Elizabeth Robbins stands by the Christmas tree decorated with handmade ornaments in her familys living room.
Elizabeth Robbins wants to be a doctor when she grows up. For now, she is 12 and in the seventh grade at Pen Bay Christian School. Getting good grades is important to her and she works hard on her homework.
In her spare time, Elizabeth practices singing, her favorites being Christmas carols and songs from “The Phantom of the Opera.” She also watches birds at the feeder from the living room window whenever she can, goes horseback riding, or sits down with a book about American history sprinkled in with tales of fantasy.
Elizabeth came to the United States from Guizhou, China in a rural area of rice terraces, and became the daughter of Linda Robbins when she was 2 1/2 years old. But she was born without a roof in her mouth and with a cleft lip. She was not able to form words. She also knew no English.
Over the years, Elizabeth has undergone 12 operations at the Shriners Children’s New England in Springfield, Mass. under the care of the kind and encouraging Dr. Stoddard. She’s learned English and, thanks to speech therapy and the operations, speaks with almost perfect fluidity. It was in speech therapy in exercises singing words that teachers discovered Elizabeth’s remarkable gift — perfect pitch conjoined with a crystalline soprano voice. This year she will be singing a duet in her school’s Christmas concert.
Elizabeth faces one more surgery this winter, which surely is in the back of her mind. But right now, Christmas is in the front of her thoughts.
“Christmas makes me think about God’s son coming here and that feels like a miracle. It makes me love singing carols and hymns like ‘Silent Night,’ ‘Oh Holy Night,’ and ‘Mary, Did You Know?’. I don’t think about how dark it is outside. What I see are all the sunsets and the sunrises. And now we have a telescope for looking at the moon and stars at night. We’re going to figure out how to use it this Christmas break.
“My Christmas wish is for Russia to leave Ukraine and the fighting to end.
“I wish for diseases like COVID and flu to disappear. Especially in school.
“And I want people to be kinder to each other.
“I love getting ready for Christmas. Like the tree and Christmas decorations. All of our ornaments have memories in them. When Christmas Eve comes, we put treats and little things in our stockings and after, we go upstairs and watch a movie like ‘The Nativity Story’ before going to bed. Christmas morning, we have a big breakfast with lots and lots of bacon. It’s the only time of year we do that. I love bacon. Then, all our family comes over and we have a blast being together and opening presents. For Christmas dinner, we have lamb.
“I’d like a nice, medium-sized drone that I could use to fly over the trees and look at birds. That would be really cool. Maybe the birds would think, ‘What’s that black thing flying over me?’ But I could see them from above, and see their nests, too.
“Two years ago, we had a crowd of bluebirds, but the next year they didn’t come back. I kept putting out food, especially for the bluebirds. We put up bluebird houses, too. But nothing happened. And then, last year we had two couples. And they had little babies, and they flew to another part of our yard, and I took pictures. And then they went away. I hope they’ll be back.
“I love Waldoboro because of the nature all around us. And because we have water near us, like lakes and the ocean. And because people know each other. And because we feel safe. If I had a wish, it would be adding on to the library so we could have even more books.
“Our tree is cool because it’s not real, so we can keep it up until April and not have to vacuum it when it dies. In January we take off the Christmas decorations so we can put on Chinese decorations for Chinese New Year. I was born in the year of the tiger. My mom is a rat. I’m not sure what that means.
“I just know she’s the person who gives me hope. She inspires me to do my very best at school. She helps me with my homework, even with math, which she doesn’t like, and with language and writing essays which I’m not good at. She gives me courage, because when I fall, she is there. And she makes me feel I can do whatever I need to do.
“My nana is another important person to me. A couple of years ago she had me to breakfast every day. For two years I got up early and walked up the hill to her house, and when I got there, she’d have breakfast ready, along with algebra exercises that we did together. Then my mom would drive me to school. I think Nana’s the reason that math is my favorite subject. Then COVID came, and I couldn’t see her much. She’s 94. She still teaches me how to save my money. And how to save it wisely like she has.
“Friends of my mother told us about a group of people in Ukraine who were turning an old building into apartments for refugees, and they needed supplies. I was glad I had savings so I could send some to help.
“But the thing I’m proudest of is that I’ve made it through 12 surgeries. Whenever someone tells me they’re scared of something hard, I tell them, ‘Don’t fight it. Try and conquer it. Because you can do it if you try.’”
