The Hanks Gang: That's All? Just 4 Months??

August 4th was Sara's 4-Month Anniversary being home. It just seems longer... I don't know why... but I really thought it was much, much longer.

After the first couple of weeks being home, we began School. It was kind of a bummer... (since it was summer)... but she really WANTED to start, so we did.

She is like a sponge! While we were in Guatemala, she truly impressed me with her penmanship, her ability to draw and she could spell so many of her friend's names. However, once we started school... it was quickly apparent that she could only recognize about 6 or 7 letters. So we scrapped our original plans of placement tests... and we began back at square one.

As I said... she is a SPONGE. Already, before her 4-month anniversary, she has been able to learn all the letters, she can count to 100+ (I usually get tired of listening and get her to start doing a new "task"), she can add and subtract single digit problems... and she can read. It might be your basic 3 and 4 letter words... but seeing the look of complete joy and excitement on her face as she read her first BOOK... it was worth all the hard work. In these photos... Laura (aka DaDa) came to the office to help me with a few pronunciation issues that we were having. It was a nice change of pace for Sara - and Mom loved not being the "bad" guy for a change. :) In these photos, you can also see Ali working diligently on her work. She is an amazing student... and has applied herself this year with amazing dedication and even stronger determination. (Rachel begins Kindergarten September 1st... stay tuned...)

All of our children LOVE to do their school work. They ask to do it the first thing every morning... and they would continue to do it all day if you let them. I like keeping all their workbooks in their backpacks so that when we are DONE... school is put away and they can concentrate on PLAYING!!!

In areas that are not school-related: Sara's vocabulary has really grown... she is doing so well! Sometimes it's hard to forget that she doesn't "get" everything, but we live with her, so we usually can tell. However, every now and then we encounter people that forget that she doesn't completely understand English... and it can be a little frustrating for her.

She has also made an almost seamless transition into our home! She has a few small issues that other people warned me might happen with older-child adoption, as well as some that we have experienced before...but despite these very small things... she has done FABULOUS! In the beginning she was determined to quit speaking Spanish... but she has really started to understand and embrace it a little more... and she seems more determined to retain as much as possible.

We are so blessed - she is such a joy to have in our lives! It seems like she has always been here - so, it's actually hard to believe that she had an entire "other" life away from us for 8 years. In that respect... we sometimes forget and take for granted that she wasn't always HERE WITH US. But I pray we never take for granted the amazing gift that she is to our life NOW. We are blessed! God has blessed us with four beautiful, wonderful, incredible children... and we are so thankful for these precious gifts!