Dreaming of you

My whole life is consumed by you, right now. Almost everything I do throughout the day is in preparation for our life with you, beginning so soon. 

Everything I mark on the calendar I dream of participating in with you.

When I think about going to the sentsy party at Dawn's, I can not wait for you to meet Dawn - for Dawn to meet you - for you to meet sentsy, chose one for your room, smell all the scents and decide which ones you love.

When I think of going to Apple's class that first Thursday that you are here, I think of you riding in the front seat next to me on the way - seeing the puppy at her best, in working action - meeting Jeff and sitting with Zeek on the benches in class.

When I chop veggies for my weekly pico-creation, I wonder if you'll sit across the island and tell me about your school day - if you'll want to chop with me - if you'll love pico and tortilla chips like I do - the ways you might make a change in what I throw together.

I go into your beautiful, pink, girly room and imagine you doing homework at your desk, or laying on your bed with your laptop, or picking out your outfit for a day out with your new family!!! 

I CAN NOT STOP thinking every single thing with you in it.

The seasons, holidays, events, shows, music, car rides, Packer games, sunsets, evening walks, cooking, eating, movies, gatherings, bon-fires, showing her everything... every single last thing. With you. :)

Just FIVE more days! 

I am completely beside myself.  

A Girls' World

Option #1

Option #2

Option #3

These are the three idea boards I created using products found online 

through Target, Walmart, and Ikea. 

I showed them to you via facebook, and much to my delight 

you selected Option #1. 

I was so excited to get started!!!

I ordered most of it online, and the rest I enjoyed hours

of shopping for my little girl! 

It took me a few days of sewing, painting, ironing, 
putting together, setting up, and perfecting this little dream suite...

but once and for all, I am finished!

I'm so happy to have a GIRL to do all this girly stuff with and for! :)

Nesting

There are two weeks left before you arrive, and I'm definitely nesting.

After completing a big boy makeover in Zeek's room:

I made over the upstairs bathroom to be a little more girly for you:

Then I spent a few days finishing up your bedroom makeover
(more on that later)

and now I am on to purging, cleaning, and organizing this house like never before! 

It is in shambles, but I am looking forward to starting the school year 

and our life with our host daughter in a fresh and ready home. :)

One More Month!

It's been awhile since I've written here. 


We've learned that you will arrive around August 10th! That is so much earlier that we thought they would allow, and we are SO happy about it!!! 


We've been communicating back and forth through facebook, and it's been so good getting to know you better. You are the sweetest girl. You're so smart and loving. I can't wait to meet you! I think of you so often. 


It's strange that I miss you when you've never even been here.
And even stranger that I feel so sad for the day when you leave here to return home next year. 


I'm praying that you will not have a difficult transition when you arrive here this summer. I can't imagine what it will be like to be so far away from your family when you are so close to them and have not ever been away. 
Even more so, I can't imagine what it will be like for them to spend an entire year without YOU!


I have been communicating a little with your Mother, as well. She is very nice. Of course, she is concerned for you, but I'm glad that she is comfortable with us being your host family. Her words have been very kind and encouraging. We are looking forward to maintaining a relationship with her throughout the year. 


We have decided with you that we will attend a wedding in Milwaukee together the day after you arrive in August! You are confident that it will not be too much for you, and we are flexible if we have to change the plan due to your arrival. It is so fun to schedule things that we will be doing with you after you arrive!
We're so excited!!!


  

She Knows!

Today, I got this message on my facebook:

"hola! I am the sister of Sara Blaser ... Today we got a letter in which they tell us that you are going to be my sister's family for a year! We want to thank your family and we like to know more."

Followed by this message:


"hello. I´m Sara Blaser, Today I got a letter from AFS, told me that you will be my host parents. I am very happy about it, and excited about meeting you."




We're so excited that we get to begin communicating!!! 

Hurry Up to Wait!

Today we were able to look at Sara’s entire application, including photos! She is so beautiful, and I loved seeing her handwriting for the first time.

Her family is so sweet. I feel anxious and sad for her to have to leave them for so long. On the other hand, I’m SO excited that she is coming HERE to live with US!!!!

Whooooo-hooooooo! Now, we have to wait up to three weeks for the school to receive her paper work and approve of her placement at Bay Port High. She will not know that a family has chosen her until the papers are signed, received, and approved of by FES. It’s hard to think of her NOT KNOWING when we know.

Once everything is final we will be allowed to contact her and begin communicating with her until she arrives in August!!!! 

Too exciting. 

I need to go jump up and down a little. 

