Tooth Fairy suggestions?

I don't post alot about Ryan's "old life." Mostly, to protect his privacy. But, in this case, I'm going to share what he told me the other night. Two reasons... for you to really get a picture of the complete dysfunction they come from. I want you to really see why it's so important for these kids to, at least, be hosted. They really, truly NEED a new model of family. Second, to shine a spotlight on the childhood they've missed out on. If there was ever a reason to host and consider adopting an older child, this story might be it...

Ryan said to me that if he ever broke his tooth, he was going to put it under his pillow. I didn't know where that was coming from, but he is taking karate, so I suppose it's a completely plausible scenario. He said he'd "heard" that sometimes, if you placed your tooth under your pillow, it would get taken and there would be 1 Lat in it's place (which is like 50 cents here). I told him yes, that was known as the tooth fairy and little children place their tooth under their pillow for her to visit and leave something for them. He laughed out loud at the notion of a tooth "fairy." I asked again how he knew about it and had he ever done it? He said, yes, he had done it once, but nothing happened. I asked how he knew to do it and he said his "mom" told him about it. Puzzled, I asked why his "mom" would tell him that but then not actually do anything? He said, "I don't know, probably just to see if I was dumb enough to do it."

So, I'm taking suggestions on what our new Vernon family tradition can be, something to place under the pillow. Feel free to comment. My baby will be putting SOMETHING under his pillow and I... I mean the newly created Vernon family fairy, will be leaving him a dollar. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Please pray for the waiting children. Winter hosting signup will begin soon. This is a perfect picture of why I'm so passionate about these kids, especially older kids. They aren't perfect, they have challenges, but they've been so short-changed, they really deserve some extra grace and alot of love!

"Kid-legs" (inside joke, read on)

Thanks to everyone for praying for Ryan's first weeks of school. He is settling in very well. This smaller and Christian environment was great for him. Everyone has been welcoming and gracious. He has been doing fantastic with his school work. Everyday after school we sit down at the table and review what he brings home, do the homework and study concepts if needed. He's had a test in virtually every subject. His first test was in English and he got a 90! I was so excited and so thrilled. He studied very hard, he's learning and memorizing well when I put things on note cards for him. He's learning so much, how to take notes, how to listen, how to keep up with assignments, how to do homework, how to change classrooms, how to get books and get to the next class within 5 minutes, how to read directions, how to study... it makes me tired, but he's had a great attitude. He also got a 100 on a history test. He has struggled initially on science and vocabulary tests, but goodness, those words are just so foreign to him, they aren't everyday common conversational English. It's like this, if you put 20 Chinese words in front of me and told me the Chinese meaning and I needed to memorize them, it would be very difficult for me. I'd need to learn to recognize the word by sight, memorize how to say it properly, know how to spell it and know it's meaning! Yeah, exactly, feel his pain? In fact, he studied so hard for his health test last week and didn't get a good grade. I told him I was disappointed, NOT in him, but he worked so hard, I wished he had more to show for it grade-wise. He memorized 46 index cards of material. His response... "yeah mom, but look at all the stuff I know now that I didn't know before." If only we could all see things that way. His payoff didn't come via the grade, it came because he KNEW he was smarter for learning so many new things. He likes to use the word "symbiosis" now just for fun!

Funny story. I was teaching him where the adrenal glads are located. For those of you who haven't had 7th grade health in a while, they are above the kidneys. He didn't know what a kidney was. So, to teach him, I start with sounding the word correctly using visuals and phonetics. With kidney, I told him "kid" and pointed to the "knees." Later, as we reviewed the material, we got around to the adrenal glands/kidney question. Here's the conversation:

Mom- Ryan, where are the adrenal glands located?

Ryan- Well, let's see... hummm... (the universal sound of thinking)........ kid.......... kid........... the kid legs!

Mom- (laughing hysterically, virtually crying I'm laughing so hard, almost falling out of the chair)

Get it? Kid-knees.... couldn't remember the knees part... knew it had something to do with lower extremities..... kid-legs.

The kidneys will forever be the kid-legs in this house! Bless his heart, he's just so precious sometimes.

Citizen Vernon

Today was a really important day, Ryan's citizenship ceremony. Adopted children over the age of 14 must appear in person to take an oath and sign some papers in order to get their citizenship certificate. He was a citizen when he entered the US with me from the last adoption trip, but this gave him the official document that he will have to keep up with for the rest of his life! Here's a few pictures of the morning, it was a pretty neat experience to see all those people becoming "new Americans." The majority of people there were probably immigrating, but there were 2 other adopting families from the host program. Congratulations also to Jessica from Russia and Aleksandra from Latvia!

I confess I'm a mess!

My baby started school today... I confess to be a mess!

After I left him in his homeroom class, I went in the school office to ask a question and just started crying! I had been holding it in all morning and the levy broke! Bless their hearts... I promised to not cry daily at the front desk. Thankfully, there was another 7th grade mom there and she made me feel so much better. I am sad because I just lost having my boy with me every day. Other moms have 5 years to get ready for this, I only got 4 months! Whatever will I do with myself now that he's not here with me? I miss him terribly. Of course I took a picture, so many "firsts."

Special Guest

We have a special Latvian guest for a few weeks. Igor will be here until August 24th. He was a hosted boy in this summer's orphan hosting program. However, he was also 1 of 3 that missed the European connection flight because of major delays in their originating city. So, we've added yet another boy to the household... why is it always boys? Igor and the other 2 children will travel with the mission team when they leave for Latvia/Russia on August 24th. We were given approval to do so by Latvia, seeing as they don't start school until September and they certainly do not want them traveling alone. I met Igor in his orphanage in September 2007, he's 16 years old. He and Ryan are having a good time together. He speaks Russian, so Ryan's Russian is getting a workout. Ryan's starting school though, so he'll likely be very bored with only me during the days and my Russian is limited to about 5 words! Just a few pictures in case you see him with us.