I cannot believe it has taken me so long to update our online journal! Our adoption agency CAWLI asked us if they could share our blog and that prompted me to get busy. I am thrilled to say that Haile is doing extremely well. Her english is coming along and although she has an accent, most of the time we have no problems comminicating. We placed her in first grade and she is doing great. She is an excellent speller and is even reading simple books. Her teachers are amazed by her and clearly have done an excellent job helping her adjust to school. She has ESL three times a week and will probebly not need it beyond this year. Her classmates have been very sweet and helpful especially in gym class when she gets confused about directions. I have to say that I have been so thankful that her school experience has gone so well. She still wants me to walk her to her class every morning. I know that this will not last, so I am enjoying it while it does. Emilia and Haile are typical sisters. They have allot of fun together, but also have their moments of misunderstanding. As Haile's language has gottent better they have become closer. From the beginning Haile's social skills were pretty good. It took some time for her to understand our family rules. We still sometimes get stuck on tatteling on your siblings, but overall she is with the program. Griffin and Haile's relationship has taken some time to grow and I would say they have turned a corner in the past few weeks. She even admitted that she loved Griffin. This is a long way from where they were at over the summer. For his part Griffin has finally come to terms with having three sisters and has decided that Haile can be fun on occasion. Madeline continues to be a great big sister when she is paying attention. Middle school has kept her busy. Haile is getting better about eating American food. I do make a fair amount of lo mein and fried rice, but thats fine with me. She still loves eggs and bacon every morning and has developed aa love of mint chocolate Ice cream. I am going to update our pictures so that you can see how far she has come. I have to say that parenting Haile has been rewarding and joyful She has reminded our family to find happiness in the simple things. Tonight she experienced her first snowfall and her enthusiasm lured everyone out of the house at 7:00 at night for a snowball fight. It does not get better than that for our family!