Hi My Name is Rachel Claire and I Have No Life

If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I have absolutely no life. None. At all. My social life consists of merely three things: Lifeteen, home school group, and all of my lovely brothers and sisters. I have six of them, to be exact. Three little brothers and three sisters, one older and two younger. Including me, that's seven. Just the right amount to have.

One of my little brothers, Maximilian Kolbe, was born with Down syndrome. I absolutely adore him. He's got the most perfect chubby cheeks and beautiful almond shaped brown eyes.  In the three years that he's been in my life, he's taught me more about love than I could have ever discovered on my own. It just comes naturally to him.

This is Benedict. At 13 1/2 months old, he's the baby of the family. My older sister, Kateri, is his favorite person in the entire world. For no reason. She doesn't even play with him that much! He's just, like, obsessed with her to the point where he doesn't care about the rest of us. (Little turd.)

And this is my third little brother, Michael. He's eight. Isn't he handsome? He's one of the funniest kids that I know. (Hence the finger in the nose. Classic!) I love him even though he won't let me kiss him.

These are my sisters. From the left: Hannah (13), Savina (10), yours truly (16), Kateri (18), and the-kid-that's-not-really-a-sister-but-was-just-far-too-cute-not-to-include-in-the-picture (we call him Benedict for short). Anyways, can you tell that we love each other? And yes, we did take a mirror picture with the laptop. Please forgive us. We're dorks and we can't help it. I love these girls to death and my life would be empty, boring, and just plain suckish without them.
As I mentioned before, I'm homeschooled. I'm currently in the 10th grade. I actually... like it, as weird as it seems. But I do. I love being able to wake up at nine every morning, helping my mom with the sibs for a couple of hours, and then finishing school in three and a half hours. I'm closer to my family than I would ever be if I went to a public school. I do have teachers because I'm in an online school, but they're all amazing and I couldn't ask for better people to help me waltz down the road of education. (That's how much fun school is. I metaphorically dance through it. No joke.)
Lifeteen is huge in my life. It's taught me to not only live my faith, but to LOVE it at the same time. I've gained so many amazing friends, some beautiful memories, and lots of support through my hardest points in my teenage life. The best part is that it ain't over, baby, 'cause I'm only halfway through!
A couple days ago, my best friend Marisa (a fellow homeschooler) and I were in a carpool on our way to XLT (a night of praise and Adoration created by Lifeteen). The youth minister was lecturing us to bring some friends to Lifeteen. Marisa said it best: "All of my friends are already IN Lifeteen." Truer words have never been spoken. I. Have. No. Life.
But I'm happy. I'm lacking in a social life, but my God's given me Life that would beat having trillions of friends any day. And no, I am not just saying that because I have no friends. Well, kind of.  Just kidding, I have friends. But I'm mostly saying it because it's true. I am blessed by God and not afraid to say it!