A few more questions

I'm adding a few more questions to the FAQ, after fielding them quite a few times in the past few days.

What do your other kids think about the adoption?
Honestly, they have a wide range of reactions. Our oldest seems pretty enthusiastic; his compassionate, justice-oriented side really wants Alex out of there. Our next oldest ("Mouse") has been much more ambivalent...she likes the family the way it is, and worries how this might change things. Seems like a reasonable worry. But she is also very tender-hearted, and we expect that she will probably warm up to Alex once he's here. Most of us are afraid of the unknown, and she's no different.

Our six-year-old daughter has been enthusiastic, bringing his name up at prayer most nights, but today had sort of an ambivalent reaction when someone asked her this question. Our two-year-old is totally cluelessm but he has a pretty laid-back personality, so we expect him to adjust fine. Although they recommend that you NOT adopt out of birth order...oops...well, we'll make it work anyway.

Does Alex know about you?
We don't  know for sure what Alex has or hasn't been told, but we'd be very surprised if anyone told him that he had adoptive parents waiting for him, for the simple reason that nothing is finalized yet, and until things do get finalized, there's always a chance that it could fall through. How discouraging would that be!

How are you going to handle the language barrier?
Our good intentions are to learn Russian in our spare time (seriously!) -- at least a few useful words and phrases. Also, we have a neighbor down the street who speaks passable Russian (five years in college), as well as at least two fluent Russian speakers who are colleagues of Susan's. We figure we can bring these folks in occasionally to explain things to Alex and to field any questions he may have. Finally, we're told by our social worker -- and this is something I've witnessed myself -- that children of this age typically acquire their new language within six months. So we're not talking about a long-term barrier here!