JAELA UPDATE

In my last post, I told you about the arrival of JAELA RAVEN.  Well, Jaela has been with us for almost five months now.  She has settled in with Sarah and Maggie and Jane, who is just one street away from Sarah's apartment.  I find it amazing that Jaela made the transition from New Mexico to DC with such ease. 

She loves her new family, her new home, her new school, her new friends, her new life and her.... ummm...new everything!  

She turned 10 in October and is very tall for her age so people tend to think she is older than she is. In fact, she sometimes says things that are quite grown up and is careful to maintain her cool kid image.

Jaela is forever on the move. She has tried flag football, cross country, go-karting, basketball, insisted on cutting off her hair to look like one of her BTS Korean boy band heroes, and has decided that she probably won't be an astronaut but a pop singer!

She is quite the tomboy and steers away from anything pink and has never been seen in a dress.  She doesn't like having her photo taken so we don't have a lot of photos.  But she is very curious about who's who in the Newport family and studies old photo albums with great interest.  And, more recently, she has been doing some paintings.

Jaela was very excited about Halloween and got a wolf mask which made her look terrifying!  The school suggested she tone it down a bit so she ended up in an FBI assault uniform for the school's Halloween parade but still went trick or treating in her wolf mask!  

There are so many "firsts" that it is difficult to keep up with them. She went with Sarah and her friend, Lindsay, and her 10 year old son, Euan, to Ocean City in Maryland.  She saw the ocean for the first time.  

She had her first school report which was really good.  She went to her first theater show last Wednesday, courtesy Jose, and just about every day is a "first" for something.  You would think it might be a little overwhelming but she seems to take everything in her stride.  No drama Jaela. 

So, we look forward to 2022 and a lot more "firsts;" but also a lot more days which are plain old ordinary days and just as enjoyable and wonderful as all the firsts!

Maggie & Jaela--best of friends!