long. Then we went inside and saw the white alligator. We stayed at the Riverside Hilton which is very close to the Aquarium of the Americas.

On Saturday morning we rode across the bridge and went to see the New Orleans operations of Bradford Lumber. Then we headed into the French Quarter headed to the Café DuMonde’. There was such a long line outside and looking like rain that we found another breakfast place. Then we set out on a long walk to the aquarium. I thought it was about 2 blocks, but it turned into a 30 minute walk and we got caught in the rain. Jon had driven his truck down to park it and wait for us at the aquarium and waited on us quite awhile. Once we made it to the aquarium we were pretty wet, but ready to see all the fish, birds and other good stuff. Almira reminded me of an excited 5 or 6 year old. She was running from one thing to another. She had my Mom’s digital camera with her. I think by the end of the weekend she had taken about 400 pictures.

We then headed to the shopping at the bottom of the Riverwalk connected to the Hilton. Jon and Mom went back to the hotel rooms to rest, but Sarah, Almira and I hit the mall for shopping. I bought the girls cute skirts and tops for dinner that night with Jon. We drove over to Biloxi that night to see the devastation and to have dinner.

Biloxi was so depressing. The grand houses that sat along the beach were all gone. There was nothing but slabs left. So many of the restaurants where we had eaten in the past were gone. The little theme park where Jon and Sarah had been before was gone. It was just so surprising to see the Mississippi coast still in such bad shape. The Beau Rivage had been re-done and looked great and there were some new condos there, but very few restaurants.

We headed home Sunday and Almira rode home with Mom and I and Sarah rode with Jon. Almira rode with us and worked on her English coming home. She was really using a lot of English and Mom was surprised at how much she could communicate.

For the 4th of July we headed up to Lake D’Arbonne with my family and spent the day cooking out, having homemade ice cream and took the kids out in the boat. After lunch Almira kept asking if she could go fishing. Dad took her down to the boat dock and she ended up catching some fish. We were run in by a storm, but as soon as the heavy rain stopped Almira started asking if we could go back and fish. She suggested that we all put on rain coats. She was so funny. I didn’t think she would get hooked on fishing so fast.

In the boat Almira had another scare with a spider and insisted on sitting in my lap on the boat the entire ride. I am suprised at times how she still seems like such a little girl. Sometimes she will just come sit by me and lean over on me or just touch me. I have to remind myself that even though she is a big girl, she missed so much of what our kids have experienced since birth, lots of touching and loving.

We took a lot of pictures, but I will need to get them off Mom’s camera. I will post a few that I took of the girls and some of the places we went with my camera.

I will be going back to work next week, so many I can post some more pictures later.

Till later,

K