Long time, no write!

Hey guys, sorry for the delay in the blog! We haven't stopped writing!

We had a guest visiting our house from out of town, which was a lot of fun but we didn't have any time for the blog. Now our visitor has gone home, and we're back to the normal routine. You'll be hearing more from us soon. :-)

Just wanted to give you that quick update for now. No new news on our cousin Bree. It's driving us crazy! We're trying to be patient, but we can't wait for her to move in.

Thanks for coming back, and sorry for the silence lately.

Love,
The Green Girls

Not Much New News

We haven't updated in a few days, because... well, there hasn't really been much new.

We've been working on getting Bree's room ready for her. She's still not here, though, and we don't have an exact ETA for her. We're hoping maybe within a week or so, but arrangements for her travel are ongoing.

We had another big snowstorm, and school was closed. We all went sledding! :-)

Other than that:

Kaya has been thrilled because there have been a bunch of Buffy reruns on the TV, and she loves that show. Molly has been sketching for some fashion projects she claims she will sew, although she admittedly may lose interest in the meantime. Charissa and Evelyn have been in an ongoing snowball stealth war with the neighbour boys; Team Green is definitely winning! Felicity and Josefina are practicing for a skit they're doing for a class (in French!) next week. Kirsten has been monopolizing the laptop reading other blogs, and has tried some new cooking experiments, around 50% of which have been edible and 25% have actually tasted good.

That's all for now! Hopefully we'll have some more "newsy" news soon. :-)

Love,
The Green Girls

Our Big Secret News!

Wow, three posts in one day! :-D

This is a group post by all the girls. :-)

In a couple of posts recently, we've been hinting at a secret that we weren't allowed to tell yet. We weren't trying to be mean or anything. It's just something Blakeney didn't want us to talk about until it was for sure.

Normally, once someone has joined our family, we don't have someone new come for at least six months. It's to give the new kid time to settle in, because even though it's fun when the family grows, there are also some details to work out and things can be pretty complicated and confusing. It's especially tough for someone who is trying to learn the routines of a new household and get to know all these new people. So yeah, we wait six months or a year... or more, depending on how things go.

Kaya came here in August, so we knew that we could have someone new living with us soon (no guarantee, of course, but we might.) So when we had a family meeting, we figured we were going to be fostering again.

That's kind of what's going on, but it's a little different. This time, the person coming to stay with us is someone we actually know. Our cousin is coming to stay! It's not just temporary, it's permanent... so I guess now she'll be our sister and our cousin.

Her name is Bree, and she was born a few months before Felicity. We used to play together when we were little kids, but then our families kind of lost touch, so we haven't seen her in a lot of years. We remember each other as a lot younger than we are now, so we've all changed so much we'll probably barely recognize each other. Josefina, Kaya, and Evelyn have never even met her, because they weren't part of the family yet. So in some ways we'll be getting to know each other all over again.

We're still working out exactly when she's coming, but it'll be soon. We're glad we can finally share our good news!

Love,
The Green Girls

Dossiers

They have this section over at AGPT, and we decided we'd put ours on our blog, too. That way people (OK... mainly us...) can find them and see what we said. :-)


***




Name: Kirsten

Age: 16

Where he/she attends school: Local public high school

Favorite color: Blue and purple

Favorite food: Curry Vindaloo

Personal Causes: Racial equality, gay rights, immigrant rights, anti-war, fighting poverty, social justice

Favorite passtime: Political activism, writing to legislators and letters to the editor

Three words YOU would use to describe their personality: Stubborn, practical, intelligent

Three words HE/SHE would use to describe his/her personality: Dedicated, eloquent, smart

Favorite Quote: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to just everywhere." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Brief biography in 250 words or less: As the oldest of her siblings, Kirsten is prone to being a little bossy toward her younger sisters, but her passion for her social justice causes is genuine. She is determined to change the world for the better, and is already working hard for what she believes in. Her future is on the world political stage, fighting for what's right.




