Hello adoption blog world. It's been forever since the last post on October 27. It's so easy to fall away from posting. Life keeps us very busy, but life is very good at the Fritsche house! All three boys are doing wonderfully and Mom and Pop too.
Andrei amazes us every day. He has really thrived in the six months since coming home from Russia. We had our six-month post-placement visit toward the end of January and all went well. Andrei understands basically everything we say. Most of the time we understand everything he says. He's only gained a little over a pound since coming home, but he is definitely growing. He's a sweet little guy, almost always happy and smiling. He can definitely throw a bit of a fit when he doesn't get something he wants, but he gets over it quickly. Potty training is going well, but we have more progress to make. All in all we are very pleased with his progress! Things have gone well with his glasses. Unfortunately our crazy beagles got a hold of his glasses last week and destroyed them. He'll be getting his new pair this week.
Slav and Sergei love having their little brother. He is interested in the things they love to do like bey blades, Pokemon and angry birds. The boys are loving school, but looking forward to the summer. Slav has been working very hard on his reading. He has struggled a bit with that. He gets extra help from a teacher after school. Considering he made a full transition from Russian to English at age 5, I'd say he is doing well. Sergei has really excelled at reading. He was only 3 when he began learning English, so it comes easier to him than it does to Slav. We're very proud of all the boys. They're just growing up so fast.
The biggest news of late is that we've decided to host an exchange student next year. Those of you who followed our blog back when we were adopting may remember that we hosted Nadya from Cheboksary, Russia during the 2010-11 school year. Nadya was wonderful and we had such a great year having her in our home. The main reason we didn't host again right away the next year is that we were getting ready to bring Andrei home and we needed to be able to focus on him and the adjustments he would bring to our family. That was a wise decision, but now we're ready to welcome another Russian student into our home. The paperwork is done. We're just waiting for the Russian students to appear in the database and then we'll look for a good match. We definitely want to host a girl from Russia. Clarion doesn't need an increased male presence in our home! We will be working once again with American Councils for International Education, and we highly recommend their program. If anyone is interested in hosting and wants to know more about the program and what's involved, just send us an e-mail and we'd be glad to fill you in.
That's about it for now. We're planning a trip to visit family in Houston in May, just after school is out. We may do a bit more traveling here and there. We'll do our best to post a bit more frequently, especially as the less busy summer approaches. Blessings to all who are adopting, especially those traveling! It's been so much fun reading your blogs and remembering where we webouquet about a year ago, getting ready to go to Vlad to meet Andrei. God bless you all!
Love,
Joel, Clarion, Slav, Sergei & Andrei