Major Family Adjustment

As everyone knows, life is always full of surprises....and so it is for some of us experiencing the inclusion of new family members to our households. Marina and Andrew have come a long way to be part of the Carpenter Clan and for that we are so grateful. This past week it was discovered that Andrew will need some additional help in behavior modification and will be recieiving therapy while he is in a special residence working with professionals qualified to assist children in post-adoption concerns. We all miss him so much but look forward to seeing him progress
thru this part of life on a more positive note.

Meanwhile, Marina is coming right along with her adjustments to new friends, church, school and of course her sports. She is a favorite at school and the children seem
to be drawn to her as she is such a vibrant, energetic and compassionate young lady.
At her last physical checkup she has grown taller and gained a few pounds (which is a good thing). She has gone from a size 10 girls to a 12-14 in the last few months!
Tonight, Marina is having a few of her girlfriends from school over for a 'sleep-over' and is pretty excited about all this....Wow....hope we ALL can get at least a few hours of sleep tonight!!! EArplugs will help for Greg and me.

Alaska is starting to get ready for its winter and so is Marina. Warmer clothes and
boots are all lined up in her new bedroom which we are remodeling for her. Thanks for visiting us again on this blog!

Soccer, Homework, Visiting grandparents

Another busy period has just past and more busy days ahead. Andrew and Marina's grandparents from Minnesota plus one of their uncles and aunts visited this last week and brought many, many presents for them....very lucky children! Marina has grown about 2 inches taller and gained about 8 lbs since returning here from Ukraine.
She attended her first dance at the youth center last week and danced with a boy. She looked so pretty when she got ready to go and a little anxious. When we picked her up after the dance she was beaming from ear to ear and had made many more friends and told us all about her 'first' boy-girl dance. She has such a beautiful smile when she is sooooo happy!

Andrew is busy each day after school with soccer and plays for his school. He and papa went to his first 'away-game' yesterday and even though Andrew's school didn't quite win the game - they learned a lot and plan to do even better next game. I baked a lot of chocolate chip cookies for the team and Andrew and papa sampled a lot of them I am sure. Andrew is having to really work hard on his homework and is trying to settle in to concentrating at school. He has never had parents watching his grades and helping him to do better. There are many behavior challenges for him at school and is learning that all his 'joking' doesn't always fit into an academic situation....so we are working with him on that.

English classes still continue for both children and Marina is doing a lot better. Since she is divided from Andrew more and more she is actually developing her own personality and becoming her own person....this is so important as she is finally feeling better about herself and is so loving and happy. Quite a 'social butterfly'.

We are doing chores today in order to get ready for winter. Right now Marina is playing with the two girls next door and Andrew is watching NASCAR racing with papa on cable tv. We went to church this morning as a family and had refresments afterwards at the church. Next month they start CCD at Sacred Heart CAtholic Church so along with school, church, sports, friends and fun there is not much time to sit around idle. More later.....hope everyone is as happy as we are!! Thanks for visiting us.