It's been a long time

since I've posted anything!  It's been a crazy busy year and a half.  I read my last post, and I'll update that info here.
     The homeschool tutoring group turned out to be a bust.  We did that for 4 months, but the only takeaway from it was that Nick learned cursive handwriting.  That's about it, except that the tutor also administered the Stanford Achievement Test for us.  So, beginning April 1, 2012, I am a full-time homeschooling mom to Nick.  I was clueless a year ago as to how to go about teaching this kid!  We have tried every program, trick, learning approach, teaching approach, therapist --  Well, the long and short of it is that Nick is dyslexic, dysgraphic, has ADHD, and is an ESL student.  He struggles with retaining info, as I've posted before, and I am never quite sure exactly how much he is absorbing.  It's pretty frustrating, really, because he is also VERY INTELLIGENT.  It just feels like we pretty much wasted an entire year, although I'm sure it wasn't all wasted time.
     We have tried many curricula, and spent several thousands of dollars trying to streamline everything and find the best way to teach things so that Nick can learn.  The good news is that we really have figured out some things over the past year!  Although it varies depending on our activities, we have a pretty good schedule and approach to schooling.  We aren't very flexible with our time, unfortunately, because we are talking about a 14 year old here.  We aren't exactly living in homeschooling Nirvana, sitting around by the pool singing Kumbaya.
     Let me explain.  When Nick came to us at age 11 (having been in the orphanage school since age 6), he could not add and subtract 2-digit numbers.  He could not speak a word of English (except Coca-Cola, good morning, hello, and do you speak English).  He had never studied/learned any history, geography, English, or pretty much anything else that he really needs to know in life.  He was merely surviving there. 
     Last year, we worked all through the summer (again) (except for a disastrous 3-week camp experience), took a couple of weeks off at the end, then started school again at the same time as  Tyler did, in August.  I started him out with 3rd grade English, since he could already read quite a bit.  It was too hard.  After a month or 6 weeks, we backed up and started 2nd grade English.  Same experience.  At the first of November, we backed up again and started with 1st grade English.  It worked!  November-December he completed the 1st grade stuff, January-February he completed the 2nd grade English.  He will have finished 3rd grade English at the end of May.  Whew!  Three grade levels since November. 
     Amazing.  We will, of course, have to slow down a bit from here on out, but I think we are finally on the right track.  If we can keep up the pacing I'm hoping for (1 grade level per semester), Nick will be working on-level two years from now (spring semester 2015).  Ohh!  I forgot to mention that the kid who couldn't add and subtract when he came here 3 years ago started pre-algebra this week.  I have to start and end this paragraph the same way.  Amazing.
     The rest of the fam??  Well, I will have to post another day because the stuff above took so long - ha!  But, here are some pics:

Tyler, age 4, October 2005 - the day he arrived in the U.S., and October 2012, age 11

Nick, age 11 - the day we arrived in Ukraine to get him, and fall 2012, age 14

 Family Christmas, 2012 - His, mine, and ours! :)

Lane had pneumonia over Christmas, so I have no Christmas pics of him.  Here he is fishing with David at the family Easter gathering in Texas at Uncle Donald and Aunt Teri's farm, April 2013.

Fall/Winter Happenings

We are so busy these days that I completely forget about the blog!  The Monday after Thanksgiving, we took Nick out of public school and put him into a home school program.  He goes to the tutoring group for 3 hours, 4 days each week.  There they work on math, writing (including handwriting), reading, and vocabulary.  At home I work with him myself on math and spelling, some grammar, and reinforcing his work from "school."  He does Explode the Code for phonics, and Rosetta Stone for English.  Finally, just YESTERDAY, we had a small breakthrough!  On the way to school, Nick said, "I know how to spell 'English.'"  And he did!  You have no idea how big that is, but it really, really is!
Some family pics from September:

But I digress.  The holiday season was nice.  Randi was here for 6 weeks doing a clinical rotation at River Oaks Hospital in Hammond.  It was awesome having her here with us!!!! 

