Meet Mikalie...

This is my niece Mikalie Joey Frei.  That's Joy, like what you experience when you find true love...  not Joey, like a  baby kangaroo..  It's a family name that she loves and fits her perfectly.  Mik, is what she likes, I call her Mikay.  She's amazing, so amazing in fact that I feel the need to make an entire post about her...

Mikay is 14 years old.  Sometimes she acts her age and sometimes she comes up with the most profound and insightful comments, I wonder if she's not really going on 30.  She's in the 8th grade.  If you listen to her talk about school you will realize that being in the 8th grade is a wonderful and very dramatic experience, unlike last year when she was just in 7th grade...  I think they call them... sevies?  She's much more mature now than when she was a sevie..  just ask her. She's a good student... but if she could text in all her assignments, I'm sure she would be an excellent student...  her thumbs are quick and accurate, but I'm sure she will need some sort of surgery on them by the time she is 17.

She wakes up at 5:00 am to take a shower and do her hair to meet a 7:15 bus.  Her hair is so long and beautiful, but takes her about 2 hours everyday to perfect and most days she comes home with it in a pony tail anyway.. I guess it doesn't matter what it looks like once everyone has seen it looking it's best for at least a few minutes each day.  I get that logic..  Some mornings I see her wearing three or four different shirts before she finally decides on exactly which one fits her daily mood best. 

She lives and breathes by her phone.  If she's misplaces it for even a minute (which, by the way, I have only seen happen once) the entire house comes to a standstill as the panic settles over us and we begin to follow the "lost cell phone" drill we've been taught.  To locate said phone, but don't touch it!!!  just point it out so that Mikalie can retrieve it.  Her phones is hands off for the rest of us.. don't answer it, don't open it, don't even look at it...  I suppose some of you might be saying that's because she must have something on there she doesn't want us to see...  maybe that's true at times, but she does still have a mom who frequently plays the "because I said so" card and reads through the text messages...  She's fairly tame in all that she says, but once I did she her get her mouthed soaped for using less than lady like language..  I have it on video just in case her future husband needs to see it...  She really is a good girl.

She is a photographer...  she loves the camera, she takes more pictures than I do if that's possible...  the difference between me and her is that she only has one subject.. herself.  There are memory cards full of pictures of her... all at arm's length or if she's feeling really creative, a picture of her taken in the mirror, with the camera out of view... It's a difficult shot really, takes practice and patience... she's the master of it.. all the pictures of her on this page is her work..  Most of the shots are in black and white, more dramatic that way, most with kissy lips and then various other accessories such as the "peace" sign, sunglasses, occasionally a friend or her brother...  she's good huh?  Helps to have a beautiful subject.. But what do I do with 200,000 pictures of Mikay???  

Mikalie is a friend of the people.  She is friendly with most everyone.  She doesn't really allow herself to fall victim to "clicks" or groups of people who have so much drama.  Mikalie believes in peace, love and happiness.  She would actually make a great hippie if she could stay away from the mirror for an hour or so and ditch the make-up.  She sort of flits around making friends where ever she goes.  She's a good friends but will bail if the person she is friends with is rude to another, or to her.  Oh, sure she's had her own girl drama it's true, but mostly because she ends up having to defend herself for hanging out with someone another person might not consider "cool" enough.  That is a big turn off for Mikay...  

 Mikalie is saved, she has a strong believe in Jesus Christ and wants to live according to His word.... she is also funny, witty, sensitive and sassy...  she has a mouth on her that will defeat even the best debaters...  She is fun to tease and most days takes it well.    She is giggly and dramatic and crazy..   I am proud beyond words of the way she has faced some very adult situations and survived with her head held high, still looking for the good this life has to offer.  I love having her as part of my family.  I look forward to watching her cut her own way through this crazy world...  She will definitely make a difference... watch and see!!