Abigail is beginning to be able to write short English sentences. We asked her some of the books she was reading with her teacher's help. Here is the list (I fleshed out the info, we just got titles during the text session):
Through the Bible in Felt – Betty
Lukens
In a People House – Dr. Seuss (Ages 2-5)
Let's Visit the Zoo – Harcourt Early
Reader (Grade 1)
A Rainbow of Friends – P.K.
Hallinan (Ages 3-5)
Never Ride Your Elephant to School
(Preschool – Grade 2)
The Day Papa Came Home – Barbara
Justus and Caroline Starbird
Baseball Blackout – Scooby Doo
Picture Clue Book #6 – Level 1 (Ages 4-8)
Meet Big Foot – Scooby Doo
Picture Clue Book #12 – Level 1 (Ages 4-8)
Treasure Hunt – Scooby Doo
Picture Clue Book #13 – Level 1 (Ages 4-8)
As you can see, she is working with Kindergarten through 2nd grade books on English reading right now. She just finished sixth grade in her own country. We don't know how quickly she will catch up with English reading. Will it be faster than learning reading in her original language? Possibly she will, because she already knows the words, just in a different language, rather than learning the concept of sentences, paragraphs, etc. for the first time. We are hoping she will be at a strong 3rd grade reading level by the end of the summer. Her tutor that we hired is doing a great job, and we are glad that they have the resources (English language books) from which to teach her. I am sure that helps a lot more than simple word lists.
We do not yet know what grade we will place her in for school here. There are a lot of reasons to place her in seventh grade when she gets here, one of which is so that she stays on age with her peers. But we will decide that in conjunction with the advice of the school, once she is here and we meet with the administrators.
We don't have any new information regarding the adoption process itself. We are still waiting on a government signature, then a court date, then 2nd trip to pick up Abigail and bring her home. We are hoping now that the second trip will be early to mid-August, but it could hit as late as October depending upon the timing of the government processes. Praying that we will have patience to last another four months of waiting if need be! It has already been three months since we last saw Abigail, and the wait is very rough for all of us.
Thanks for your prayers.