Dima's adoption by our local friends fell through.  Oh, they went to Ukraine, all right -- but everything fell apart when someone at the orphanage let his grandmother know he was being adopted.  She came and made a big scene, and there's some other stuff that complicated matters, but they came home shortly without him.

The most important recent news is that I'M A NANA, AGAIN!!!  WOOHOOO!!!!  and YEEHAW!!!  Oakley Marie Schmucker is as beautiful a baby as her mama was!  She begs for kisses, already, of course. ;)  She was born November 20, 2011 and weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces.  Here she is!

School Days

     School isn't a lot of fun around here these days.  It's so hard for Nick.  He struggles so much.  I won't go into all the specifics, but he didn't have much academic success in Ukraine.  He could read and write in cursive, and his reading comprehension is fantastic.  That's as far as it goes, though.  After the year that he's been in school here, he now (in English, of course) reads on a 2nd grade level, writes on a kindergarten level.  His biggest problem is with RETENTION of things already taught and learned.  He can't seem to remember -- well, ANYTHING -- from one week to the next. 
     Nick is in public school.  Last year the school worked with us quite a bit, and gave us a lot of leeway.  They got him a reading tutor who worked with him for an hour one-on-one three times a week.  Later in the year an Americorps volunteer came in to do the same thing with him twice a week.  Coupled with ESL, he was getting a lot of low teacher-to-student ratio teaching.  The second half of the year, I decided to make him my own spelling lists (instead of the fifth grade spelling they were giving him) that were more on his level.  He was very successful with those.  Today, he can't remember how to spell any of those words.  :(
     Enter a new school year, and a new principal.  At the end of last year, I was told that Nick gets more accommodations in class by being an ESL student than he would due to his ADHD.  That's good.  The downside is that he has no IEP.  The downside of that is that we start all over from scratch at the beginning of the school year.  The first MANY weeks of school are a total waste as the teachers scratch their heads and wonder what's going on with my kid.  They send him home with all normal sixth grade work, which he just cannot do.  He can't read it, and if he can make out a few words, he doesn't know what they mean.  Finally -- last week -- his language arts teacher figured out that she needs to scale down his work to a level he can do.  His math/science/homeroom teacher figured it out about a week earlier.
     All that being said, since Nick seems to not be able to do any of the homework being sent home with him, I made a decision last week myself that I will no longer fight the homework battle with him.  I have ordered some homeschool-type remedial materials for us.  
     I'm starting him with MathUSee at the alpha level for math.  I've signed him up for Explode the Code online for learning phonics.  Other than that, I'm planning to work on some very elementary spelling, and some cursive handwriting.  I plan to make a new after-school schedule for us to start out with next week. I'll let you know how that turns out!
    
    

Nick's 1 1/2 Years "Gotcha Day"

Today makes a year and a half since the day Nick woke up in his new bed in America after joining our family!  He has come a long way, baby!  And I don't just mean the 6,000 miles - ha! 

Nick has learned a lot about family and the love of Christ.  He asks kids (and adults) who will engage in conversation with him whether they are Christians (examples: the carpenter working in my laundry room and his guitar teacher).  Then he asks whether they go to church - lol!  He has learned that our family will never abandon him, which gives him a great source of comfort.  Although, he has asked me who would take him if David and I die and he's still a kid.  He knows that parents who love their children will discipline them when needed.  When a kid at school is a troublemaker or a bully, he always says, "Probly his mom and dad don't care about him."  WOW. 

However much my son can manage to get on my nerves -- and I DO let him know ;) -- he remains a precious child of God.  He has hopes, dreams, and aspirations just like any other kid.  He is a good kid -- a good little person. 

Here are the before/after photos of my handsome son, Nick.  The first is from when I first arrived at the orphanage in Ukraine for the adoption, January 2010.  The second is from the end of this summer, July 2011, at the host kids' farewell party.

