Darin's Talents

Darin's Sunday School teacher asked us to write-up a few talents that we felt Darin possessed.  I thought it would be good to include this in our book.  Hopefully at some point I will have time to write up something like this about all of our children but in the meantime I didn't want to miss out of posting something that I've already done...

Darin has so many talents that we love!  It’s hard to pick just five but I would say the greatest talents we have admired about him are:

• He is always smiley!  It seems almost as if he cannot help but smile and his smile is infectious.  He is naturally optimistic and he rarely lets things get him down.  He is a positive example to our whole family and always lifts our spirits!
• Darin is very smart and an independent learner!  He is really good at math and science and has always done well in school.  But even more then that we admire how he is naturally curious and he likes to experiment and try out new things.  He also likes to brainstorm about how he can make things.
•  He reaches out to other people and welcomes everyone to be his friend!  Darin does not care if kids are “popular” or not so popular.  He tries to find common things that he likes with everyone and will have no problem inviting them over to do it with him.  He also hates to see people not included so he will reach out to them.
• Darin is strong-willed!  He is not afraid to say what he wants and to go after it.  He will also stand-up to people who are bullying or pressuring him and his friends to do something wrong.  Even if he has to do the right thing by himself he will still do it.  Another part of him being strong-willed is that he is persistent about what he wants and he will work hard to go after it.
• He is an awesome big brother!  He is helpful and he also does a good job of teaching his brother and sisters.  He teaches them with his example, but he also likes to teach them how to do new things or play new games.  He is pretty patient with them and thinks of them often.  When he goes away to scout camp or other places he often brings home little surprises for his siblings.  Or if he sees something cool that they might like, like a turtle, frog, walking stick bug, etc. he will catch it and give it to them.  We have also been impressed with how he has been more conscious of not trying to boss them around this summer.  He has become a close confident of Nathan because of that.