Originally posted on Michelle R Photography, LLC blog on 4/8/11
This week I was inspired by my daughter, Kara Da Xin. As I glanced at the calendar last weekend, I realized that she is less than two months away from her 13th birthday. Really, can it be? 13 already? For anyone reading this blog who might be new to our story, we adopted Kara from Guangxi, China when she was 11 years old. She has been home with us for 21 months now and in some ways, I just can't seem to shake the feeling that we were just in China, while at other times it seems so very long ago. Her transition into our family went amazingly well. Beyond the images you will see below, I wanted to share some more about our oldest child, yet newest member of our family.
Kara is just an all-around great kid. She wants so much to please us and her teachers. So much so that I am getting tears in my eyes as I write this. I am very proud of her. She inspires me.
Kara is very inquisitive. She is still learning much about the world around her, as well as expanding her English vocabulary. She asks lots of questions and loves learning. She is doing amazingly well in school. She is in the 6th grade and has some wonderful teachers who are doing an excellent job with her. They tell me all the time how much they love having Kara in class. She is in ESL (English as a second language) instead of a regular English class, and gets modified testing for science and social studies, but does the same homework and testing as her peers in math. She still struggles with English at times - both understanding new words and trying to explain herself, but I am thankful that she asks questions at school when she needs to. She received Honor Roll this year and has a 3.87 GPA this quarter. It's unbelievable to me that she spoke not one word of English just 21 months ago!! Last year, I would sit with her for 1.5 - 2.5 hours every night working on homework. This year, she is able to work on the vast majority of her homework independently and I am so very proud of her accomplishments. In China, she was so surprised when I called her smart. "Me, smart? Nobody has ever called me smart," she replied. (All conversations in China were translated for us.) It made me so sad to hear her say that. She works so hard on her schoolwork and what makes me so happy is that I think she finally feels her accomplishments.
Kara is very disciplined. Not just with schoolwork, but with anything that is asked or expected of her. She gets up at 6:15 am for the middle school bus and has never, ever complained about getting up early or rolled over to dismiss her wake-up call. On the contrary, she is often up before Nolan or I (OK, mostly Nolan) go into her bedroom to wake her up. She always lays her clothes out the night before and makes her bed as she steps out of it. She got her ears pierced 8 weeks ago and she diligently followed her cleaning and care routine and crossed off the checklist every single day. Yesterday morning she was pleased to announce her 8 weeks were up! (So, we did a little earring shopping last night.) :)
Kara is very creative. She loves art and music. She plays percussion in the school band, sings in the school choir and takes Chinese dance and choir lessons as well. She occasionally assists me with my client sessions and will often think of a creative pose to show me. I taught her about using a reflector and she knows exactly what I am looking for when she helps me. I think she is my budding photographer.
Kara's behavior is very consistent. Other than the occasional pouting early on,
she has very few mood swings. She's just a happy and content girl. She loves spending time with family, golfing, playing her DS, listening to music on her iPod or watching movies.
Early on, Kara would shy away from hugs or affection, as it was something that she wasn't used to. Although she lived with a foster family for 4 1/2 years, I have learned that it's not common in Chinese culture to outwardly express affection the way we do here. That quickly changed, though, and Kara loves to give and receive hugs from her family and exchange I love you's. And p.s. Her hugs are awesome!!
Kara loves to laugh. Oh my goodness, she and Mia are my two gigglers. Those two could just sit and laugh for hours. Often at nothing. ;)
Kara is a joy. Her life has not been an easy one, yet she has chosen to rejoice in ways that inspire me to see the world through her eyes. I hope this has shown you just a glimpse of the blessing that older child adoption has been to our family.
Kara and I have been talking and have come up with a little project so that she can express her feelings about being adopted and share her thoughts about the many children that need a loving family. We hope to share that with you soon.
