You all remember my cousin Allie? If not, I'll tell you about her briefly. Allie is a couple of years younger than me and she's from Germany. Her father (my mom's brother) is in the military and sadly her mom passed away a few years ago. I hadn't seen her since she was a baby when my parents suddenly announced she was coming to live with us and would need to share my bedroom. That was over a year ago, and I love having Allie here now. We're really different, but she's still a lot of fun. But lately, I've been really worried about her.
Around Hanukkah, Allie's dad came to visit. It was really wonderful... I'd never seen her as happy as she was when he was here. She and her daddy are really close. Our whole family did a lot of stuff together while he was here, but he had to leave too quickly. Allie has been really down since then. I mean, I understand that she misses her dad, but I still hate to see her so sad.
She's been talking about going back to Germany to stay with her godmother, Frida. She used to live with her, but she came here when Frida got too sickly to handle a kid. Frida is healthier now and would love to have Allie back, but we'd all hate to have her go. My parents say Allie has to make her own decision... I just don't know what she'll decide.
Any ideas how I can help her stop feeling so sad so she won't want to leave?
