One Month

We have been home for just about a month now and Galina "Hope" is doing great. She has had all of her testing at Children's Hospital and we are awaiting results. In the meantime, she has learned many words that she can say in English and many more that she understands. Her comprehension is amazing! We have also continued to learn many words in Russian as a family to help us communicate with her better and, as a result, everyone is adjusting quite well. Benjamin knows more Russian than Chad at this point and it is quickly becoming his second language. We are so proud of him ... he has been such a great big brother!

On the advice of the international adoption specialist at Children's Hospital, we have been keeping Galina's world "small" to help her to anticipate and understand her new world better. Keeping visitors at a minimum, making sure the calendar is not full of activity and providing as much consistency in our schedule as possible will help her to develop trust and create an environment where she feels secure as she learns what to expect from daily life and attach to her new family.

After spending a few weeks alone with "just" us, she has met all of her grandparents and has begun meeting aunts, uncles and cousins in small groups in preparation for our family gatherings over the holidays (we wanted her to see each person at least once before seeing them all together at Christmas). Our doctor felt it would be best to focus on family relationships first and wait awhile longer to introduce friends outside of family. This will give her a chance to bond with them first, which is something that normally happens over time for children who are born into families. Here is a great article about helping an "older child" adjust (any child over two years old at adoption is considered "older"). It may help explain some of the things we are doing to help Galina in these first few weeks and months.

10 Tips After Your Older Child Is Home

We would like to thank everyone for understanding the boundaries we've established for Galina as I know there are many of you (and your children) who are super excited to meet her and disappointed to have to wait some more! We are super excited for you to meet her, too, and it is just as hard for us to say no when all we want to do is share her with everyone who has prayed for us and waited along side us for her to finally come home! It will be worth the wait to give her the best possible start to her life with her new family.