***





Name: Bree


Age: 15


Where he/she attends school: Local public high school


Favorite color: Red, blue, and black


Favorite food: PB&J sandwiches, dried fruit


Personal Causes: At risk and homeless youth, mentoring, poverty relief, educational support and reform


Favorite passtime: Reading, mocking stupid movies, jogging, sketching


Three words YOU would use to describe their personality: Thoughtful, determined, creative


Three words HE/SHE would use to describe his/her personality: Ordinary, shy, timid


Favorite Quote: "In this beautiful life, there's always some sorry. And it's a double-edged knife, but there's always tomorrow. It's up to you now if you sink or swim. Just keep the faith that your ship will come in. It's not so bad..." -Great Big Sea


Brief biography in 250 words or less: Bree is the Green girls' cousin, now adopted sister. Prior to living with the Green family, she alternated between living with each of her divorced parents, and they rarely had enough money. Her rough experiences growing up led her to be very compassionate and made her very aware of poverty, particularly as affects children and young people. She is quiet and rather shy, but is a deep thinker. Bree aspires to be a psychologist or a librarian someday... and she gets lots of practice with the psychology keeping her new sisters in line.

***




Name: Felicity

Age: 15

Where he/she attends school: French language immersion school

Favorite color: Green and pink

Favorite food: Homemade berry tarts

Personal Causes: Felicity doesn't do much outside activism, but her current mission in life is to keep the peace between her siblings

Favorite passtime: Reading, writing poetry, knitting, crafts

Three words YOU would use to describe their personality: Quiet, creative, empathetic

Three words HE/SHE would use to describe his/her personality: Shy, mother-hen, homebody

Favorite Quote: "Where we love is home, Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." -Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Brief biography in 250 words or less: It's easy for quiet Felicity to be overlooked amongst her more boisterous siblings, but she is crucial glue in holding the family together. Her unfailing calm diffuses tense situations, and her understanding and trustworthy nature mean everyone can confide in her. Felicity doesn't always stand out, but she's always important.



***




Name: Josefina

Age: 14

Ethnic background: Mexican American, born in the United States

Where he/she attends school: French language immersion school (she also speaks fluent Spanish)

Favorite color: Red, orange, and yellow

Favorite food: Spicy black bean quesadillas

Personal Causes: Immigrant rights, cultural awareness, respect for non-majority languages

Favorite passtime: Writing fiction and articles for the school newspaper, reading, travel, hiking

Three words YOU would use to describe their personality: Bright, loyal, knowledgable

Three words HE/SHE would use to describe his/her personality: Friendly, curious, spontaneous

Favorite Quote: "Sólo con una ardiente paciencia conquistaremos la espléndida ciudad que dará luz, justicia y dignidad a todos los hombres. Así la poesía no habrá cantado en vano."/"Only with a burning patience can we conquer the splendid City which will give light, justice and dignity to all mankind. In this way the song will not have been sung in vain." -Pablo Neruda

Brief biography in 250 words or less: Josefina was born to a Mexican immigrant mother. When her mother died, Josefina was passed from relative to relative for several years, but eventually came to live with her half-siblings and adopted family members. Josefina is smart, creative, and very proud of being Latina and her Mexican heritage. She is also interested in learning about other cultures and visiting other countries. When she grows up, she wants to be a travel writer.




***




Name: Molly

Age: 13

Where he/she attends school: Gifted program at the local public middle school

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite food: Chirashi sushi

Personal Causes: Using her art to communicate with others

Favorite passtime: Painting, drawing, sculpting, fashion design

Three words YOU would use to describe their personality: Brilliant, talented, stormy

Three words HE/SHE would use to describe his/her personality: Artistic, creative, odd

Favorite Quote: The art of Henri Matisse is what most speaks to her, and what she would communicate to others

Brief biography in 250 words or less: Molly is very artistically talented, and is dedicated to developing it. This dedication often reaches the level of extreme single-mindedness. Molly has reactly been diagnosed as being on the milder end of the Autism Spectrum. What she is unable to communicate through words and personal interaction, she finds easier to express through her paintings and drawings. She is prone to being rather moody, but is a brilliant young lady and is often a lot of fun.





