Emmi Hurley, 15, has learned to dissipate her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - ADHD - through her hands.
Watching her crochet part of an American flag blanket, Emmi's fingers move with machine-like precision. Sometimes she crochets up to four hours a day while watching movies or listening to school lessons online.
"It calms me down," explains Emmi, who was adopted by her American parents from China when she was 13 months old. "My brain does not produce a chemical that normal people have to sit down and focus. That's why I am hyperactive.
"I actually make better scores [on schoolwork] if I sit and crochet while I listen," she adds.
Emmi said it takes her about 125-130 hours to crochet and assemble a blanket to fit a twin-size bed. She sells her blankets for $275 each and puts the money away for college. She is homeschooled now but plans to attend nursing school and eventually become a nurse midwife.
She said she can make bigger blankets, too, but she hasn't yet figured out how to price them. Most of her sales so far have come through family referrals.
Emmi is one of six Chinese children with special needs adopted by David and Janet Hurley, who also have two grown biological children. Two of the adopted children are blind and another has a rare brain disorder, while others have developmental disabilities.
"In a way, it's our mission field," said Janet Hurley, who homeschools the six adoptees, ages 14-16, at the family's home in the Falling Water area while her husband works for a regional power company.
Emmi, although not the oldest, was the first to be adopted. The Hurleys decided to adopt another child so Emmi would have a playmate and things cascaded from there.
While in China to adopt the second child, the Hurleys saw heartbreaking conditions in an orphanage there. Their second adopted child was a 2-year-old girl who sat in her crib in the orphanage for 11 hours a day. She weighed only 17 pounds and could barely walk across a room.
"We said, 'We've got to go back and get as many as we can,'" Janet explained.
Because her disability is mild compared to her adopted siblings', Emmi has taken a leadership role in the family, her mother said. She makes lunch for the other teens every day and does much of the laundry. She even cleans bathrooms, a chore she said she enjoys.
Her goal of becoming a midwife comes from previously living on a farm in Alabama and tending goats, among other farm animals.
"It was so much fun on the farm," Emmi recalled. "I had seven goats and I was there for almost every single birth."
Emmi began knitting three years ago but soon discovered she liked crocheting better.
Typical of a digital native, she learned by watching YouTube videos.
She began by making children's toys from yarn and worked her way up to blankets. One of her earlier creations was a yarn dog with a Slinky in the middle.
"She is very creative," her mom beamed.
Interestingly, she has discovered she is ambidextrous, which speeds up her crocheting and gives her stitches a different texture.
Slowly, she has taught some of her siblings - including the blind ones - some sewing skills so they are all now part of the creative team.
View other columns by Mark Kennedy
Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6656.