This Is Mei

(Marissa)

This is my little sister.

She took these pictures herself.

And said OK when I asked her if I could put them on.

This would have been me if someone had asked me that.

This is my little sister. My mom said that I can't use her name on here (because of safety concerns that I can't remember) so we're going to call her Mei (pronounced "may") because that is how you say "little sister" in Chinese and I can refer to her as that. Somehow none of her middle names don't really stick in my mind. Plus, you couldn't pronounce two out of the three of them.

So.

This is Mei. She is twelve, thirteen in September. Which makes me feel old because I remember when she was born. I went to an adopted grandmother's house, ate cookies and then slept over at friends house. It was a good day. I had no clear idea what was going on, even though I'd been determinedly praying for a little sister for a year before God felt inclined to grant my request.

This is Mei. She is reading the Old Testament right now. I have never read the Old Testament. I walk into the kitchen from watching some stupid TV show on the computer and find her reciting Daniel out loud, which is her preferred way of reading. She already can correct my spelling. (Not that that's saying a whole lot. I inherited bad spelling from my dad. It's not my fault. It's genetic.) She loves science and math and just about everything. Mei has never come up against something that she couldn't get excited about. I think it's an enviable quality.

This is Mei. She is polite in the extreme. All the waitresses on Maui were in love with her. One told her that she had terrific manners, another one commented on the "sparkle in her eye." Mei uses "thank you" and "sorry" as fillers when she talks, because they come more naturally than "um." She tells me she loves me at least nine times a day, randomly, whenever she sees me, as if she is afraid that I might have forgotten. She used to stand at the door and wave us down the street, shouting that she loved us until we told her that it made us feel like we were going off to war and might die. Now she just does it from the window, under her breath.

This is Mei, my little sister, who isn't so little anymore. She has already gotten proposed to. That didn't happen to me until I was in eighth grade. She getting to the point where I am concerned about her getting taller than me. I've informed her that she isn't allowed to let that happen.

This is Mei. She has the sweetest spirit of anyone I've ever met. I know she isn't perfect, but I'll be darned if I can think of how. I figure, if heaven sent me an angel for a little sister by mistake then it's too late for them to take her back now.

Over.