Right before Gil was deployed, we had a new addition to our family. her name is Diana (nickname for the blog) and she is 18 years old. She has been in foster care for 6 years and at 18, officially is out of foster care and needed a place to stay. She goes to our church ward and was our babysitter. It was an easy decision to have her join our family and we felt right about it. She is a junior in high school and we have told her she is welcome to be live with us until she graduates and goes off to college. She is planning on attending Austin Pea University here in Clarksville. It has been a great experience for me having her here. I am really enjoying being able to help her. She goes to Seminary now. I am getting up at 5:15 am to make her lunch, get her breakfast, read scriptures with her, and saying prayers before she leaves for Seminary at 5:50 every morning. Luckily, seminary is a block and a half from my house so she can walk there. Getting up early is really good for me. I am able to read scriptures after she leaves and before my kids get up. I usually have a half an hour to an hour before my kids wake up. The only hard part is getting to bed early as I have always been a night person. Even when I am very tired, sometimes it can take a long time to get to sleep.
I am also teaching her how to cook and do a lot of other stuff she has never learned to do. She wasn't used to home cooked meals and in the beginning was positive she wouldn't like some of the meals I cooked, but ended up liking all of them. She also wouldn't drink plain water when she came and I got her to start and now she drinks lots of water. It has felt so great getting to know her and being able to know her. I have helped her bring up her grades, too. That has been fun. I always loved school. The kids love having her here, too. She is great with them and is very helpful.
It hasn't all been easy. It is definately different having a teenager. Her communication skills could be better, or should I say lack of communication. Maybe most teenagers are like that. I got tired of the "I don't know" answer she would give quite often in the beginning. I learned that it could mean that she didn't know, she didn't remember, she didn't care, or she didn't want to talk about it. I just ask for more clarification now. The whole texting thing is new to me, too. I got her a phone and switched our plan to unlimited texting. I set out the rules for it and the time and then checked online a few days later and discovered she was texting during Seminary and school and after curfew. She lost her phone for a week and hasn't used it when she is not supposed to since. She loves having her phone. She wasn't mad at me either when I took it away. She new she was wrong for using it when she wasn't supposed to. I relationship actually grew stronger after I disciplined her.
