Our daughter, Korina, has been with us for a little over a month now; it's incredible, but it's like she's changed overnight.

From a scared, uncertain little waif, Korina has turned into a rather shy, quiet child with a sweet personality. She is getting used to us, her new home, her new country; and she has learned her first words in English: "Mamma, I lub you" ("Mamma, I love you"), "Ko'ina" (her name), "Daddy", and "Buh-bye". She's also learned to say "Bottle", "Hungry", and "Go-bet" (her word for bed). It's really sweet to hear her speaking in English, with words we can understand.

Now, Korina still doesn't like the ongoing physical therapy: it's still a battle of wills between child and therapists; yet we know it is necessary if she wants to get stronger. To hear her screaming during her sessions is nothing but torture to us; we are never so glad as to when her sessions have ended for another day!

Korina is ambulating better on her crutches, leg braces; she no longer drags herself. She is getting around better, and it pleases us.

Korina is getting used to her brother Kensington and her sisters Kaylie and Kristmas; but like all siblings, they tend to fight (mostly when they squabble over a favorite toy or go to switch the television to a different program). Whenever the kids fight, we put them all in time out, including Korina.

We don't let Korina get away with anything just because she's the youngest or just because she's disabled. If Korina acts up, she gets punished too, just like her sisters and brother. She has got to understand the family rules of the house, and why we don't allow the kids to do or see certain things; and if they act up, they can be counted on to get disciplined for it.

Christmas was a good example of this. Kaylie got an iPOD for Christmas, and Korina wanted to play with it; she'd never seen anything like it; it fascinated her to no end. Yet she kept trying to take it from her sister, and her sister  howled. That's when Kaylie hit Korina over the head with the remote control.

Of course, you can imagine Korina's reaction. She cried. She screamed. She went into total meltdown, and we ended up having to put her into her room until she could learn to behave herself. There was no way we were giving in to her temper tantrum; we wanted to show her who was in charge.

It was pure-t madness, but it wasn't long before Korina calmed down and she was soon the happy child she was prior to the fight over the iPOD.

The lights and Christmas music fascinated our daughter: she had never seen, experienced anything quite like it; it mesmerized her. Everything she got for Christmas--the soft, furry teddy bear, the new clothes, the children's music CD's, and the dollies--fascinated her; she couldn't quite grasp the notion that the toys belonged to her, but once she understood it, she became very possessive of them.

She still is very possessive of her things. If Kristmas, Kensington, and Kaylie tried to look at her stuff, Korina would give them a look and/or whine angrily.

We will have to learn to teach her how to share or else there's going to be a huge problem down the road.

One step at a time--that's how it is with Korina Grace; yet we can't imagine our family without her. In the short time she's been with us, she's already managed to wrap her ltitle self around our hearts, and we have fallen helplessly in love with her. We see her not as an adopted child; we see her as our daughter, first and foremost.

~The End.~

We will be writing more down the road about Korina, so stay tuned! You  haven't heard the last from us, the Wrights!