The Day I Adopted Phoebe

By Lochlainn M

This essay was written as part of Lochlainn's 4th grade MCAS requirement.

"Tonight’s the night," my mom whispered in my tired ear. "What?" I said half asleep. "Phoebe’s coming and..." That’s all I needed to hear. I sprung out of bed so fast I nearly fell over! "Phoebe? We need to get ready!" I was about to dart to her pile of toys, when my mom said, "Today is Math Wizards at school. It’s 7:21 a.m... You have about 20 minutes." I grinned, "That’s enough time for me." My mom gave me a look. I frowned. "You have to get ready for school," she said.

Later while eating breakfast, I wondered if Phoebe would still look like the picture from 2 months ago. Finally, I dragged myself to the car, having no idea that at that moment Phoebe and I were only 12 hours apart.

About 5 people were in my class when I got there. My teacher was running late, so I told the substitute teacher my news. For someone who didn’t know me well, she was quite happy. All the kids sitting at my table were fussing about the situation. "What?" "When is she coming?" "You’re so lucky!" "I have to see a picture!" When my teacher arrived later, the first words she said were, "What’s going on?" I told her. You should have seen the look on her face. "Oh my gosh, Lochlainn…I have to see her!" And that was only the beginning of the crazy school day.

When school really started, all you could hear was, "Phoebe’s coming tonight!" For once the spotlight was on me. I sped into homeroom. I thought to myself, I’ll try my hardest to keep my concentration. Math... Writing... Science... They all passed my head as thoughts of Phoebe took over.

At 3:05 the speeding bullet known as Lochlainn was home. After my dad put up the balloons, he said, "I bought some thick paper. We can draw some signs for Phoebe to see at the airport." So, we drew some signs and waited for my cousins to arrive.

When my cousins they made welcome home signs too and we waited for the limo to take us to the airport. When the limo arrived, we all got in and drove away from the sunset into the darkness.

In the limo my cousins and I chatted and ate cookies. We had brought a movie with us but were too excited to watch it.

When we arrived at the airport, we went to find something to eat. My cousin was so excited, he couldn’t breathe! We started eating our food and I began to think of what wonderful things lay ahead of me.

We went to the meeting area, I started to feel shaky. We waited a long time wondering if the luggage that passed by somehow contained Phoebe. When she finally arrived I had no idea it was her until they handed her to my mom. My mom and aunt were crying. It was the best moment of my life. And then Phoebe smiled at me. She didn’t smile at anyone else. Just me - her big brother. Just me.

On the ride home, Phoebe slept and we took more pictures. It was late when we got home and we all had to go to bed, but tonight there was someone else going to sleep in our house that we had waited a long time for – my new sister, Phoebe.

*Phoebe Jee Yung made her amazing journey home to her brother, Lochlainn and her parents, Kelly and Mark, on February 23, 2004.

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