Weekly Review

From the Heart

I just finished a heart-wrenching book, The Broken Cord, about raising a child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder. I saw so much of my Goldilocks (9) in the child in this book. I also saw a little bit of Tom Sawyer (8). We know that the birth mom drank heavily during both pregnancies, so even though only Goldilocks has been officially diagnosed with FASD, it seems likely that they both are affected, except in different ways. Although the book held no answers, it did reinforce some of the odd and often frustrating behaviors that plague our adopted children. My heart is filled with loss for the potential that their birth mother took from them with each swig of the bottle. I do, however, feel so blessed that both function as well as they do. There is hope for both of them having full (adapted) lives. We will keep up the struggle of teaching our children to work to the best of their potentialities.

On the Homefront

Little Red Riding Hood (6) was the first of the Littles to earn the right to her very own pet. Our kids are required to prove that they can be very gentle and patient with something small, agree to full care of a pet or it will be given away and save $8 to take care of the initial pet's food expenses. They also need to agree to continue to save money toward the pet's food. Little Red Riding Hood decided that she wanted a parakeet. Today, she got a blue one and named her Periwrinkle. After just a few hours, Little Red Riding Hood is already able to pet her bird's belly.

On the School Front

We are not currently in school but are doing our Summer Plan. I like to take a nice break from our normal routine during the summer, but I want to keep the kids fresh. So we do math, reading, and writing a few times a week. We also have some history to catch up on and will be doing an explorer unit study in the next few weeks. I decided to give the work box system a try with the kids this summer. We are only doing three boxes a day. The kids love them. Even Timothy has decided to do them and work on his editing skills, writing skills and life book (a book with directions of how to do things he may forget how to do).

Also, Little Red Riding Hood finished dance class for this school year. Her dance and theater studio performed Alice and Wonderland. She was one of the Cheshire kittens. The kittens were the youngest performers, and they did an awesome job. I hope to figure out how to put a video up of them later.

I hope you all have a blessed week.

Blessings, Dawn