THE WORD, CONDITION-PRECEDENT TO WORLD

As Michael fills out high school applications, one question he recently faced was: "Describe a recent moment in school when you learned something about yourself (some call it an Ah-Ha moment)."

After we explained the concept of said "Ah-Ha moment," he replied by discussing how he confirmed his prior hope to keep up with the kids at his current school: "We were studying adverbs, verbs, nouns and pronouns and I realized I could do the problems, like the other kids in class!"

Good for the kiddo! We had not kept from him the results of his school's prior testing on his academic skills -- how he was rated about a year behind his classmates, by this particular school's standards. Such realization only made Michael more determined to work hard, which is why in the parent's recommendation section of the same high school application, we had shared how we so admire Michael's consistent refusal to back away from challenges.

And isn't it apt that Michael focused on language instead of other areas of improvement like math? Children need to be heard, a psychologist told me during our adoption journey, which means, yes, Children need to speak! It's a tragedy how "orphan" often comes to be defined as "the one who is unheard until s/he no longer bothers to speak." In his early days with us, Michael was quite a chatterer -- he could go for hours non-stop! With hindsight, perhaps it's because for the first time he had the full attention of listeners in us as his new parents.

Anyway, here's the latest official school photo -- already framed so forgive the glass glare -- of Senor Determination; we are so proud of you!