Hailie is my oldest daughter.  She’s now 13 years old.  She is a smart and kind young lady.  She loves spending time with me.  However, she’s every bit the teenager.  She has the typical teenage attitude and is wanting to become more independent.  She will let you know if she doesn’t like something.  When she speaks up, you aren’t left trying to figure out how she feels about something, she lets you know.

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Hailie loves cats.  If she had her way, we would have at least a dozen cats in the house and feed every stray around.  Her favorite cat is Harmony.  Harmony is a cat that came from a friend’s orchard.  She was getting too friendly and would get underfoot tripping others up.  So, we were more than willing to take Harmony off their hands.  For a long time, Harmony was a sweet and playful cat, but as she has gotten older, she’s become less friendly.  She will let someone stroke her, but if you try picking her up, she’s gone.  She will come in the house at times, but when she’s ready to go out, she will let you know.  She will stand at the door and meow until you let her out.

Over the years we have had other cats and kittens come into our home, however, Harmony is still Hailie’s favorite cat. Hailie has seen kittens born and watched them grow up. She has seen some of the kittens die. She cries at the loss of kittens who don’t survive the first year. One of her favorite kittens, that didn’t survive the first year, was Buddy. He was quite a different kitten, however, he was the runt and never gained weight while the other kittens thrived. Hailie cried when we woke up one morning to find Buddy almost dead. She sat close to him as his lifeless body slowly turned cold. She didn’t want to go to school that day, but we told her that she had to. We buried Buddy while she was at school. He rests in our backyard next to one other kitten that Hailie fell in love with only to later loose.

Hailie also loves to sing and she has a beautiful voice. She can be heard singing throughout the day. She puts her heart into every song she sings. Hailie has been singing since she was 4 years old and now sings in her school chorus. I would love for her to take voice lessons, but don’t have the money.

Hailie also likes to draw and will sometimes draw in her free time.

She also likes to play softball.  We have tried to get her involved in other sports but softball is the only one that has stuck.  She has been playing baseball then softball since she was 4 years old.

She loves spending time with her great-grandmother. They have a very special bond between them. She will go over there and help out whenever she can. She also will just go over there to just be there. If we would let her, Hailie would willingly move in with her great-grandmother.

Her favorite food is Mexican rice. She loves trying different Mexican places so she can get her favorite rice.

Hailie also loves working with younger children. She volunteers to help with the kids at church during seminars and other special events. She’s also been a huge help with her siblings. She will always watch them if I’m busy with other things, or if I need to run out for a few minutes. She and Leslie also seem to have a special bond. If Lorianna is having seizures, Hailie’s right there, helping to sit with her, to watch her or to help in any way that I need.

Something else that Hailie likes is traveling. She loves going to Gatlinburg and had a lot of fun when we went to Florida. I think she would like to travel more, if we had the money to do so.

Hailie doesn’t yet know what she wants to do when she gets older, but I could see her working with animals or teaching children. These are things that she seems to enjoy. I think she would also enjoy working with computers. Technology is one of her favorite subjects at school. She also likes math and science. We try to encourage her, but she just doesn’t seem to know what she wants yet. However, whenever she does decide, we will do everything we can to help her reach her dreams. She is smart enough to do whatever she sets her mind to.