Anna's birthday (very late)

Okay, this one is embarrassingly late, but again, better late than never. 23 years, one month, and one day ago, our 2nd daughter, Anna, joined our family. Life has never been the same! Although if you compare pictures of them at similar ages up through about 2 or 3 years old, Erin and Anna look strikingly similar, they couldn't be much more different personality-wise. Anna was always a happy baby, and was fun to be around. Then, she started to grow up.

While in the ensuing years she was not always fun to be around, she has always made life interesting. And even when she was being a bit "difficult" at home, we would often get reports from other adults about how much they enjoyed being around her. Thankfully, she eventually decided that she liked her family, and is back to being fun for us at home as well.

She is always looking for new adventures, new experiences, and unique opportunities. She has always been a very loyal friend, and often befriends and tries to help out those not as fortunate as she is. In many ways, she has been one to avoid anything that she perceived as being "hard," but has learned through several experiences, notably a youth pioneer handcart trek, and more recently her mission to Armenia, that she can do hard things, and that they are often actually worth doing. School is one thing that has not always been easy for her, but she has, with a little encouragement and prompting, worked through the challenges and gotten good grades.

She has always been very creative, especially in her writing, as everyone who read her mission e-mails knows. She, like her sister, is a talented singer, even though she hasn't always been eager to share this talent. We are glad that lately she has been more willing to develop and share this talent. We gave her a ukulele for her birthday (at her request), and she has attacked learning to play it with great enthusiasm.

We are so glad that Anna is a part of our family, and look forward to continuing to "hang on for the ride" as we experience life with her.

Happy very late Birthday, Anna!