Forgetting English

  Okay so my middle child, the youngest girl whose name is Isabel, has been staying with her great Aunt for the last month and half in Constanta, which is about a 2 hour drive from where we live in Tulcea.  Not too bad except for the price of gas these days.  So she is learning all kinds of new things, particularly the Romanian language, which she really needs for when she starts school in September.  She is 100% fluent!  Which is awesome. 

  So my husband's cousin (G.Aunt's son) wanted to come to Tulcea to go fishing with Marius.  Tulcea is on the delta of the Danube River, lots and lots of fishing here.  So we asked him to bring Isabel with him, so his mom had to come to because Isabel won't go further than the store by their house without her.  So they came in night before last.  Isabel comes home - she has forgotten English!!!  Not completely, but when I would talk to her to ask or tell her something she had this blank look on her face.  Marius would tell her what I said in Romanian, and she got it.  Talk about make a mother really upset, is realizing that her own child doesn't fully understand what she's saying anymore!

  She decided to go back to her great aunt's house, and we are going to go get her in about 4 weeks, when the slaughter the pig they've been raising on December 21st.  Yeah, I'm hoping its slaughtered before we get there.  However Isabel has helped slaughter a duck and chicken and clean them.  I know that sounds gross, but really, she will learn things like this that she won't be able to learn anywhere else, especially if we were still in the states. 

  I am happy that she has mastered a second language, however forgetting English kinda upsets me, I'm trying to find a balance with it in my mind, and especially my heart.  I know it will all be okay, that I'm going to have to work a little harder to help her learn to read and write in English, and comprehend the meanings of the words, I just wish she had not started to forget her first language, especially since she refused to even try to learn Romanian for the first 6 months of our being here.