Sweet Sixteen

 

Sixteen years ago, my dream finally came true with the birth of Nadia Renee, whose name means hope reborn. We began celebrating her birthday at 7 pm on June 11. Three of her friends (Leila, Faith, and Julianna) and Pop Pop met us at the bowling alley in Milton. I had rented two lanes for two hours It turned out we had the whole place to ourselves. Pop Pop brought sugar cookies from Aunt Millie's bakery as Nadia had requested. The three girls then spent the night at our house. Ian and Oliver joined them for a game of manhunt outside, and then the girls hung out in the family room until they went to sleep around 1:00 am. They played more games the next morning. Faith and Julianna were picked up sometime between 10-11, and Leila was picked up around 2:30 pm. Nadia received money, an Amazon gift card, a shirt, and a book from her friends. We gave her puzzles, a portable phone charger, earrings, Wheat Thins, peanut butter pretzels, and a roundtrip ticket to Chicago so that she can spend five days with Rachel. June 13, we spent the day with most of the Towfighis at HersheyPark, which was the day before Andrew's 19th birthday. Nadia's actual birthday will be spent at Canada's Wonderland, which is an amusement park near Toronto. We splurged and got the tickets that also include food and drinks. She has a physical scheduled for tomorrow, and at that appointment the medical portion of her learner's permit application can be signed. She plans to take the driver test later this week. 

Here are sixteen ways she's changed over the past six months.

1. She has begun taking guitar lessons. If she continues to practice faithfully, we're planning to buy her a better guitar than the hand me down she inherited from her cousin.

2. She recently resumed taking piano lessons with me. I honestly didn't think this would ever happen. It's 100% at her initiative right now. 

3. She had her largest role in a musical to date as she played the part of Mrs. Mayor in Seussical. She's hoping to start taking voice lessons in the fall.

4. She visited South America for the first time. 

5. She completed three more college classes through Grand Canyon University - English Composition, World History, and a Communications class. After completing five courses, her GPA there is 3.94.

6. She was appointed to be the team captain for our church's "B" team at the Bible quizzing Nationals last week. She qualified to be in the finals of the individuals, and the team she was on qualified to be in the top division of the finals! Her performance at Nationals was SO much better than the first three years she participated. 

7. She was offered a job to work at Camp Susque this summer for four weeks. 

8. She's been working on jigsaw puzzles almost every day. 

9. She's recently gotten in the habit of drinking a glass of milk every day. Since she almost always skips breakfast, I'm glad she's drinking milk, but it has meant that I need to buy milk more often. She eats breakfast when we are staying at hotels, and she also eats it when we have Cinnabon cereal.

10. Hot pockets are still her favorite lunch, but when we don't have those, she's not been always having grilled cheese sandwiches as she had done for quite a while. She's recently discovered she enjoys having a tuna salad sandwich for lunch, for example. 

11. She's been studying to take the test for her learner's permit. Driving here we come!

12. Her closest friends at the moment (aside from her cousin, Rachel) include Leila, Faith, and Julianna.

13. She completed Marine Biology in science this school year. Next up is chemistry.

14. She completed a course in Algebra 2 this school year. She had an easier time with this class than she did with Algebra 1 or Geometry. Next up is pre-calculus. 

15. She registered to take three classes (worth a total of seven credits) at Liberty University this fall.

16. She's been using the iPad less, which means she's hardly been watching any shows, which means she's been having less screen time.