Heather Norma

Heather, my girl. Heather is such a delightful teenager. She is seventeen years old and really causes us very little grief. Heather has been living with us for almost three years now, and things have been fantastic. She is very pleasant and happy and likes to make people laugh. Heather is a great big sister, she is best friends with Natasha, she is finding common ground with Peter, is learning a lot from David and loves to sit in front of Zac and make him laugh and smile. She is very helpful and willingly baby-sits for me when I need her to. When I first met Heather, she was eight years old and was a little awkward with affection, but we desperately craving it. Since then Heather has become our hugger. She has no problems with throwing her arms around us and telling us how much she loves us. She is even starting to turn her Grandpa and Grandma Yanos into more affectionate people. If Grandpa Yanos doesn't get his hug from her, he starts teasing her until he gets it - and she loves every minute of it!
Heather is very intelligent as well. She retains information like no one I know. It sometimes takes her some time to understand a concept, but once she has learned it, she retains it forever, and generally the only reason she has a hard time learning a concept is because she was doodling when her teacher was explaining it!
Heather loves to draw and paint and has done some fabulous artwork. Her favourite thing to draw seems to be dresses. Very often she sits down a doodles different dresses all over a page. She is also quite good at drawing flowers. We've had fun discussing her drawings on several occasions. Heather also loves to write songs. This is one of the first things that we bonded over when she moved in with us. She would sing me the songs that she was working on and ask for my suggestions and then we would adapt them and work on them together.

Seventeen Things I love about Heather:
1. You are always happy
2. You love to explore fashion and choose different combinations for your clothes.
3. You are willing to try all kinds of crazy foods with me.
4. You are a great example to your brothers and sister.
5. You have fantastic hair

6. You have fought against some really difficult surroundings to become the person that you are today.
7. You teach me daily through your example and positive attitude.
8. With all the stuff going on in your life, you still chose, at 15 years old, to be baptized, and it was completely your decision.
9. You love nail polish and try different designs - reminds me of me at your age
10. You have matured so much over the last couple of years
11. You make me laugh
12. The way you read. I can't even describe it, but I could listen to you read out loud all day
13. You are completely honest with me
14. You have never faltered in your love of the colour pink
15. You find joy in laughing with your brothers
16. You are best friends with your little sister
17. You really appreciate what I do for you, and that makes me thrilled to keep doing what I do and want to do more

Heather, you are a fantastic person. You have had some unique trials in your life and you have used them as stepping stones to make you a stronger and better person. You have been an amazing addition to our family and I am so glad that you chose to come and live with us. Always remember that you make a difference in the world. Everything that you do is important and matters. We love having you in our family and I am so lucky to be your mom.

Love, Mom

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