The kids finished their first day of school.

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We got through the first day of school. Alex had to change one of his classes to Drivers Ed. He had his 18th birthday on July 26th and we thought it would be best for him to learn at school before he graduates. Alex tells us that all the boys at his orphanage dream of fast and expensive cars. They dream about cars they know they will never have a chance to own. Alex carved two cars out of wood while he was at the summer camp in Ukraine. He showed us the cars he made when we first met him. He did a nice job and when we went to check him out of the orphanage after our 10 day waiting period, we asked for the cars. Alex had given them to his director as a gift. We were touched by his thoughtfulness. Last year, Alex took a sculpting class and made an alligator and a corvette. He is very creative. His art class was exhibiting the students artwork and Alex was asked by his teacher to bring his art pieces to school. She asked him 3 times and sent a note home for us. Alex did not feel comfortable to show the sculptures. He felt like he was showing off. His Dad convinced him that it would be helpful for the other students to see different styles and may encourage them to try their hand at doing some art too. Alex agreed and he won a ribbon for his corvette. The green ribbon was for an"Awards of Excellence". In his Wood-shop Class he made an electric guitar which he learned to play. We don't know what to expect this year but he kind of hinted at making something for us for Christmas since he signed up to Wood Shop class again. This time he will be paying his own fees for the class since he was able to earn some money this summer. Kristina is attempting Middle School. We talked to her at the end of last year about how different 7th grade would be from 6th grade. She had a distorted idea of what 7th grade would be like. Maybe she was thinking it would be more social and less school work. Kristina spent most of her summer at Challenger, learning as much as she could since she only had 1 year of school in Ukraine. Not even 1 year, part of that year she spent in the hospital. She was reminded about how we discussed, how much harder that 7th grade is than 6th grade and that we could not do her homework for her. She started with the tears and tried her best to answer the questions verbally. Not even close, but she tried. We told her to try to read her assignments 2 or 3 times over (she loves to read) and try to remember key words. Kristina has an amazing memory and remembers which page something is on. She is extremely detail oriented. Although she is smart, she tends to be lazy. Sometime, we just wish she could remember most of the school work stuff instead of the fun stuff. She loves to tell us about her Ukraine life which we've learned so much about her and we are still learning. They both are very comfortable telling us about themselves and will answer any questions we have. We love that they both have no trouble getting up in the morning for school. Alex gets up at 5:00 am and Kristina at 5:30 am. As we sit here blogging, Alex and Kristina decided to go to sleep at 8:40. What a nice surprise for us.