***




Name: Kaya

Age:12

Ethnic/racial self-identification: American Indian, Nimíipuu (Nez Perce)

Religion: Along with many other modern members of her tribe, she practices a combination of Christianity and traditional Nimíipuu religion

Where he/she attends school: Local middle school part-time, and accelerated online distance courses part-time

Favorite color: Red and umber

Favorite food: Blueberry muffins

Personal Causes: Pan-Indianism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Indianism,) Native rights, and heritage preservation.

Favorite passtime: Dance: traditional and Pan-Indian dance, ballet, modern. She's also very interested in learning about science and likes to read science fiction.

Three words YOU would use to describe their personality: Smart, funny, deep

Three words HE/SHE would use to describe his/her personality: Quiet, unique, motivated

Favorite Quote: "It is our choices... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -Albus Dumbledore

Brief biography in 250 words or less: Kaya joined the Green family through permanent special guardianship. She still maintains deep ties of loyalty to her tribe and participates in cultural events whenever possible. Kaya is prone to being quiet and introspective, and is calm and level-headed, but she also has a wicked dry sense of humour, which takes people by surprise if they don't know her well. She does well in school, but puts more effort into subjects she finds useful than those she doesn't. Kaya is social, and has close friends both at school and through her various dances classes and groups. She is also close with her adopted sisters, and enjoys being part of a large blended family.



***




Name: Charissa

Age:10

Ethnic/racial self-identification: Latina

Where he/she attends school: Specialized elementary school for hearing impaired students

Favorite color: Yellow

Favorite food: Pinto beans

Personal Causes: Animal care, wildlife rescue, the environment

Favorite passtime: Spending time with animals or learning about them, playing outside, playing sports with her friends

Three words YOU would use to describe their personality: Shy, friendly, patient

Three words HE/SHE would use to describe his/her personality: Quiet, unusual, fun

Favorite Quote: "Everyone needs friends." -Friend Bear, from the Care Bears

Brief biography in 250 words or less: Charissa was the youngest in the family for a long time, and sometimes settles into the role of "the baby," but she is capable of independence too. She has a hearing impairment, and is in fact almost completely deaf, but she is a capable lip reader. She also has some learning problems that make her struggle in school, but she is good at practical tasks, especially those that involve animal care. Charissa is shy and takes time to open up to people, but she is a good friend once she lets down her guard.




***

Name: Fiona

Age: 10

Where he/she attends school: Anglican parish elementary school

Favorite color: Pink and peach

Favorite food: Plain noodles with butter

Personal Causes: Foster child rights, juvenile mental health, the arts

Favorite passtime: Jumping rope, playing with dolls and stuffed animals, singing, musical theatre, ballet

Three words YOU would use to describe their personality: Spontaneous, fun, mercurial

Three words HE/SHE would use to describe his/her personality: Exciting, happy, star

Favorite Quote: "There's always something." -Violet Baudelaire

Brief biography in 250 words or less: Fiona is Bree's biological sister, though they often lived separately when the family split up. Fiona ended up in foster care when her mother wasn't able to care for her properly or keep her safe. She was located again by the Green Family, and now lives with them. Fiona is an energetic and interesting kid. She loves theatre, musicals, and dance. She has some challenges, though, in that she has a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and sometimes acts out in response to her traumatic past. She is fun friend and a good sister, and has ambitions of Broadway someday.

***




Name: Evelyn


Age: 8

Where he/she attends school: Anglican parish elementary school

Favorite color: Purple

Favorite food: Pasta with meatballs and veggies

Personal Causes: Helping foster children, like she was

Favorite passtime: School and learning things, playing with her toy horses, playing outside, going to the park, gardening

Three words YOU would use to describe their personality: Active, smart, funny

Three words HE/SHE would use to describe his/her personality: Hyper, cuddly, playful

Favorite Quote: "It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home." -Author Unknown

Brief biography in 250 words or less: Evelyn spent much of her childhood so far in foster care with her biological siblings, although sometimes they were placed in different homes. Eventually, she was adopted, and she gained new adoptive family members, but she hopes that her biological siblings will be able to join her in her home in the future. Evelyn is the youngest child in her new home. She's a very energetic kid, and enjoys playing outside, but she is also very enthusiastic about school. Evelyn is a quick learner, eager to have new experiences and make new friends. She sometimes has trouble sitting still, but once her interest is captured, she becomes fully engrossed for the long haul.

