I'm Back!!!

I know, I know, it's been forever since I last posted. Life has been extremely busy with summer vacation ending and trying to prepare for school. I've been spending most days having fun with Emma, so it's been hard to get some computer time. Things will be different now that she's in school. I'm looking forward to some grown up time, but at the same time I will miss Emma a lot!!

I won't go too much into the school problems I've had this last week. Long story short...nobody wanted to take Emma. Quite sad after we testified in our court hearing how Canada has fantastic schools with special programs to help Emma adjust. The only school that would take her is our designated school. They would not put her into a special class and told us funding is very limited for extra help. So Emma will have assistance a little bit here and there, but for the most part she's flying solo in a regular grade one class. I thought I would be going with her for the first little while, but this is not allowed by the school. We think she'll be OK, though. I'll talk a little more about her first day a little later on.

I posted pictures last week of Emma's surprise shower at church. We were so surprised that we got a shower, being that Emma's not really a baby! How many baby showers have you been to where the baby actually opens their own presents? It was really cool and Emma had a blast. Before opening each present, I had her open the cards. Every time she opened a card, she would pretend she could read what was on the inside. Every card said the same thing....she would open it up, tell everyone "SHHHH..." and proudly read "I love you papa....I love you mama!" It was quite funny! Everyone got a kick out of her as she proudly held up her new clothes and other gifts. I just want to thank everyone who came out. We were so blessed by it!! And special thanks to my best bud Tracey who is the world's best organizer!! Luv ya!

Friday was Emma's last official day of summer holidays, so I decided it was time to teach her a new word....fun! I took her to galaxyland for the day. (For those not familiar with Galaxyland...it is an indoor amusement park inside the largest mall in the world) I've never seen her so excited! She squealed with delight just watching the rollercoaster whiz by. We didn't go on any rides as Emma seems to have a bit of a fear still. But we did go into the play park there. This is a special place just for kids filled with tunnels, slides, ball pits and alot of other cool stuff. It's pretty big, so I was a little leary at first of letting Emma go off by herself. She also was a little scared to go off on her own. So here I am crawling through tunnels and going down all the slides with the little kids, as all the moms sat at the entrance visiting. After awhile, we found our way around. I was able to relax a little more and Emma would go off on her own and come back for a hug every few minutes. It's funny...I found myself speaking Russian the whole time while Emma spoke english. She would say "Let's go!" or "This way, mama!" and I would say "chickai!" (wait) or "stoy tut!" (stay here) Aside from the word "fun" Emma also learned another new phrase. She's not very good at waiting her turn for things and she always found kids in her way, so I taught her "Excuse me." After that, I could hear her all around the park..."SCUSE ME....SCUSE ME!!!!!!" Our day went very well until it was time to leave. Emma did not want to go! I can only imagine what was going on in her head. There is NOTHING in Ukraine that would even compare to the things she saw(especially the whack-a-mole which she loved!) The best part of my day is when papa got home from work. Emma told him ALL about her day. She was talking a mile a minute and we couldn't understand a word! But we could figure out from all her gestures what she was talking about!! It was totally cool!

Emma's english is coming along quite well. She can even put together the odd short sentence. Every once in a while she'll pop something out that I didn't even know she could say. For example, today she shared her chips with me. I told her "thank-you" and she immediately replied "You're welcome, mama." Wow! Doesn't sound that special, except that I've never heard her say it before. She says other things like "see this", "go outside", "chapsick please", "yogurt please", "beautiful mama". And she knows several phrases for our dogs..."No licking, Tifa!" "Get down!" "Bellyrubs", "good dog" and my personal favorite..."go outside Anson and Tifa poop!"

SO...onto the first day of school. We've been gearing Emma up the last few days buying her supplies, a backback and a new jacket all the while telling her it's for "schoolah," to which she would reply, "Nyet, mama!" We went a few days ago to see her classroom and meet her teacher. She had all kinds of fun that day. They let her draw all over the boards with colored markers. Today when we got to school, all was going well. Emma remembered where her classroom was and ran there. I proceeded to unload all of her school supplies into her locker. I tried, but for the life of me, I could not get Emma to sit at her desk. I got quite nervous as one by one all the other kids came in, found their seats and sat quietly. I decided the best course of action was to not draw it out and leave. Teacher agreed. I told Emma I had to go and that I would be back soon to get her. She immediately latched onto me and started crying. It was so hard, but I pulled myself away and reluctantly left (also holding back tears) Thankfully, school was only two hours today. I went home for an hour and decided to back to the school and just hang out in the hallways to make sure there was no screaming coming from Emma's classroom. When I got there, the principal advised me that it was going to be recess and that I could go outside with Emma, so I waited in anticipation at her classroom door. She was the first one out and was happy and excited to be going outside. She immediately went for her shoes and said "This way, mama!" I watched her play with the other kids on the playground. I can't describe the joy I felt just knowing that she was doing OK and it was so great to see her playing with the other kids. Her teacher told me Emma didn't cry for very long after I left, so that was a relief. After recess, the kids started filing into the school again. Emma started crying again. I don't think it was because I was not going with her. She just wanted to keep playing at the park. Once again, her teacher advised me that she didn't cry for long once inside. There was only about fifteen minutes left of school anyway. After school, we enjoyed a BBQ with all the kids and their parents. I watched Emma play with the other kids fairly well for the most part. I did see some hitting, at which point I went and scolded her. She cried for a few minutes but was soon playing again. I kept asking if she would like to go home to see Tifa and Anson and she would say "nyet." We were the last ones to leave. Overall, I'd say the day went very well. It'll be interesting to see how tomorrow goes. I don't think she'll want to go, but she'll probably be OK once she gets there. I'll keep you posted!