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Jaida had quite an eventful 2009. And so much of it, I never told you about.

For instance, last spring, Jaida saw an advertisement for the North East School of the Arts (NESA). It is a magnet program on the Lee High School campus here in San Antonio. They offer seven majors in the arts that a student can focus on while getting a high school diploma. Jaida completed an application, resumé, prepared 10 pages of original creative writing, and spent an entire day interviewing and auditioning. We were told we would receive a letter within two weeks letting us know if she was accepted into their program. We got a phone call two days later. Jaida was accepted into her first choice program, Creative Writing. She was thrilled! And we are so proud of her. Being at NESA means that she has a more intense workload than she would have otherwise, as she takes two elective Creative Writing classes in addition to her primarily Pre A/P courses. But Jaida has juggled her responsibilities well and kept her grades stellar.

Jaida on the first day of high school

After Jaida got accepted into NESA, she didn't spend her summer waiting for something exciting to happen in the fall. She had a busy summer of traveling planned. She left at the beginning of July for California to stay with her Grandpa Davis and Mama Ruth. For the last two summers she has attended camp at Park Creek Bible Camp and was selected as Best Camper in summer 2008. That meant her tuition at camp this summer was free! She spent a couple days with Grandpa, then a wonderful week at camp, and then a few more days with Grandpa. But she wasn't done having fun quite yet, because then she hopped a plane to Honolulu!

Jaida's best friend, Taylor, lived in the house behind us from the day we moved into housing at Fort Sam. It didn't take long for these two girls to become inseparable. Unfortunately, military orders often make separation inevitable and Taylor's family moved to Hawaii in December 2008. Jaida was crushed and missed Taylor desperately. So it only made sense that Jaida wanted to go visit. Jaida, being the brilliant child that she is, came to me one day and said that she didn't want anything for her birthday. She didn't want presents or a party. She just wanted to visit Taylor. Ryan and I thought that was pretty reasonable, so that's just what she did. Taylor's family graciously hosted Jaida for two fun-filled weeks that Jaida will never forget. Jaida made a weeklong stop in Oregon to visit family before she finally ventured home to us in San Antonio. We really missed her all those weeks but were so glad she had those experiences.

Together again and all smiles!

An ocean can't keep these girls apart.

While I'm already posting what I'm sure Jaida will consider a thoroughly embarrassing post, let me brag about her just a little more. When Jaida was in 7th grade, she found out that the child of one of her teachers was diagnosed with leukemia. It really upset her and she wanted to do something about it. Someone told her that if you collected a gallon sized jug of soda pop tabs you could use it to pay for one chemo treatment. She immediately set out to save as many pop tops as she could. Later she did some research and discovered that wasn't true. But the pop tops weren't completely useless, the Ronald McDonald house accepts them as donations and recycles them to help offset their expenses. Jaida continued to save pop tops for more than two years. She even told a few of her friends to save them and they spread the word and brought her their collections. When it became apparent that the pop tops were taking over our garage, I told Jaida it was time for them to serve their purpose. Jaida called the Ronald McDonald house in Houston and asked them if they would accept her donation, and they did. Jaida and I toured their building and learned about the families that come to stay there. It was very moving and I was so glad Jaida could see the impact of her efforts.

Jaida with a small sampling of the gift she brought that day.

I don't think 2010 is going to be any less exciting for Jaida, considering she was nominated to be a student ambassador to China with the People to People program. She is still working through the application and letters of recommendation and has interviews scheduled for next month. (I'm sure there will be more discussion of it on the blog, so keep an eye out for that.) Jaida IS still a teenager and still drives us crazy sometimes, but Ryan and I are impressed with the young lady that we are raising and are thankful that God gave us such a great kid!