Melissa Vaughn experienced a kind of love at first sight with Jenny, the girl she and her husband Jack adopted two years ago. "It was a meant-to-be kind of thing," Melissa said. Mother and daughter met at Tulip Grove Elementary School in Hermitage, Tennessee where Melissa was one of Jenny's aides in a classroom for students with multiple handicaps. She remembers Jenny as a plain, shy girl going on seven years old. Jenny's inability to walk or talk drew plenty of curious stares from passers by. But to Melissa, Jenny looked like an angel. Melissa quickly came to believe in Jenny despite the girl's mental retardation and disabilities from cerebral palsy that require her to use a wheelchair as her feet and a DynaVox 3100 as her voice. Melissa wanted to give Jenny, who lived with a foster family at the time, a permanent home where she would have the stability and support she needed to reach her potential in life. Already the proud mother of two sons, Melissa knew that that the odds did not favor her having another biological child. She plunged wholeheartedly into the process of becoming Jenny's foster mother and started adoption proceedings. But Jack was hesitant—even after Jenny greeted him with a kiss one day when he visited his wife at school. So plans for Jenny to join the family went on hold. Two weeks later, Jack surprised Melissa by announcing that he had changed his mind. On March 13, 1998—a Friday—the couple, former high school sweethearts, became foster parents. They consider it one of the luckiest days of their lives. Melissa eventually quit her job at Tulip Grove to work part-time for an eye doctor. When she and Jack later adopted Jenny, she quit to become a full-time mom. Given the extent of Jenny's health issues, the Vaughns took on what many parents would consider a daunting responsibility. In addition to her various disabilities, Jenny has a seizure disorder and a condition known as hemolytic uremic syndrome from a shutdown of her kidneys at birth. She had strabismus, the tendency for her eyes to cross inward or outward, until the problem was corrected with surgery. Parenthood is such a busy job for the Vaughns that when Melissa and Jack went to a movie last spring, it marked their first date alone in five years. But the big sacrifices haven't stifled the love between Jenny and her family. Now 12, Jenny remains an easily startled girl, but her once timid ways are melting into vivaciousness. "It's absolutely miraculous," Melissa said. Melissa Vaughn wasn't sure how her sons Joshua, now15 and Justin, 13, would like having a sister, so the warm welcome that they gave Jenny was a happy surprise. The boys often fight over who will push Jenny in her wheelchair, but Melissa is touched by their protectiveness. They're watchful when Jenny, who lacks control of her trunk, stands for brief periods in a hydraulic device that prompts her to pick herself up. On family outings, they take turns carrying their sister to give their parents a break. Jenny, in turn, is a responsive yet contented member of the family. She likes to curl up on her daddy's recliner while watching his big-screen television or sit on someone's lap with a book in front of her. "She would let you read to her 24/7," said Melissa Vaughn. Jenny shows her livelier side when she cheers on her brothers at their baseball games by pressing a button on the DynaVox to shout "Let's go, Josh!" or "Let's go, Justin!" With her family's encouragement, Jenny uses her own voice to say "yes," "no" and "How doin'?" when she greets people. She says "Mama," Dada," "Bubba" and "Diggaboy"—the respective nicknames that she created for Justin and Josh. As Jenny becomes a chatty pre-teenager, the DynaVox is proving to be one of her best resources. It has helped her to master the names of colors and numbers. She can describe places, feelings, and objects. The titles of her communication pages include "Jenny" (containing general information that tells who she is), "Basic Needs" and "Social" (containing phrases such as "Thank you," You're welcome," and "Excuse me".) At Harris Hillman, the private school in Nashville that she now attends, Jenny enjoys the freedom of ordering items for herself in the cafeteria. Like most girls her age, Jenny is starting to care more about her appearance. "She's a little fufu girl," said her mother. "The more she's dressed up, the more she likes it." Last winter, Jenny was named Harris Hillman's Valentine Queen by popular vote, confirming something that Melissa Vaughn always believed—that her daughter is a people person at heart. "She really doesn't know a stranger. She'll talk to you forever."