Sammy n' Mick

Payton Victoria
















Chickie is graduating soon!!  I'm both happy and sad for obvious reasons.  She hasn't decided where she will be going to college yet.  I know where she wants to go and what she wants to do.  She really wants to go into Christian ministry.  

 

The truth is when we adopted Arden at 11 y.o., I felt like Arden was going to be the perfect mate, not for Lael, but for Chickie.  Turns out I was right!  They hang out a lot.  As luck would have it, Chickie was in China with her parents adopting her new sister, Darby and got to meet Arden in Guangzhou while we were finishing up her adoption paperwork.  So Chickie and Arden got to hang out together even before Arden came to America.  And they’ve been close ever since we went and got Arden a few months later.  Actually, Chickie, Lael, Arden and my niece Erin are all close, but the joke is Lael can be a little grouchy.  : - )  Lael is very, very driven, but that is another story. 








Payton meeting Arden in China several months before we got Arden.  Actually, it took several months after Arden got home before she started bonding with anyone, including Payton.  I think it took Arden awhile to start trusting people. 

 

I'm really close to most of my nieces and nephews, and Chickie is no exception.  I started watching her pretty much as a newborn, and she is still around a lot.  When she was growing up it was not uncommon for close to a dozen kids (including my own) to be hanging out at our house.  Chickie likes to tell the story of how I would make them play outside in the summer.  The other kids would always send Chickie to the door to bug me, because she was the bravest.  She tells how she would come to the door and say, "Aunt Sammy, we're hungry."  She says I would then take a box of crackers or cookies, throw them out the door and scream, "Now get out of here!!"  I don't think I did that. : - ) If I did, let me just say Chickie was here just last night eating dinner... in the house... at the table.  I wish I had taken a picture to prove it.

My Mom and Payton.













































Payton is one of the sweetest kids out of all the kids.  Obviously, Payton was a beautiful little girl, but  when she was about 3 y.o.  it was really getting to her that every time we went out people talked about the Chinese girls.  Back then you didn't see many Chinese around here or adopted kids.  One day we were going through McDonalds drive thru.  In the back seat I hear poor Payton flip out.  She said,  "CHINESE GIRLS ARE NOT GOING TO BE IN MY WEDDING.   AND,  CHINESE GIRLS ARE AFRAID OF DINOSAURS!!"

















So what are the odds Chinese girls will be in Chickie's wedding?