Summertime Blues

Tolya

Zhenya

Dima (with Nick)

The Ukrainian host kids left today.  :(  The airport scene is not much fun.  I didn't have to go because one of the moms found a real translator, and another mom was traveling with the kids to Atlanta.  Turned out easier for me -- they had to be at the airport at 7:30 this morning.   (NHFC wanted them there by 7, but our airport is so small, nobody here thought that was necessary.)  The farewell party on Friday afternoon was nice -- pretty relaxing.  At least 2 of the kids have found "forever families!!!"  Dima's and Tolya's host families are pursuing adoption, and both boys have said they want to be adopted.  Zhenya also would like to be adopted.  He is a sweet kid; turned 13 while here; small for his age, and probably immature like so many orphanage kids are.

This is Nick's last week out of school.  It may just keep him alive - lol!  He is having a little problem with attitude and a smart mouth -- he argues and talks back to us.  At the farewell party, he was misbehaving.  When I corrected him, he argued with me that Tyler started it.  I told him to get out of the pool for a time out.  He muttered under his breath, and jerked his head around, showing his attitude all the way to the chair.  When I walked over to him to correct THAT behavior, he said something else smart-alecky.  I told him very calmly that he would now be grounded for a week.  He decided to carry that a little further with turning away and saying flatly, "Who cares??"  I just couldn't let that one go.  I quietly told him to dry off and come inside for his spanking.  GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!  I followed through with the punishment, then told him to calm down before going back outside to play.  Well, I "ungrounded" him yesterday because I just hated for him to be grounded this last week before school starts.  I am trying my best to exercise mercy, kindness, and gentleness with this child.  He is a sweet boy.  He is a good boy.  But, boy, is he ever aggravating!  ha!  I need prayers for patience with him, because I just suspect that as he becomes a teenager, this stuff won't get any easier with him.  He continues to talk to me, however, about how much he appreciates being in America and having the opportunity to have a family that loves him and takes care of him. 

We will be going to visit the fam later this week.  David has a meeting in Jackson on Thursday, so we'll drive up there Wednesday evening and stay the night, then head over to Tyler after the meeting. 

Nick and Tyler have been playing outside for hours today!  Love it!  They just came in about 20 minutes ago after running around with their bb guns for a few minutes, after having killed a snake (killed one Sunday at the restaurant after church, too).  It looked like a very young water moccasin, all stripey and dark colored, but Nick had already beheaded it, so I didn't get a look at that.  I think they tried to feed it to a spider.  They've been all about spiders and snakes the last several days!  ewwwwwwwwww!  These boys...

Tyler wanted a luau for his big #10 birthday party, so that was a lot of fun.  Teri came early, then Donald, Mama, and Becca (and Rachel) came late the next day.  The birthday is July 16, and this year happened to fall on a Saturday, so it worked out just right for him.  We smoked a pig, laid out the leis, and passed a good time at the cochon de lait!!!!

HOT days!

It was 103 today, and the boys were at soccer camp all day! yikes - how do kids do that??  They had a lot of fun.  Nick has a friend there from his soccer team, and another from school; Tyler has a friend from school, and several from both his soccer and baseball teams; so, they're happy.  I mowed the lawn, then jumped in the pool for a few minutes to cool off - aaaaahhhhhh - felt good.  I had lumbar epidural injections on Thursday for sciatica (grrrrrr), and Tyler had his procedure to open his blocked salivary gland the Thursday prior to that. Doc thinks he'll outgrow it.

The Ukrainian host kids are here for a few more weeks!  We hosted the welcome party at our house last weekend (we had about 50 people, I think).  Tyler's birthday party is Saturday - he wanted a luau.  Then, we are supposed to host the farewell party for the host kids two weeks after.  Meantime, the workers showed up last week to redo my laundry/mud room.  Soooo, the house is torn apart!  My washer/dryer are rigged up in the carport, and we look like some really trashy people over here - lol.

