A Huge Milestone

Since we posted pictures of Hannah's first day of school NINE months ago, we thought it a fitting altar stone to post pictures of her last day.

God has so abundantly and lavishly answered so many prayers for Hannah this year! In all honesty, she has probably transitioned and inculturated better than anyone else. We prayed for her to have an English-speaking teacher, and she had one whose father is American. We prayed for her to pick up the language quickly. She is completely age-level fluent. (Her Italian is beautiful!) We prayed for God to provide her with some good friends. He has. Several. She has thrived in school--she has been appropriately challenged, where she wasn't as much in the States. It's been incredible what she's learned this year, and even more amazing that she learned it all in another language. In fact, our greatest concern now is keeping up with teaching her the English words for many of the things she's learned about (for example: parts of a tree, the names of the classes of animals, internal body parts, etc).
We can only look back in awe over the past nine months. We so clearly remember that first day of school and all of our fears and concerns. Cody and I will never forget that day! Nor will we forget how sweetly the Lord has cared for our daughter this year. We are privileged to have witnessed it.
In Italy, you remain with the same students and the same teachers (Hannah had four this year) for your entire five years in Elementary School. There have been some recent changes in the school laws that might dictate a new teacher next year (one instead of four), but we feel like her class has become a great family. It's fun to think of that already existing when she returns to school next September.

Until then, it's officially Summer Vacation (Gavin's preschool will actually go until mid-July though). We let Hannah have a day to do whatever she wanted on Friday, to celebrate all her hard work this year. She choose to stay in bed and watch movies all day! On Monday we will begin homeschooling in the areas she needs to stay up with for American schools. Spelling is going to be a huge hurdle. Italian is a completely phonetical language, so spelling is very easy. Hannah's found spelling in English to be a much greater challenge now--in fact, she often uses Italian spelling for English words. We'll also be doing some history and lots of reading. We'll confess our reluctance at first, but we're hoping for a great summer together. We're also really looking forward to a little vacation at the end of July.

Thanks for all your concern for Hannah this year! Thanks for all your prayers on her behalf. We hope you join with us in acknowledging God's gracious hand.