"Seesters"

There are people who know me, who think that when we decided to adopt Genea it was so Teena would not be an only child. The Husband is a 4th generation only child, and a lot of people think I was determined to be sure Teena would not be the 5th generation. That never was something I thought about actually. We have a lot of friends with kids about the same age and I knew Teena would always have plenty of company regardless.(what's the blue stuff on Teena's lip? probably marker)

When Genea came along, and I became aware that her family at the time wanted to "disrupt" their adoption and find a new family, I thought more about Genea being a kid I could help. We already had a girl and lots of girl things, and after we met her we knew she would fit in. No glamour or romantic sentiments (she made us whole....or, we needed a little miracle lol). Just, she needed a home, and we had one. She needed a lot of help, and love and care, and we thought we could give her that. (I have since read that those are the bad reasons, put it on our list).

When she and Teena first met, they bonded immediately. Honestly one of the things I worried most about was the two girls getting along and having to share toys and a room and parents! Genea was coming in older at 4, and so they would be out of birth order (we were told this also was a bad idea too, so bad there is not even current research on it) .They were both separately well- loved and cared and provided for by extended family and friends (code for spoiled with stuff). Thankfully it turned out they bonded so quickly and easily, it's like they became sisters the day they met. The judge who finalized our adoption even commented, when Teena wanted to hug Genea and Genea wanted no part of it, and Teena kept doing it anyway, he said he wanted the record to reflect they were clearly already acting like sisters.

While Genea and Teena got along reasonably well, Genea would not talk to other kids until she had been around them a bit. And she would certainly not talk to a new adult.

The day I knew it was a done deal was at a McDonald's play-land probably 6 or 7 months in. It was busy with many, many families. Kids running, screaming, parents glued to their Blackberry's trying to tune them all out. The play land was the kind with the elevated tunnels and slides. First of all, for Genea to even be in the tunnels, MAJOR deal for her. It took awhile for her to even try to try new things without freezing, or disassociating, or screaming a raging fit. You could see she wanted so badly to jump right in but would be too scared. Teena is alarmingly fearless (impulsive!)and so they balanced well in that Teena would just take off, and Genea would follow before she had a chance to remember she was afraid!

Anyway, Teena was on the ground and having trouble with her shoe lace. Someone Else's kind mother bent down to help her out, when Genea spots this little interaction. She FLINGS herself through the tunnels, hurling herself around the corners, and smashing in to the other children. You can hear her little shoes pounding on the plastic as she tries to run and squat through to the slides where she propels herself out and onto the ground for her big confrontation "THAAAAAAAATTTTSSS MYYYYYYYY SSSIIIISSSTTTEEEEER"!

She who would go in to the 'no one home zone' if you tried to get her to say BOO in exchange for a bag full of candy, protecting her little sister. I don't know and to this day I still don't know, what she thought was going to happen. She just knew her little sister was in danger and all of her fears were not going to get in the way of saving her Teena.

The girls are at a stage where it is greatly exciting for them to tattle on each other. Genea especially loves to rat out Teena while simultaneously listing her own personal strengths.

"Mommy Teena is drawing on the wall and I don't draw on the wall and I didn't drop the box of crayons and when I want to draw I ask first right cuz that's what I am supposed to do is ask first and Teena is using the green crayons and I don't even like green and now she is putting it in her mouth and I put all our clothes in the laundry and I don't eat crayons because that is YUCKY".

Someday, they will realize that if they band together against us, when they turn on us as teenagers, they WILL win.