Nick's friend from the orphanage is being hosted by our friends.  Here is Dima (Dmitry) with our local friends

Summer is Here

This is Nick at his first crawfish boil, about a month ago.

...........................................

And boy, is it hot!  We're eagerly anticipating the arrival of the summer host kids from NHFC.  Just one more week until they get here.  Thankfully, there are six kids from Ukraine coming to this area, and they are able this time to fly into New Orleans, instead of having to be picked up in Atlanta or Houston.  I will be the "airport coordinator," and will be gathering the things that NHFC needs to have done.  I hope everyone has a great hosting experience.  It's NHFC's biggest hosting, yet:  202 kids from Latvia and Ukraine this summer - wow!!!!

Nick and Tyler both made it onto competitive soccer teams for this fall, and they are both pretty excited about that.  I'm not personally looking forward to it -- can you spell S-T-R-E-S-S??  They'll be playing out of two different clubs, too, so it makes it just that much more run-around.  And as much as I love baseball, I am so glad the season's over -- it was more stressful than fun this year.  Maybe it wasn't much fun because David stresses over it so much.  (I think he thinks our kids should always get top billing, whether or not they are the best player for a position.) 

I remembered another reason for my failure to blog a lot this spring:  did I mention that David had a heart attack March 6?  Mardi Gras weekend, on Sunday morning, he did 30 minutes on the elliptical, took his shower, got dressed, then started to fix breakfast as usual.  Suddenly, while standing at the stove, he started having all the classic heart attack signs:  dizzy, pain in his chest and left arm, radiating into his hand.  He took an aspirin, sat in the recliner, then decided to come find me (in the bathroom getting ready for church), so he sat in the recliner in the bedroom and said he didn't feel "right."  He told me all the symptoms he was having, and I asked him what he wanted me to do.  He said, "I guess you should call the hospital."  Well, I called 911 and had an ambulance come get him.  The paramedics said that he was having a heart attack, so I sent the boys to the neighbors' house, and followed David to the hospital.
     It didn't take long before the angiogram showed 5 blockages, including one that was 90-95% (in his "widowmaker").  They put in three stents, and ignored the two 40% blockages because they weren't involved in the attack.  He came home from the hospital that following night (Monday).  He's been fine ever since, but sure does take a lot of medication, now.
     David is not overweight, has perfect cholesterol, low-normal blood pressure, and does a cardio workout every day.  He has no family history except one uncle who had a heart attack in his 40's.  Six months earlier he had gone to the doctor saying he had occasional pain in his chest, jaw pain, and felt lightheaded fairly often.  The doc told him it sounded like he was having a heart attack, but that only an angio could tell for sure whether he had a blockage.  Because he is otherwise so healthy, he passed on doing the angiogram.  It probably would have detected his problem and prevented the attack. 
     What we did right:  called 911 instead of trying to drive to the hospital (what if I were driving and his heart had stopped?  I couldn't give compressions or help him quickly in that case); he took an aspirin (although he should have let it melt sublingually instead of swallowing it whole); he didn't delay in letting me know he was having a problem (he suffered NO heart damage because the attack was addressed quickly); he didn't deny that he could be having a heart attack; he exercises and eats right (we were told that his lifestyle probably kept this from happening to him in his 40's - he's 62).
     What we did wrong:  skipped on the angiogram 6 months ago.

I put Nick into summer school at Tyler's school for this week and next.  He is just sooooo far behind where he needs to be.  He needs a LOT of remediation to be able to do on-level school work.  Nick was terribly nervous about taking classes at this school, and I tried to reassure him, but he was convinced other kids would make fun of him.  We walked into the classroom, and there was only 1 other boy in there! woohoo!  He was truly relieved.  We've done some work at home this summer, too, but the offer to put him in real school was just what I needed.  We'll continue to do some stuff at home, but I want him to also have just a little fun this summer.