My niece Payton just had her birthday and celebrated the big 18. She and Arden are very close and hang out together a lot. Payton and Lael are close too. They are all taking their futures very seriously, but Lael is VERY driven though in a "different" kind of way. When Lael was in 1st grade, her teacher told me it was like Lael had PMS. In 1st grade! Don't get me wrong, that teacher loved Lael, and we are all still close friends today. Lael drove her to the doctor just the other day. Lael's 2nd grade teacher said everyone in the class was intimidated by Lael, including the boys. We had a high school teacher tell us Lael could quiet the class when he couldn't.
But all that isn't what this story is about.
Lael and Payton work together and have now for a couple of years. Lael had been there about a year when Payton got hired. When Payton first started working there the older ladies (older as in not teenagers like Lael and Payton) working there would say to Payton, "Why do you let Lael boss you around?" Payton would say, "It is OK, really it is OK." What she meant was she and Lael have, and have had a special relationship from the time Lael arrived on U.S. soil at age three. Like the time when they were four and five years old, we had to take Lael to the doctor. Payton had gotten mad and hauled off and hit Lael with the buckel of a belt. The picture still makes me laugh of Lael's head bandaged and Payton cowering like a puppy who just got caught peeing on the rug.
So, check out this old post where I wrote about Payton being very young and was sick to death of "the Chinese girls getting all the attention JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE CHINESE AND ADOPTED."
Maybe you had to be there, but I'll tell this story anyway. After church Sunday, we were all at lunch and Payton told us the women at work had brought her in a birthday cake. Lael's birthday was months ago, and I'm sure she got one on her birthday because these older women are REALLY good to them. Payton said, "And they brought Lael one in too just because they feel sorry for her that she was a poooor little, stinkin, dirty orphan." We all about died laughing. Lael has not been an orphan since she was three years old (she is now 19).
Payton
