days to weeks to months to...

Where has the time gone?  It's been so long that I don't know where to begin, so let's just jump in.

We're doing okay.  What does that mean?  It means we are meeting the needs of each day and remembering to love God and ask for His help every day.

Elaina is doing very well!  After being home only two years, she reads on a 2nd grade level and is beginning to write independently.  She loves God, ballet, Chinese school, and swimming.  She's sassy and fun.  She is our little fire cracker!

Victoria is learning about being in a family.  Her comprehension is very good!  Her speech is delayed and we have now learned that she has two speech disorders.  We are very hopeful for her speech improving.  We are very happy to hear her putting two and three word sentences together to let us know what she needs.  I think this will improve with therapy but also as she continues to trust us more. She's very pleased with herself when she's able to convey her thoughts to us.  Usually she flashes a big smile when she knows we 'got it'.

Victoria is impulsive when she's frustrated or angry (kinda' like her mom) and we are having quite a time teaching her socially acceptable ways to deal with her anger.  This is proving to be very difficult for me personally.  True to what many of the books say and what we've been taught in our adoption classes a lot of that anger gets directed at me.  This is what has been my blogging stumbling block.  I find myself frequently too tired or frustrated at the end of the day to do anything but fall into bed.

Her learning is improving and she can correctly count to 4, identify the numerals 1-4 and match them with the correct number of objects.  This is huge for us!  Tory has an uncanny sense for finding things.  She is my special gift to find my car keys, phone and glasses!  I don't know how I've gotten by so long without her!  Because of her, we are usually on time where ever we go because my searching for lost items is over. :)  Also, I'm very excited to say, that in the past several months she has shown very little interest in the stories we read together until this past week.  She now selects books throughout the day and 'reads' during reading time.  Same has been true for any video we might show her.  No interest until this week and now she has discovered that she loves Barney and Super Why!

Tory also loves ballet and was beautiful in her first recital.  She is fearless in the water (must focus on water safety this summer!) and wants to have school everyday!

Both of my girls have had difficult times to overcome but both are doing beautifully and I am so blessed by God to be a part of their lives.

My deepest thanks for all your prayers and encouraging words.  Thank you.