Wednesday, October 10, 2012

My girl

Now I know you've all heard me talking a lot about the girl lately.  I'm just so damn proud of her I can't help it.  I'm going to tell you a little bit about her, and hopefully you won't get sick of hearing me talk so much about her.  She's just been through so much that she deserves praise, and love even if it's from random internet folks who she will probably never meet. 

I met the girl 14 years ago, and she's been part of our family ever since.  I went to school with her parents.  She's always been like a niece to me.  Sometimes a bratty niece that I wanted to toss out the window, but a family member nonetheless.  She stood up in my wedding, and we picked her up all the time to spend weekends with our kids.

A few years ago she came to live with my family.  I won't get into all the details on this, because I don't want to badmouth anyone.  I'll just say she'll be with us until she's 18 or older, and her parents have exposed her to things that no adult should even be exposed to.

Despite all the things that she has seen, she's been an honor roll student since the day she started school.  She's been to about 7 different schools in her short life, and still managed to keep those grades up.  She's even had a ton of absences and late days, up until she came to live with us, and still stayed an A student.  I got a letter from her school last week.  She has to go take some tests because she scored so high on her state standardized testing last year.  Now I have it in writing that she's gifted.  She'll be taking high school level tests.  Tests that kids take to get placed in college.  How amazing is that?  

Did I mention she can sing?  Like really sing.  One thing I love is music, and very few people can move me to tears, but she does every time.  Once when she was much younger, she was singing at her schools talent show and the teacher accidentally stopped the cd.  Most kids would have died on the spot.  Not the girl.  She stood up there on the stage, and told her teacher to start the song over and then she nailed that song for the second time.  Last weekend she was invited to sing the National Anthem for a breast cancer benefit at a racetrack near us.  She was so nervous she was shaking.  I walked her around the park and encouraged her as much as I could.  By the time she went on she was calm enough to do it.  Nailed it!  People came up to me outside to tell me they thought she was professional singer and they couldn't believe she was only 14.  The caption on her photo for the racetracks fb page says she was one of the best the park has ever had.  I can't even tell you how proud I am.

I love that girl, and I'm so very proud of her.  I tell her this every single day.  We have talks about what she's going to do with the rest of her life, and I reassure her that she is better than her family ever was.  She's smart, she's beautiful, and she's a total sweetheart.  She helps me with the housework, cooking, and even taking care of the other kids.  She's made dinner for us on more than one occasion just because she wanted to.  Last night she did two loads of laundry after she finished her homework without me even asking her to. 

I'm so happy and blessed to have her in my life, and to have her be part of this family.  I actually couldn't imagine my life without her now.  I don't hate her parents.  I feel sorry for them.  They have missed so many great moments.  All her solos at her school concerts, all the awards she's been given, and what a great kid she's become.  We couldn't save them.  I'm still heartbroken over that.  All we can do is make sure that their daughter doesn't turn out like them.  So far I think we've done a pretty good job.  Way to go girl!     

      

6 comments:

  1. She is so lucky to have you in her life - just as you are lucky to have her. <3

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  2. Ok now I'm crying...bless her and God bless you

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  3. Many blessings to her and to you- I read all the stuff you post about her makes me jealous that she's not my kid. :-)

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  4. Thanks everyone! She is a really good kid. I don't know what I'd do without her. Right now she's cleaning her room. =)

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  5. Awesome that's great to hear, she will do good I'm whatever she does!!!

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  6. She is lucky to have you in her life. ♥

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