school work and cinema

I think the time difference is starting to take affect. We haven't recovered from the 7 hour time difference yet, and have been going on pure adrenaline since we've been here. So, this morning Mike and Viktorija slept until 9:45 (which his late for us). After a bite to eat in our apt, we started in on school time. Viktorija is doing better with her writing and spelling. But, she was getting pretty frustrated with the memorization of the basic alphabet. She gets the letters out of order, or may forget a couple of letters at times and the english pronunciation. I could sense that she was getting upset. She wants to please us. After we ended our session, she went into the other room by herself and studied. She didn't want to continue with Math until she had mastered what we were studying in English/spelling. I also gave her a Bible verse in order to work on her memorization. John 3:16. I asked her to memorize one line per day, to make it easier on her. After her alone time, she came back and recited 2 lines: John 3:16-For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son....
I'm really proud of how hard she is trying.

We ventured out to the cinema about a block away. They actually have a couple of movies in English, with Latvian subtitles. Viktorija said it was the first time she had been to the cinema in Latvia (we went to a movie in America last Summer). We had the theater to ourselves. Viktorija remindes me of my sister in terms of needing popcorn with every movie we watch (at home, or theater). She could be full from a prior meal, and somehow finds the room for popcorn:-) We enjoyed our outing. The temps were a bit above zero today, so it felt good to us.

Tonight for dinner Viktorija wanted to cook for us. She wanted spaghetti. We went to the store and I told her to pick out the items she needed for dinner. She picked up 4 packages of ramen noodles. I was a bit baffled, but she assured me that's what she needed. So, she fixed the noodles, without the seasoning, drained the water, and sure enough, we had "spaghetti". she poured sauce over the top of the noodles and we were set. It was actually pretty good:-) I didn't realize all the things you could do with ramen noodles!! It's a good, inexpensive meal. Hmmm.....maybe we'll be trying some of that when we get home too:-)

After dinner we retired to the living area for family game night. She said, "I like playing games with my family!". There was a moment when she and Mike were playing Hide and seek. Something made us start laughing, and once we started we couldn't stop. Tears were flowing down my face, and Viktorija was rolling (literally) laughing. Boy, that is good for the soul! She is pure joy.

Today she started her countdown to America. She is looking forward to seeing our pups and seeing her room. We are just looking forward to being togther as a family. It's so funny the things I think about that I want her to experience. I don't want to waste another minute with her!

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