God's Butterfly Kisses: 9/30/11

The weeks just seem to get away from me as it has been one month since my last entry! I really thought that I would get better at this once the kids were all in school. I guess I am still playing "catch up" with everything that I put on the back burner from the past year.

We are surviving the new school schedule as everyone is now in the swing of things. We have been to "Back to School Night" for all the children and all are doing great!

Derek is still living with us and is doing well. He is in the process of getting his USA Hockey Referee Certificate. He attended an 8 hour seminar last week and needs to take his on line test before he can start officiating level 1 hockey.

Kalista has been in school about one month and has made the adjustment to middle school without skipping a beat! She even rides the bus now, which she has never done! We didn't have that option in Montgomery and last year we lived close to the school so she walked. She dances 6 hours a week with competitions starting in the spring. In addition to that, she has joined JMC (Junior Moving Company) at her middle school. She is taking a break from guitar for a few months, but continues to practice and play daily. She will be performing 2 songs at a local coffee house on November 13th.

Jager is really liking Kindergarten! He truly was ready for school and is enjoying the all day Kindergarten program! He likes his teacher and is in a class of 14 students, 7 boys and 7 girls. I love everything about this program including the uniforms! My only struggle is what to pack in his lunch. He plays soccer on Saturday mornings for fun and is really into Star Wars, Power Rangers and Ninja's right now.

Isla is in a 3 year old pre-school program at Jager's school. I drop them both off at 7:30 in the morning so our day starts bright and early! She is there 4 hours, Monday through Friday and is doing awesome! The program is "structured", which Jager needed. I wasn't sure about Isla, but I think we made the right decision. Her teachers love her and she loves them! We are in the process of having Isla evaluated through our public school system again for her speech and language development. She is doing great at home, but her pre-school teacher seems to have some concern. Isla went through this process 6 months ago and was not eligible. The recommendation was to review Isla in 6 months, which is now. So I am anxious to see the outcome this time around.

We have our one year post adoption appointment with our social worker next week. I am really excited about this as we are finally able to fill out the paperwork to legally adopt Isla in the state of MA. This will also give Isla her legal name change and make her a US Citizen!