Family Stories About Adoption
The Harrison Family
The Last New School
We have had Latisha for almost a year now. It’s hard to imagine when she wasn’t in our lives; however, we’ve all been through some major adjustments and are facing new adventures every day.
When she arrived in our home, Latisha went right to school, specifically, the eighth grade. She came from a town of about 900 and ended up in a middle school of over 2000 students. Needless to say, this was a BIG change for Latisha. Remarkably, she did an amazing job of fitting in. A social girl, her number one task was to make friends and find her circle. That task was readily accomplished.
Some of the new experiences she had included a hurricane evacuation the second week we had her. What should’ve been a 3 hour drive turned into a 9 hour trek to her new first cousin’s house. It ended up being a great way to spend time together and meet new family, but we don’t ever want to do that again!
School was a bit of trouble as the curriculum was slightly different and the whole year felt like missing the first part of a movie – always thinking there is something she needed to know, but not knowing what that was. Her teachers were available for tutoring and her year end grades were all A’s and B’s. Latisha also won an end-of-year award for being an outstanding 8th grade student. We were so proud of her (still are, of course).
The summer passed and Latisha went to volleyball camp and open gym. Before the start of her freshman year, she tried out for the high school team and made it! This is her first time to ever be on a real school team. She is a good player and is improving all the time.
Her high school is very big – approximately 4000 students, but that’s no big deal to Latisha any longer. She’s a freshman in her last new school starting her year “just like everyone else” and it feels great!