Hello Tricia & Michel!Lera is writing. Do you remember me? I helped you
with M.By the way how is your things with orphanage?Is it all right?
How's your life in all? And your pets?
You asked me to teach M English so on Friday we had our first class.
She was suprised that there are a lot of languages beside Russian. Of
cours it is difficult to learn English for M (she is only 6) but we
are trying and I am sure we will make progress. M is really smart
girl! She learn alfabite from the first class!!!!That's great! She asks
about you all the time, she is missing for you and waiting....And I am
missing for you...
Please answer me....When you answer I will read this letter ti M.
P.S. Give my greetings to the WXXXXX. (The other family we traveled with.)
With love Lera.
At the orphanage we were fortunate enough to have two school girls from the high school help us with translation Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday. Our official translator - the girls English teacher - helped us with the official business Monday morning but then sent her students to help.
Having the girls worked out really well! I think it was much easier for M because the girl we were working with (Lera, age 15) was not as intimidating as our official translator. We also were able to talk about school life in Russia with Lera, and didn't feel as silly when we tried to practice our Russian with M.
We asked the girls if they would be interested in helping our children learn english - if it was OK with the orphanage. (I thought it was going to be highly unlikely the orphanage would agree to this.) But our coordinator said yes, and apparently the orphanage said yes, and this is the email we received today. We also heard from the other school girl (who translated for the other family), and she said that they have worked it out with the orphanage that they will come on Fridays and Sundays.
Wow! (And we can send messages to M!)
Adopt A Child.orgAdopting from Russia
Eastern European Adoption Coalition, Inc
Embassy of the Russian Federation
Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption
Karen's Adoption Links
Older Child Adoption
Russia Adoption Blog
Russian Adoption Medical Services
Russian Family Search
Russian Toys
Vernissage Press
Besides, it's going to be an amazing benefit to M to learn a little English from Lera. Even if she doesn't really learn any of the language, she's going to understand that she will learn a new language when she gets here. That's a benefit right there. I know Peanut was a bit surprised that no-one spoke Russian when he was here!
I would encourage you to work hard on your Russian too. Our kids didn't really talk at all but they understood most everything said in Russian. We worked hard to be able to meet their needs in Russian and both orphanage social workers mentioned this to the judge. We haven't had any communication issues since we've been home and both kids are learning english quickly.
Ronda