It seems hard to believe that our baby girl is so quickly growing up. Aug 03, 2006 was our court date in Nizhny Novgorod, August 5th we picked her up, August 7th we were at the Embassy in Moscow, August 11th we flew home. There are big differences from that little 4 ½ year old girl to who she is now. Some is a result of who she really is (personality), some is growing up and a lot shines through because of love. Not to take credit but she was in a cocoon when we met her. Coming home has allowed her to explore and grow.
I will try to capture a snapshot of who she is today:
Personality: Loving , Charismatic, Happy, Funny, Makes friends easy, Strong willed, Competitive, doesn’t like to loose. Occasionally gets upset when she doesn’t get her way (huge improvement in this area. It used to be always, and I am thankful for her coming to terms that most of the time it is because it is for her own safety or it is just not possible or a good time for it).
Likes:
Sports: swimming, playing in the park especially monkey bars and she looks like one too, playing any type of ball – very good at batting a baseball (terminology???). Riding her “jeep” = quad.
Going to the beach and to the park.
Close friends: Jenna and Christa (cousins), Nikki (neighbor), Ian and Tatiana (friends made through her old Palisades school)
Food: pickle, chocolate, chicken and broccoli
Favorite drinks: hot water, hot tea (chamomile) and sprite
Favorite TV show: Sponge Bob Square Pants
Favorite Sayings:
“Awesome”
“That is so cool”
“Shake it baby!”
“Yeah baby!”
“You are fieeeerd” (from Cat in the Hat movie)
And my least favorite but reality “Mum, don’t call me a baby. I am not a baby. I am a big girl”
Words remaining in Russian:
Toya = also, “I love you toya Mama”.
Popishka = he behind
Pipishka = you get the idea from the one above
Babushka = grandma
….there is more but will add them as I remember or hear them
Things that were and issue when she came home and are no longer a problem:
First two months of coming home she was so angry, confused and scared. Mama was her “punch bag” a few times a day. Slowly it went away during the day and it moved to only night time. That would be the time she used to express her fears and had a hard time falling a sleep. TODAY she goes on days without any issues, she has learned to use her words to describe what she is feeling, night time is a pleasure putting her to bed, sometimes she will even said “OK Mom, I am tired, no more talking I am going to sleep now”….Ahhhh, music to my ears.
I hope school falls in this category as we start 1st grade. We see big improvements and assurance that adults are not going to hurt her and that there are no monsters out there. We hope that when school starts she is able to minimize her fears and act in a cognitive way knowing that she is loved and she is not alone. THANK YOU to Beyond Consequence for teaching me the way to parent and help heal a hurting child! Thank you to grandma for staying with her at home to give her the time she needed to trust the world and believing in me when I said the only way to help her was the BCI way with love, nurturing and understanding. If we did not follow this method we would still be dealing with fears!!!
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