Suzanne and her family are looking forward to meeting you!

I live in the North Carolina mountains (it is so much fun here, so much to

do), and I have two cats, Rocky and Gracie. I enjoy visiting with my family,

we enjoy cooking together, but best of all, I get to spend time with my niece

Hannah (6) and nephew Michael (7). We enjoy playing together, making

cupcakes, swimming, art projects, and Let’s Dance on the Wii.

At home, I enjoy cooking, spending time outside at the park or river, craft

projects, games with friends and going to music performances. When I was

young, I enjoyed playing sports, dance classes and Girl Scouts.

I am hoping to meet one child or two siblings between the ages of three and

ten looking for their forever family (me!) and I am licensed by the state of

North Carolina to foster/adopt up to three children ages 0—18.

For more information, please contact

Roberta Yates (Roberta.Yates@watgov.org) or Caleb Jackson (Caleb.Jackson@watgov.org) at

Watauga County Social Services 828.265.8100.

Hi -

My name is Suzanne, and I hope this book helps you learn about me. I am

really anxious to meet you, and we can tell each other so much about all of

our favorite things, and have lots of fun making our own new family. Then

we can start our own book, just for us!

I was born in Virginia, to my Mom, Ruth and my Dad, Jerry. When I was lit-

tle, everyone called me Suzi—and my friends and family still do. We lived

really close to my grandparents, and they all tell me how much I used to like

baths! My Dad would always make sure there were LOTS of bubbles!

Every night when I went to bed, I made sure to take my favorite doll to bed

with me—when I got older, I liked my stuffed animals more! I wonder who

your favorites are?

When I was six, my sister Donna was born. My birthday is in November,

and her birthday is in January. I wonder when your birthday is?

Sometimes my Mom made us matching outfits with her sewing machine.

Where we grew up, we were able to walk to school, and also to the parks,

which were a lot of fun. I used to babysit her after school, and sometimes

we did not always agree about everything. But as we got older, we became

great friends,

Hi -

When I was growing up, my grandmother was very special to me. I spent a

lot of time with her, and I always called her Nana. I was always excited

when I could spend the night with her, and as I got older, she became one of

my best friends. Now that my Mom is a grandmother to my sister’s kids,

they call her Nana, too!

My Mom has two sisters, my Aunt Abbie, who lives in Georgia, and my Aunt

Margie, who lived in Maryland. We spent a lot of holidays together at her

house, and I always had fun with my cousins. Now they are grown up, and

have their own families.

When my sister Donna grew up, she got married to Mike. Now he is my

brother-in-law. Then, they had two children...first, my nephew, Michael and

then my niece, Hannah. She is a lot like me, and we even have the same

birthday, and the same favorite color—purple. I really love being their Aunt

Suzi!

When I was growing up, I liked to do things like being on the swim team,

playing soccer, ballet lessons, and being a girl scout. Now Hannah is a girl

scout—this year she was a Daisy. I also learned to play the violin, but didn’t

like that too much, so when I was older I played the piano and guitar.

I wonder what kind of things you like to do?

When I grew up, I realized that I did not like living in a big city, so I

decided to move to the mountains in North Carolina. It is so pretty here,

and there is always something fun to do. There are a lot of rivers and

creeks, so we can fish and swim and go tubing down the river. And

sometimes in winter, it really snows A LOT!

When my Mom retired from working, she decided that she liked it better

here just like I did—and guess what she did? She moved here, too!

When I moved to the mountains, there was already someone else in my

family living here—my cousin, Bill. He is my favorite cousin, and things are

always more fun with Bill around. He is very tall, very funny, and very, very

silly sometimes.

Sometimes we go hiking, and some of my favorite trails are the ones that go

by the cows. On some of them, you can walk right up to them! For some

reason I have always really liked cows, they are actually one of my favorite

animals. I hope we will be able to find a new house to buy next year with

enough room for us to have some chickens and miniature goats, but I am not

sure I will ever have enough room for our own cow!

I wonder which animals are your favorites?

I used to have a dog named Otis, and he loved to go camping, too. Otis was

a little different because he only had three legs, but he could run just as fast

as the other dogs. When we went hiking, any time we came to a creek , he

would always stick his head in the water and pull out a rock—then he would

run over and give it to me. I still have one of those rocks, and every time I

see it, I remember Otis and it makes me smile.

Now, I have two cats. The first one is Rocky, and he is ten. He was getting

a little lonely, so I adopted his sister, Gracie. They have become best

friends, and love to chase each other around, and then cuddle up for a nap.

I was thinking about adopting a new dog, but want to wait and make sure

that you like dogs, too—then maybe we will be able to adopt one together!

I thought I should tell you about some of the other things we like to do in

my family. For Easter, we always decorate eggs the night before. Then,

the next morning we always have an Easter egg hunt. And we always

have ham, and deviled eggs, for Easter dinner.

Birthdays are a lot of fun, too. It’s always neat to bake our own cup-

cakes, and then put frosting on them, just the way we like them, so of

course we do that! My grandmother used to bake us a cake for our

birthdays, and every time she made a cake, the middle fell in, so we al-

ways called them Nana’s drop cakes—but they always tasted so good!

I wonder what your favorite kind of cupcakes are?

Fourth of July is fun, but Michael doesn’t like all the loud noise the fireworks

make. Rocky and Gracie don’t like it too much, either!

Halloween is always lots of fun, carving pumpkins, decorating the house, and

of course, dressing up in costumes! There are so many different things you

can be, and it’s fun to try something different every year. Sometimes, even

Rocky and Gracie dress up!

For Christmas, it is always fun to go out to the farm and pick our own tree!

They actually grow them here where I live, everywhere you go, you see

Christmas tree farms. We try to get as many of us together for Christmas

as we can every year, and I make sure that Rocky and Gracie get to see

Santa, too!

Nana always likes to read bedtime stories, and sometimes it is fun to read

stories to her instead.

And when Nana makes barbecue dip, a big tradition in our family, the best

part is when we get to lick the mixing beaters.

I think I should tell you more about Michael and Hannah, since they would

love to be your new cousins. Michael is about to turn eight, and will be in

second grade,. Hannah will be seven this year, and starting first grade.

They always help each other out, and when they come to visit, we always

have lots of fun and adventures.

Some of the things we like to do together is make breakfast for everyone,,

and of course, sometimes we make cupcakes! We all like to swim, and there

is a great pool at Nana’s, which is really close to my house. And when it

snows, it is always fun!

My Dad likes to visit with all of us, too. But now, he is a little too sick to

come visit us, so we always go to visit him at his house in Virginia.

When my Dad was a little boy, he lived on a farm near the mountains in

Virginia with his foster family. When I was growing up, he always told me

stories about it, and sometimes he would go visit his foster mother after he

grew up. His foster family was very important to him.

And one more thing I should probably tell you about Hannah, sometimes

she just loves to be goofy...but then again, we all need to be goofy

sometimes—it’s a lot of fun!

I hope we can start having some fun together soon!