An Easy Decision

Today we received the letters for the Spanish student. We looked at her information (no photos of course) as more of a formality. She is very nice, but we are too in love with Sarita to consider a different student. 

Immediately after receiving the papers we called Kim to tell her she could remove the hold on the Spanish girl and move forward in securing Sarita’s placement with us! 

We’re very excited. We will not be able to see her photographs until we meet with Kim in DePere for an FES gathering on Sunday. We can hardly wait! We’re SO grateful for such a wonderful sounding daughter-to-be! 

Referrals!!!

It’s been a long wait, but we have been prayerful and patient. There is peace in knowing that God knows exactly who our host daughter is. We are in no hurry.

  

Kim contacted us to ask if we would be open to considering other Spanish speaking countries outside of Mexico and Spain. This is part of that e-mail from her:

“…I have been working with AFS and looking at new students. A lot of students applications have come in. Unfortunately, they have had very few Spanish girls...only 1 or 2 so far. AFS did advise me that there are no Mexican girls. They only have Mexican boys and do not anticipate any more Mexican students.

…I know you were focused on Spain but truly this country does not send a lot of students. My experience with both Paraguay and Argentina is that they have sent very warm friendly students. We hosted a girl from Paraguay and she was an ideal AFS student…The students I have met from Paraguay have been awesome.”

In response to this message we looked into Paraguay and Argentina a little further and felt very comfortable with opening our options to consider a daughter from Paraguay.

Today, we received our first referral!!!

Her name is Sarita. We are not allowed to see any photos of the students before we decide, so we do not know what she looks like. We are only to read a letter from her and one from her Mother. Both letters have given us a good idea of who she is.

She sounds SO sweet. She is 15 years old, a good student (top in her class), loves swimming, handball, and tennis. She is the middle child of two other siblings. She gets along with them well. She loves her parents and views them as her greatest guides and counselors. She writes that she likes to read, listen to music and watch movies. She is interested in studying Biochemistry. She likes fashion and creates her own clothing (which Greg is very excited about). She also wrote that she likes to camp because she likes fresh air.

Her Mother shares that she is very responsible and independent, a good sibling friend, and is not only her daughter but also her friend.

She has only been away from her home for a four day summer camp experience and otherwise enjoys spending time at home, weekends with family visiting, etc…
I hate to jump the gun and just say we love her and want her, being that she is the first student we have looked at… but quite frankly, we love her and want her.
We are waiting for a Spanish student who is on hold with another family. If the family does not choose her then we will have a hold placed on her for three days. We will know this before our hold on Sara is expired (so informal and strange).
I’m sure the Spanish girl is lovely, however, I would be sad to lose Sarita right now, so I can’t imagine us choosing the Spanish student either way. 
We’ll see!!!
It’s all so exciting!!! 

The Unexpected

Well, I’d love to say that the process of choosing a Foreign Exchange program has gone smoothly, but sometimes we have to be willing to move things around to allow God’s Way in our lives.
After meeting with Deb and hearing about the direction, standard, and goals for their host students we were not feeling entirely comfortable. We did not expect anything like that to happen, but we prayed about it and stayed open to whatever may come.

We happened to have the number of another representative named Kim, from a company called AFS, and we decided to give her a call to hear more about their program.

We felt like this may be a better fit for us, and so we explained what we had been through in the process with the first company and moved forward cautiously with Kim.
We thanked Deb for her time and effort and excused ourselves from the first process altogether.

Last night we had a meeting with Kim and we both feel VERY good about AFS. They have been in service for 54 years and it seems that because of that experience they really have an excellent program. They really look out for the students and their host families.

One of the things that Kim asked in our interview last night was how we felt Ezekiel might respond to having another child in the house. He seemed to be minding his business coloring at the table next to us. He popped his head up and said, almost as if offended, “I will handle it PERFECTLY!” We all laughed. Kim even asked him if he would like having a host sister for the school year. He was very smiley and happy about it. He is so excited, which is not really anything we expected either.

We are grateful to be out of the mud and back on the road in this journey.
Next stop, REFERRAL!!! J

Clean Freak

We have our home study tomorrow afternoon. Today, I have cleaned the house nice for Deb, and tomorrow I will not clean up for her arrival. I know that they do not want to see things looking unusually perfect. It’s difficult not to want everything to look extra clean and ready for us to welcome our student into our home!

Everyday we think of “next year” when we will be sharing in all of our activities with her. We wonder if she will like football with us? How she will enjoy our favorite restaurants and TV shows, our weather, and past times. How we will speak in her language more and more, cook with her recipes, and listen to her music and stories.

Everyday it is more exciting, dreaming of the coming year!