[sheabear]

Hi All'
My husband and I are planning to adopt 2 children from Russia. One child 4 or 5 years of age, the other 1 or 2 years. The question I have is, When you meet an older child you will be considering adopting, What do you say to them. other then hi. (we are learning some Russian). It may sound strange, but I just want to be prepared. I have no idea what they even tell the child for the meeting. Thanks for any info you can give me

[Bogota Girl]

We adopted a 12-year-old girl from Colombia, South America, who came without any English.

I did have a bit of Spanish to work with, but I learned some key phrases that I knew I wanted to say when I met her.

Mostly though, I just spoke in English. I concentrated on the tone of my voice being loving and welcoming. We took a back pack full of girlie goodies. Basically I guess that sort of did a lot of talking for us. One by one we pulled the things out and I repeatedly said "for you". I continued to touch her and help her, smiling all the while.

You'd be amazed how much you can communicate through hand gestures, body language and facial expressions.

I was very very nervous about our first meeting and what would I say, how would we manage. The worry was all for not. It really was rather easy.

Touch....just touch and hold them.

[Jen_in_OH]

We are adopting two from Russia (2-ish & 4 -ish), and we wonder the same thing. We are trying to learn the basics like hungry, thirsty, toilet, and of course, "I love you." Fortunately, it will be easier for the children to learn English than for us to learn Russian. Our IA doctor believe the 4 year old will likely know a little English by the time the plane lands. At that age, their brains are like little sponges. My brain is a little more dried up.

[kjharris]

I sent both of you a PM.

[randloar]

Hi there,
We are adopting in Kaz, and wanted to learn some of the language (although we are hoping for younger than 2 year olds, so the talking part will be different). But we got this cd, and it has lots of "phrases" that you may like to learn in Russian. The site is at: http://internet.roadrunner.com/~fdd/index.html and we have liked using this (better than the regular Pimsluer type stuff).

I do think there are other "adoption cd's" out there, but this is the one we ran across first. There are phrases like "I am your mom/dad", "I love you", "are you hungry", etc that could be helpful and comforting to a ~5 year old that you will be meeting. This doesn't address your question directly of "what do we say" but may arm you with some things to say once you get past the first scary/exciting meeting!

[gr8texpectations]

I think I would ask if they could teach you how to play tic-tac-toe. I was surprised to see taht game & hangman chalked on the sides of the apt bldgs & sidewalks.