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Meet Nelly: A role model at 14

She's quite the artist!

Fourteen-year-old Nelly is an attentive student, in the classroom and in the art studio.

The dark-haired teen is focused while painting a smiling cupcake and listening to Cheryl Tisland, owner and instructor of Burst of Butterflies Create and Paint Studios in downtown Chandler, as she guides Nelly step by step from blank canvas to finished work of art. The process often provokes laughter from the beaming Nelly.

Painting and drawing are her favorite pastimes, Nelly says. She also enjoys singing, dance, doing crossword puzzles and watching the Disney Channel.

“Nelly is very polite,” says Brianna Rossi, a Wendy's Wonderful Kids adoption recruiter with Aid to Adoption of Special Kids (AASK). “She is a great role model for the other children in her current foster home.”

Nelly is in the eighth grade and loves school. She has special learning needs being met through an individual education plan, Rossi says.

“Nelly would thrive in a two-parent family with parents who have experience with children in foster care, or experience raising their own biological children,” says Rossi.

“She'll do well in a home with other children – younger children or older children,” Rossi says, adding that Nelly also loves pets.

Nelly does best with a structured routine in which next steps are clearly explained and she knows what to expect, Rossi says.

At Burst of Butterflies, having each step explained allowed Nelly to produce a cupcake painting good enough to eat.

Watch the stories of children in foster care waiting on forever families each week on the Wednesday's Child segment each week between 5-6 a.m. on 12 News (KPNX). You can also view previously aired stories at www.aask-az.org.

For more information on children eligible for adoption, call Aid to Adoption of Special Kids (AASK) at 602-930-4900, or visit www.aask-az.org.

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