She Taught Herself To Swim

When we first met Tetyana she told us she liked to swim. Most orphans fear the water so we were a bit surprised. As soon as we got home, she jumped in the pool. It has been awhile since I had a child in our pool who didn't know how to swim and we watched her like a hawk.

For the first few weeks I kept saying "as soon as she learns more Engish I will put her in lessons" or "when school ends we will put her in lessons" but she just kept improving. We all got in the pool and tried all of the basic lesson stuff with her. Luke tried to teach her to float on her back but she was too scared.

We put Luke in survival lessons when he was 5. When we lived in Oregon we didn't have many opportunities to swim. When we moved here to Florida, it seemed like all we did was swim. I wanted him to know how to swim before our house was done being built just in case he ever fell in. The lessons were heart breaking and I think I cried more than he did. Most of the kids in the pool were under 3 and seemed to all like the lessons. Luke cried all the way to each lesson (5 days a week for 2 weeks!) begging me not to take him. I cried the entire lesson listening to him beg me to "save" him. It was horrible, but when he was finished I had no doubt in my mind he could float on his back if he needed to.

Luke thought for sure if Tetyana fell in the water he could save her. I knew differently. A few weeks ago Luke had this brilliant idea for them to both jump into the deep end at the same time and he was going to take her to the shallow end. They jumped in and she panicked and nearly drowned him. I let them try for a couple of seconds before I got in the pool and pulled them both out. Luke was so freaked out he got out of the pool for the rest of the day. They had finally got what we had been trying to tell them.

Tetyana was basically swimming all over the place and I told her to jump into the deep end and swim to the side. She said no and that she was scared. I knew she could do it. Here is some video of her swimming. She is so proud of herself! She has taught herself to swim!