Preparations in the dark

I wish I knew why it all has to go so slowly!

I know that our paperwork has been picked up, but I haven't heard a word about how the translation is progressing or if we need to redo any of the papers to better align them with current requirements.  It is hard for me not to fret and wonder...

My oldest finished the work portion of his Eagle project and is writing up the final report.  He is also starting to process his paperwork for his application to serve a two year mission for the Lord as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.  So much is happening in our lives right now!

I have an ever enlarging pile of "things to pack" mushrooming in my bedroom.  Apart from clothing and toiletries, most of the things we will need are gathered together.  We have a large bag of things to do with our girls -- activities, crafts, books, toys, etc.  Looking through that bag makes it all seem more real, and makes waiting a torture!

I have been thinking about language acquisition the last couple of days.  Experts say that children adopted from a foreign-speaking country don't become bilingual when they are adopted and begin learning the language of their new family -- they become learners of a second first language.  This is a critical difference because they quickly lose their first language and then don't have anything to use as a foundation for future language growth.  They cannot go home and continue developing their first language with parents as an ESL child does but have to start over, like a baby almost, with receptive language and then halting communicative language in the new tongue.  There is no scaffolding to compare new skills with pre-established or pre-understood language functions.

The outcome of this is often a language delay.  Even if a child learns an adequate or comparable number of words, s/he doesn't easily grasp language intricacies and lags behind peers.  So I have been thinking about how to combat this.  The best idea that I have come across thus far is to pretend, to some extent, that our children are like toddlers and to play with language the same way I did with my little ones as they were developing.  We need to play with language, rhyme, joke, have conversations, read as much as possible, and I need to be willing to explain and teach and spend a lot of time exploring sights and sounds and textures with our new daughters.  It will be an adventure!

Next week I will go in to our local elementary school and see what kinds of programs they have for girls like mine that aren't ESL but truly adrift with a new tongue.  I have thought that I would homeschool both of them for the first year, but it will be good to see what they have available in the school system.  I also need to start looking into homeschooling options and see what the requirements are.  So many new things to learn!

Things are good, but I sure hate waiting!