Well - school was a slight problem again but not because of Deniss. This time, we got a nasty letter from the school saying that they would take Deniss off the roles if we didn't give them his social security number by the middle of October. Well - that is a problem because we don't have one. We can't get his SSN until we get his citizenship papers. We can't get his citizenship papers until his "swearing in" ceremony on October 26. So - I had to go to school today and sign a paper saying that I objected to giving his SSN. Crazy stuff! Here he is in this country legally but they give us a hard time! Go figure.

Anyway - the school is happy for now. Hopefully we will get his papers in October. So much depends on that. We need the SSN for school, for taxes, for him to get a learners license, for getting a passport etc. Life just revolves around those numbers.

Robin

More school stuff

Yesterday Deniss and I met with the ESOL teacher and guidance counselor. Deniss is really beginning to believe that people want to help him. He comes out of these meetings very excited about getting a good education. He told me yesterday that when he was in Latvia he did not care so much about school. Now he thinks he can get a good education and eventually a good job. I think it is exciting that a 15 year old can see the value in having better opportunities. He sees that staying in Latvia would have been easier right now but not so good for the rest of his life. I am not so sure I would have been able to see the value in that when I was 15. But then, I always had parents and teachers looking out for my best interest. I get the feeling that maybe even the teachers in Latvia didn't put a lot of effort in the "orphanage" kids. Deniss seems amazed that these teachers seem to care so much about helping him.

Robin

School stuff

Yesterday Deniss and I had a meeting with his guidance counselor and all of his teachers. Well - it was supposed to be all but the most important one - the ESOL teacher was a no show. Anyway, it was a good meeting. Deniss was very nervous about it before hand. He had certainly never had a parent going to bat for him before. All meetings with teachers before were never for good reasons. I kept reassuring him that this was a good meeting - meant to find ways to help him.

When we left - he was happy. He now feels like we are mostly all on his side! (There is one teacher that wanted to only say his piece and not listen to what we had to say so I am a little concerned about him). But - for the most part, I think we found some ways to make the language barrier a little easier for Deniss. They are going to find a buddy for him in a couple of classes to read questions to him and write down his answers.

Hopefully the ESOL teacher will call me today for a rescheduled appointment. I really need some guidance on how to teach Deniss to read and write in English. I am not a trained teacher so my attempts are missing the mark a bit right now.

Anyway - we all have a lot of work to do to help Deniss. He is a great kid but understandably gets very frustrated and overwhelmed trying to learn in English.

Robin

Friday night, Deniss and I spent the night in Duluth before the Atlanta Cup started on Saturday. His first game was at 8AM. Deniss talked non-stop the whole way up there. We covered a lot of topics, including people getting sent to Siberia from Latvia and the Holocaust.

His team lost both games on Saturday but he was really excited that they were playing better as a team. The boys are a hodgepodge group of 14 and 15 year olds from different soccer clubs, so it took a little while for them to become a real team. They won their game on Sunday.

Between games on Saturday, first I made Deniss go to a scrapbook store with me. Believe it or not, he had a little fun with that. Then we went to the Mall of Georgia. He had never been in a large mall before. We bought some new soccer cleats for Deniss and some new shoes for me. We had a lot of fun just being together. Again, Deniss did a LOT of talking.

Ken and I called each other on our cell phones during the games. Aaron was playing in Fayetteville. Aaron's team won the first game and lost the second. They won their game on Sunday when I was there. Aaron scored two goals over the weekend.

Monday we went to the New World of Coke in Atlanta. We had some family fun. Now we are all back to our daily grinds. Thankfully, it will be a four day week!

Robin