**Que? Ya-nee-poo-nee-my-you!

My baby girl turned 15 on Tuesday.  As most of you know, she was adopted from Russia when she was almost 7.  Watching her blossom and grow has been the best thing I could have ever done for my soul.  She is a beautiful child, inside and out.  Learning English as a second language though is tough, yet she has persevered and done an amazing job mastering this crazy language.  But I have to admit, listening to her learn English provided many hours of entertainment.  So much so, that her dad used to write down her sayings on his phone.  We called them YoungestChild'sName-isms. Here are some examples... Enjoy!

• glove department = glove compartment; as in, "Dad, can you get me some napkins out of the glove department?"

• go fish = gold fish, as in, "My favorite crackers are go fish crackers."

• Border Control = Border Patrol  "Were they arrested by Border Control?"

• workin' on a stinker....she tried to keep up with her gross brothers, 'nuf said

• "(How) To Kill a Mockingbird"  Three summers ago, my kids had to read To Kill a Mockingbird for their summer project with me.  Every time she referenced the book, she always threw in the "How" in front of the title.

• dandrum = dandruff, as in, "I think I might have dandrum."

• "don't throw it at me hardly, throw it softly" when her dad was teaching her to play catch

• "no eye-er" when she was playing the basketball game of HORSE with her dad and her trick shot was one with her eyes closed, it was a "no eye-er"

• "This burger is big...like an 'Inside Out' burger."  instead of In-n-Out burger.

• "Out of the bloom (blue)"...  "It just hit me out of the bloom!"

• whoppers = loppers  When trimming trees, "do you need help with the whoppers, Dad?"

• "You know what....whippity-doo!"  She still says, "You know what?" when she's mad.  I think whippity-doo was supposed to be whoopity-doo!

• And my most favorite -ism; about 6 months after she arrived in the States, we went to Knott's Berry Farm and we were in line for a ride and the guy next to us STUNK, she turned to me and said quietly, "he no good smell."

We don't get very many -isms from her anymore.  It's almost a secret victory for KC and me when she says one now and she gets very offended when we giggle and will turn to her dad and say, "DO NOT WRITE THAT IN YOUR PHONE!"  Love that kid.  She's really more like a young lady now.  My, how time flies. It seems like only yesterday when, after I explained what "being pregnant" meant, she patted my stomach and asked, "oh, you have a baby in there?"  Like I said, love that kid.


**For those of you wondering about the headline... Que? = What? in Spanish and Ya-nee-poo-nee-my-you  is the phonetic version of saying, "I don't understand you" in Russian.

So I adopted a rock star...

My daughter was adopted from an orphanage in Russia when she was almost 7 years old.  She has hemiparesis caused by cerebral palsy.  We don't think about it very much, it's just part of who she is; much like her black hair and black eyes.  She tries not to let it affect her, although sometimes it's out of her control.  She is not the fastest soccer player or the kid who is picked first to play kickball.  But the bigger picture is she always plays, she never shies away from anything. My Dear Daughter is a teeny, tiny girl with a very big voice and a big personality to match. 
In her middle school PE class, she has to run a weekly 1.5 mile cross country course, called The Ram,  under 24 minutes.  She comes home every Friday to report on her time and I'm ashamed to admit but I usually let it go in one ear and out the other.  Yet every week she lets me know.  One day I asked her how other students do and was quite surprised to learn that there are some kids who often don't finish under the 24 minutes.  That got my attention.  Here is my kid who, every week, goes out and gives it her all, regardless of her physical obstacles.  Wow.  Then today, I learned that she was named the Ram Runner of the Week.  This kid knocks my socks off.  I wish I could take the credit but she is proof of nature vs. nurture.  I thank God that we were able to make her our daughter.  My only regret is that we didn't find her sooner.