I do go off, within these pages, about the difficulties I’ve encountered in the adoption of older children. Yet I have some very wonderful kids as well.

One is pictured here, acting silly in an older sister’s prom dress.

She’s my darling 12 year old sixth grader who just made the cheerleading squad for next year’s basketball team. Doesn’t interest me in the least, I’d even tried discouraging her a bit; “Don’t you want to stay on the rec soccer team? You are such an awesome player.”

But she was not to be deterred, she’s even a bit of a tomboy, certainly not girly girly, and tumbling and acrobatics intrigue her.

She makes great grades, never gets in trouble, she’s loving and sweet; exactly what I’d hoped for all those long years ago when I first entered the adoption world. I call her my reward for sticking it out. She has a 4 year old sister, a five year old brother and an 8 year old brother. She’s by far the easiest to raise. Her younger siblings call her Memaw since she was so parentified with them.

She’s helpful and dependable; she’s popular, happy and fun to be around.

There’s no downside, she’s simply delightful.

Her birth mom was simply uninterested in raising children, dropping them off around town, the kids just stayed with whoever would have them for a night or so. Total instability, CPS stepped in and helped the mom get an apartment, bought her a washer and a dryer, made arrangements for her to get transportation to hunt for a job with childcare provided by them, all to no avail.

You can’t make someone want to parent.

You’d think this young lady would be massively resentful but she’s not. I wish I could bottle her good cheer and spritz it down the halls of my house.

This darling child of mine simply has a great disposition, zero attitude and an acceptance that her life has finally changed for the better, she’s only been with us for two years. When she asked me about cheerleading and if she could try out I wanted to say no. But that would have been my own personal attitude coming through.

She so deserved this opportunity. I’m going to do all I can to support her in this endeavor and to demonstrate my pride in her accomplishment.