When I was much younger my parents would ask me, "Would you like to have a younger brother or sister?" My reply was always no. My reason: "I don't want to share my toys." I was an only child for twelve years, but then one day that all changed.

Two years ago, my parents announced they had decided to adopt a child from Korea. I was opposed to the idea. I thought they were nuts. All of a sudden I was going to have a sister? I learned, however, that having a younger sister can be nice.

Months later I found myself sitting in a car on a rainy highway going to Boston. We had received a call that she was coming. It took two and a half hours to get through rush-hour traffic. My parents were afraid we would miss her arrival, but the plane had been delayed.

After three hours of waiting, the plane finally arrived. We waited with other soon-to-be parents. Finally, our social worker came, carrying my sister, followed by a tired-looking Korean man. Mr. Lee was in charge of escorting my sister and had just spent thirty hours on a plane with two six-month-old babies. We gave him a gift, and went home with the baby, whom we had named Sarah. In the car she cried until I fed her a bottle, then fell asleep.

At first, I saw my sister as useless. She couldn't walk; she couldn't feed herself; she couldn't talk; and she couldn't play. As she grew older, though, I began to feel differently. As she began to crawl and walk, child-proof locks appeared on the cabinets in my house. These locks were necessary after I found my room covered with face paint from Halloween. The car, where she used to sleep, became a place of her unending chatter. I should have appreciated her silence while it lasted.

Now Sarah is two and a half and I'm 14. She likes me and always wants me to play with her. She wanted to talk to me on the phone from camp last summer. When we told her about going to school when she gets older, she wanted to know if I would go with her. Although she can be a pest, I love her.

The most important lesson that I learned from Sarah is change can be good. I can't imagine not having her around. My parents told me that I would grow to like her, and I have. I'm glad that my parents decided not to listen to me when I told them not to get her. I look forward to seeing her grow and do the things that I enjoyed when I was younger.

I learned that having a younger sister can be fun, and I'm glad that she's around. c