Telling Our Stories: Kirsten, Felicity, Molly, and Charissa

This is Kirsten again. In one of our intro posts, we gave you a basic history of our family, but we said the details would wait for another post. Well, this is the first of them! We've decided to split it into sections for each of us, although me, Felicity, Molly, and Charissa are going to write ours together because most of it is the same for all of us.

So here goes:

Kirsten was born on Christmas Day, early in the morning.

Our parents were always... flaky. They weren't terrible or anything, but they were always searching for the next thing: the next business idea, or path to enlightenment, or philosophy, or belief system. Or whatever. They called it "pursuing fulfillment" but nothing seemed to fit the bill. Now that we're older, we've discussed it, and we think maybe they never found it because they were looking so hard they just never saw that happiness isn't something you have to go out and find, it's something you have to make for yourself.

Because of their kind of scattered lifestyle, our parents fought a lot. They separated several times, but they still managed to produce Felicity a year after Kirsten, and Molly two years after that. Then they were apart for awhile, the word "divorce" started getting thrown around... and then suddenly they were back together and having Charissa, two years after Molly was born.

We didn't really have one place that we lived. Even when we were with our parents, we moved a lot. And then periodically for months at a time, our parents would go off on one of their whims... joining the circus or joining a commune or backpacking through a tropical forest. While they were gone, we'd be left. With family members, with our parents' friends, sometimes with paid babysitters. It was a pretty unsettled life.

Eventually Blakeney decided to intervene. She's only twelve years older than Kirsten, but when she got old enough, she asked our parents to let us stay with her permanently. She didn't say it outright, but she hinted that she'd pursue legal action if they couldn't work out an arrangement. Our mom cried and our dad cursed, but we felt like ultimately they were relieved not to have the responsibility anymore. We came to live with Blakeney as our guardian, and we haven't had to move again.

When we moved in, our parents sent a big box of family papers along. We think they were just too lazy to hunt for our birth certificates, school files, and immunization records. There was a lot of other stuff in the box too, though. Going through it, we found out that Charissa had a different biological father.

In a way it wasn't really that much of a shock. Charissa has darker skin than us, and darker hair. Ever since she was a toddler, she definitely looked Latina. We asked our parents, because we figured we had an ancestor who was hispanic, but the blew us off. We thought maybe they'd argued with that relative, and that was why they didn't want to talk about it. It turns out that Charissa is the only one who is Latina, as the result of one of our parents' separations.

We were curious to meet her biological father; we found out who he was and met him once, but he wasn't interested in having an ongoing relationship. One thing did come out of that meeting, though. We found out Charissa had another half-sister, Josefina, who had a different mother.

We decided to get in touch with her too, and when we did, we learned that her mother was dead. She'd been going from relative to relative for awhile too. Her grandmother was looking for someone else to take care of her... so she came to live with us! Now she's the sister of all of us, not just Charissa. Josefina is going to do her own entry, though.

So that's all for now! Now you know the story of Kirsten, Felicity, Molly, and Charissa! :-)

Great Big Snow?

This is Kirsten! :-)

All day at school the other kids were talking about how we were supposed to get a big snowstorm. I thought they were just being optimistic because they wanted classes to be canceled tomorrow, but when I got home they were saying the same thing on the news. 

We went to the store to get extra groceries just in case, and it was packed! We stood in line for a long time, because everyone was worried we won't be able to shop for a couple of days.

Evelyn kept running to the window all evening, looking out for snow, but it didn't come. There's a layer of a few inches on the ground from a few days ago, but none was falling. Finally it was Evelyn's bedtime, and she was really disappointed.

Well, she got her wish, because about an hour ago it finally started falling! She'll be so excited when she wakes up. Everything will be covered with a blanket of snow. It'll be beautiful.

Of course, there are downsides to storms too. If we get stuck inside for too long, we'll get bored. We may also lose power. (Which means no blog - but more importantly, no lights or heat!) Either way, it'll be an adventure!

Love,

Kirsten in the Snow

P.S. Josefina says I should explain why I called this post "Great Big Snow." Where we live, a large tidal wave is called a great big sea. So since we're expecting a wave of snow... well, you get the idea! :-)