Maria's "Letter" about today - 1 year anniversary....

Mike just showed me this letter that Maria typed this morning. It is soooo cute and shows how much English she has learned this past year. Here are Maria's thoughts in her own words:

"Dear book this is my first year in the united states of America and we get to go some were with my family and I am so happy because I have a nice family and my grandma is liven with as and she help as with are homework and I told my mom that she was so nice and my mom helps my grandma with chores. And I have some friends from Guatemala their mane is Kevin and Claudia and Kelly they are adopt from some people that are my mom is friends and Kelly and Claudia and Kevin are my best friends and my brother max likes them as a friends because he play with them and I have two dogs name salty and pepper and they are very nice to people and they and that is way people like are dogs and my mom is name is Michelle and my dad is name is Michel and I love my family so much because we are so nice to people and I am 11 years old and my sister is 6 and I have three brothers that are 13 and 7 and 6 and my mom is 36 and my dad is 36 to like my mom I love my mom so much. Love Maria. And I have a brother name Mark that he likes to play games and his favorite games are Lego races and Mario and my other brother likes to play Mario to. And my sister and me like to watch Hannah Montana. And my sister is favorite movie is high school musical and my favorite movie is john is brother because they sing and they are so funny to. And I love my sister so much and my brother and my mom and dad and my grandma and Jesus so much more than everything and my dogs."

Well - today is our 1 year anniversary of bringing home Max, Maria and Matthew. It's called our "Forever Family Day" - and that first year sure did fly by!

I've attached a photo of us at a restaurant named "El Rancho Grande" close to our home. It was too funny to hear Maria say the name - she sounded like a total Gringo, almost with a southern accent! Her Spanish accent is almost completely gone. Max on the other hand still rolls his "r's" like a pro when he says anything in Spanish... but he too is forgetting some of his Spanish. I have enrolled him in a full year of again Spanish next year (as I will do with all of my kids!!!) and hopefully he'll retain most of his Spanish as he grows older - and hopefully all of my kids will learn or re-learn it!

Max is just too cool to smile for photos anymore - and Matthew is taking his "hip hop" stance! So funny to see these little personalities shine - each child is truely unique! Maria and Miranda have their normal big smiles on and Mark has a new smile - not sure what it is yet! They crack me up!!!

Maria said that it doesn't seem like it's been a whole year and I have a feeling this upcoming year will have a BIG impact on the three kids that just came home. So many things were a blur to them last year because everything was so new... so this year they can slow down, take a better look and learn more!

Thanks so all of you who have supported us in this big adventure we're on - and we look foward to more great adventures and the Hanavan M's x 7!

Check out the brochure (paper verstions were printed and mailed to 1000's of families a few weeks ago) - on page 1 you might spot Maria and on page 9, look for Matthew! These photos were take last year while they were at summer camp.

My kids are going again this year - session #2 - maybe your kids can go too?!?!

http://www.gmvymca.org/library/Camp%20Brochure%20Full.pdf

Let me know if you sign your kids up for summer camp too - my kids L-O-V-E-D it so much it's hard to explain!

-Michelle

Girls Dancing to High School Musical