tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8086326555364920020.post3140352531381234837..comments2010-04-13T20:04:59.363-05:00Courthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12105888282857875859noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8086326555364920020.post-28691064073497929552010-04-13T20:04:59.354-05:002010-04-13T20:04:59.354-05:00We adopted from Romania in 1997. While it&#39;s nice if you have a translator available, what you should do is learn all the kid phrases you need - Are you hungry? Thirsty? Tired? Do you have to go to the bathroom? Yes. No. That&#39;s dangerous/hot/cold. The first word I taught our daughter was &quot;Yuck&quot; - I thought the thing a kid would REALLY want to be able to tell you is when they don&#39;t like something or want something. Do you want to go outside? Inside? Stop. [That&#39;s really important]. Also the names of your child&#39;s favorite foods. I was lucky in that, while we were waiting for our appointment at the Consulate, our daughter met some very nice older children who were learning English at school, &amp; I learned a lot of the words I needed to know from them [it was summer &amp; they weren&#39;t in school; they were learning English at school &amp; were much better at it, at age 10-12, than our agency&#39;s personnel]. Anyway, by the time we went home our daughter [4 then] knew she could teach me words she thought I needed to know.<br /><br />But about the child sent back to Russia: before we adopted internationally, we registered to adopt from a state in the US. We were told all their children available for adoption come with serious baggage, &amp; there are virtually no infants available because even if they&#39;re removed from an abusive/neglectful home as infants, by the time the birth family&#39;s rights are terminated, they are mostly no longer infants. <br /><br />People with experience in international adoptions say that 75% of the kids who&#39;ve been in orphanages longer than 2 years have neurologically-based issues. Yes, our daughter does, too. Fortunately for us, they&#39;re all in the form of mild physical impairments &amp; learning disabilities; she&#39;s never raged, been violent, or mentally ill etc.<br /><br />There are newsgroups for parents of adoptive children where you can get help from people who&#39;ve been there, done that, &amp; gotten the t-shirt, should you need it. Schools are NOT prepared to educate children with multiple learning disabilities - our daughter had to go a school for kids with LD to learn to read &amp; I&#39;m home-schooling her for high school. I learned what to do from newsgroups.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8086326555364920020.post-64992522333182389822009-09-02T22:33:35.958-05:002009-09-02T22:33:35.958-05:00Wow, guys! I had no idea Russian adoption was SO expensive. Our adoption will probably cost half of this, and we&#39;re adopting two. We&#39;re going to be praying for you guys like crazy! I&#39;m putting up a post right now with an update on our yard sale, and I&#39;m posting a link to your website in there! - Amy (and David) Watson<br />(www.EthiopiasCalling.blogspot.com)Amy @ Literacy Launchpadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17739013673083340984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8086326555364920020.post-64887366618613483952009-06-15T20:41:42.428-05:002009-06-15T20:41:42.428-05:00I am so excited for you guys and look forward to hearing all the updates. We will gather some of our stuff and bring it to the garage sale!!Cathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17294374785845440633noreply@blogger.com