Moving Forward

Abby & Sam are in school full time now. Abby is doing great. She is still shy, but has made friends and is learning academically. Her best subject is Math, but is enjoying meeting with
Mrs. Pasquel who is her English Second Language Teacher. She also likes to do homework which is not normal for our family. Her and Zoe are the only two who we don't have to fight to get it done! Today she got to go on her first field trip on a school bus. We live a couple blocks from the school, so this was her first time. I am not sure what she thought of the play the went to see, but she thought the bus was awesome.

Sammy on the other hand does not want to go to school. He feels his time would be better spent watching The Chronicals of Narnia. Once he gets there he usuailly does pretty good, but to get him out of bed and ready to go is like pulling teeth. Ok pulling teeth might be easier! His teacher has had to pull from the staff to get additional help to keep him on task. He is making friends and everyone wants to help him and hang out with him. It is not school that is the problem so much as submitting to authority; he is not dangeriously deffiant but he certainly has a strong will. We knew going into this that Sam's will is what kept him alive for so long, his lack of family relationships, and selfreiance would alsi be issues that would have to be over come. Considering that he has only been home 2 months Sam has made incredible strides, he has sadly had to start many, many things later than a child should and some behavior patterns will be hard to relearn.

This past weekend we were invited to visit the local ethiopian church. It was educational and the kids had a great time. The people were very accepting and friendly everyone was willing to extend extra grace to us when we didn't know protocall for different things. All in all we are pleased we went it was good for all of us in different ways. We didn't learn much spiritually as it was all in Geeze or Amahric but we all serve the same God and that is what is important!