About Our Family

El Paso, Texas, United States
We are James, Lisa, Patrick, Christian, Carson, and Ella Payne a military family serving our country via service in the U.S. Army. Jim and I have been married for 18 years and have 3 wonderful home grown sons -Patrick, Christian and Carson. We recently adopted our beautiful daughter Ella Grace Ana from Donets'k, Ukraine in September. Jim and I began our Army life together at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas and every assignment thus far has extended unique opportunities and challenges for our family to grow and learn; to become a stronger, committed, and a prepared Army family. Having recently lived abroad for six amazing years, we cannot express how thankful we are for the opportunity to have represented our great country and to discover the cultures and customs of other countries; to become close to the people and learn from them; to open our hearts and minds to the unfamiliar languages and way of life in other countries. Having now moved back to the United States, we are looking forward to discovering what new adventures await our family. Rest assured, wherever the Army sends us we will continue to serve you and our country proudly. Army life, we wouldn’t trade it!

March 11, 2009

Feeling Better

Finally we are all feeling better and back on our feet and into our routine.
Ella had her eye appointment yesterday and she was/is on the edge of not needing glasses. The opthamologist would not have prescribed them for her IF she didn't have stigmatism in her right eye. Today, we went to pick out her frames and she will wear her new glasses for 6 weeks. She will then revisit the opthamologist for a reevaluation.
We are back into a full day of school with much success! The boys jumped right in and didn't complain one bit.
Ella still doesn't like to sit and trace her name, letter, numbers or colors. She cries as if I am punishing her. I have tried to give her a treat if she completes it and I have tried multiple ways of helping her learn to write without much success. She does well with repeat learning but writing/tracing is a struggle.
I hope to post some pictures in the next couple of days.

3 comments:

junglemama said...

Glad to hear you are all feeling better. Ella is still young. Keep working with her. Maybe have her try trying letters in a pan of rice or salt. Anyway, just stopping by to say hi!

The Flying Eagle said...

So glad you all are all better! When Garrett first came home he HATED tracing letters and he would purposely be all crazy with it. I bought this book at Wal-Mark for ages 3-5 Tracing. It starts off with mazes........ loved it! Then it really tricks them into letter foundation, up lines, down lines, curves, circle. They think they are playing and don't even know they are building writing foundations. GREAT! He loves it know. Within a month he was writing his name, all his letters and loves tracing everything. It was definitely the mazes for him and they are so fun and colorful. Hope it helps!
dmag4 dot blogspot dot com

Anonymous said...

Hi Lisa.

Go to www.starfall.com. It is fun, teaches phonics, letters, numbers, sequence, etc. Give her coloring books and show her how to trace the lines of the simple figure before she colors. If she is still unwilling to trace, then just let her color and encourage her to do her best work. If you take those books with her everywhere, she may just become attached to them. Have her brothers color with her and they can demonstrate what "best work" is. Don't worry about the letter/name thing. She probably did not get much of an opportunity to work her fine motor skills during the first few years of life. If it is still a worry for you, have her evaluated by an occupational and physical therapist in the school district or at the military hospital. She is supposed to begin school this Fall, right? If you bring attention to your worries now, then by the time she starts school, it can already be noted in her file and help will already be lined up for her. I know it is frustrating but you are doing an awesome job. Keep up the good work and hug your precious little shopping buddy.

Have fun,

Tammy

This is our "spot" we began at the beginning of our journey in May 2007, to adopt a child from Ukraine. In August 2008, we traveled to Ukraine to bring our daughter/sister Ella Grace Ana home; and on September 12, 2008 we did just that.

While our journey to bring her home is complete, our journey together is just beginning. We will continue to keep our spot here, posting as frequently as we can; and keeping you updated on our next journey in life...maybe a second adoption is in our future.

Please join us by following us by clicking on the "Follow" link to the left and posting your notes at the bottom of any post we have made.

Recently Visited