The Girls

Last post was about the three oldest boys, and this post will be about the three oldest girls.

Jessica is my birth child born in 1991. At the time we were living at Grand Forks AFB, ND. She was born one year, three weeks and a day after Tyler. She was planned but was a first try baby and also arrived three weeks early. Rick left for Saudi right after I got pregnant, so I spent that pregnancy also taking care of Tyler who was just like 4 months old when I got pregnant again, and I was also finishing my master's degree.

Like Tyler, Jessica moved around a lot. We left ND when she was 8 weeks old and moved to Okinawa. We were there 9 months and then went to SD. Then to England, GA and now FL. She also made three trips to Haiti with me while we were in the process of adopting the twins.

  Jessica worked at Carmike theater for fours years then got a job at Applebees because things went downhill in a hurry at the theater.

Jessica and Hunter worked together at the theater for over three years. Things started going downhill when he left. They are getting married next October. As you can see, they've completed their first adoption :)

Jessica is in her senior year at FSU in the criminology program and is doing underwater crime scene investigation. That's kind of like NCIS underwater. I don't have any pictures of her underwater except this one where the class is carving pumpkins.

Jessica has her basic, advanced, science, nitrox, and rescue certifications. She will complete her cavern certification this semester. She is also doing the underwater crime scene investigation diving this semester. She would graduate this May but didn't realize that one class she needs is only offered in the fall. So she has that one final class next fall.

To celebrate her graduation, we are going to New York City in May. So if anyone has any suggestions for us, please leave them in the comment section. We have not been there before. We need to know where most of the stuff we want to see is at, what we should see, where we should stay, what kind of transportation we should use etc.

Jasmine came to us as a foster child. She was supposed to go back to her mother, but her mom didn't follow the case plan at all. She was not making good choices for herself or her children. (Jasmine has three older half siblings). Jasmine had a cleft palate, cleft lip, hole in her skulls, club foot, missing bones in her fingers on her left hand, fused fingers, missing and fused toes, and webbing on her neck. She has true ADHD that may have been caused by her mom's drug use. But she is actually a very amazing child. I refused to believe that she was not able to ever accomplish much. I probably seriously overstimulated her, and she was with me constantly. So she had very good attachment and many, many opportunities to try new things and explore her potential. I feel like I finally got it right with this child! (Tyler and Jessica too, but not so much with Jeff and Adam. Adam during high school yes, but there were a lot of hard years first.)

 Jasmine came to us at a time that Rick and I were going through a rough time and were apart for 3 1/2 years. But it all worked out.

She is smiley in her pictures, and she is generally happy whenever we are together, but school is very stressful and she really, really struggles with math, science and organization. So she's not usually smiling when she first gets home from school.

 In the past she has been in gymnastics and tumbling, but she does not have good flexibility at all, so those didn't work out. She's played soccer, basketball and baseball and likes them, but is just not a natural athlete. And that's okay. She played for fun, but now that the teams are competitive, she's decided not to do more sports. Her thing is music. She is a good percussionist and singer. She is also in jazz and hip hop dance classes this year.

It probably seems like I say the most about her. That is because she is the child who seeks me out the most just to be with me. We don't even have to talk. She will just come sit on my lap or lay beside me if I'm not up yet or am on the couch. She's the one who asks if we can just do something together, or have an adventure together. She can be moody and quirky, but she's also very easy to love. And I probably look out most for her because of all her struggles and surgeries.

She has band competition coming up, and also FCAT. That worries me because we know she won't pass the math one. Not being negative, it's just the way it is. She is never even close to passing. But if she doesn't pass the reading one, she'll lose band and that would be a very bad thing. But it's an elective so it's what would go. But to take the one thing she's really good would stink. She is a good reader, but that doesn't always guarantee a passing score on the FCAT.

Ashley is my step daughter. She lives in Indiana with her husband Mike and two children, Phoenix who will be ten in April and Griffin who turned six last August.

Besides my crew, she has a half sister, Lydia, who lives in Indiana also. Ashley is a beautician, and Mike is a mechanic.

We only see them once a year when we drive up to visit our families in Indiana. She is about 3 1/2 hours from where our families are at.

So that is the three oldest girls. Leave any comments for them or about NYC in the comment section.

Next post I'll talk about the twins!