Amy loaded her worldly belongings in her friend’s van about one hour before my husband, Beth and I left to go to the airport to pick up our arriving foreign exchange student. The timing was a bit weird, sort of planned and sort of not…

Once we realized in June that Amy was not going to finish high school by August, and therefore not enter the Navy, we gave her a two month period in which to execute her departure. This past weekend was chosen because we wanted the drama completed by the time Stephanie left for college and our foreign exchange student, Julie, arrived. We were not even sure Julie was going to join us, as she didn’t get her visa approved on her first attempt.


But Julie eventually secured permission to travel. Her flight arrived less than three hours after Amy’s departure.


It didn’t feel like we were “replacing” anybody… and I was most grateful for having something else to think about rather than the end of a long, seemingly fruitless exercise in parenting.


My twenty-four hour assessment is… we definitely got a winner! This young lady is smart, incredibly competent in English, polite, and really on the ball. She is assertive without being pushy and easily asks for what she needs. We spent a couple of hours registering her for classes at the high school this morning. She is taking US History, English, Speech, Choir, Spanish, Photography and a study hall. She spent at least 45 minutes tonight emailing her parents using her new laptop with an English/Chinese translator downloaded by her uncle in San Francisco. (She spent 4 days with her aunt and uncle before flying on to Kansas.) She was smiling when she shared with me what she was telling her parents… information about our house under construction (she’s as excited as we are!) and about our family, our pets, her school. She seems relaxed and very comfortable with us. When you think about it… what a shock to someone’s system to suddenly be immersed in a new family, new school, new culture, new life! But she is handling it with aplomb.


More coming about her first day with us and the conversation I had with the school counselor...


Photo Credit (Chinese Pond Heron)