Emma! Willkomen!

The extended family grows, and we are excited.  

Emma has arrived in America to spend the year as an exchange student, living with Willie and Debbie. 

She's 16.  She's from Berlin.  She loves horses and enjoys show jumping and cross country eventing.  She's a ballerina, having participated in dance for most of her life. She also comes to a good place to enjoy another of her sports, snowboarding.  

Emma already has extended family and family friends in this area.  Her godfather Christian lives in Hope, and so her first day involved stopping by the Lovestead briefly to help bring the horses from pasture and meeting Bill. 

Then, it was out to Christian's house on Lake Pend Oreille for a lovely dinner with members of his family.  

She'll be staying there for a few days and then will make the official move to Willie and Debbie's house this weekend. 

We already have fallen in love with Emma, just like we did  the other two young people from Europe who will always have permanent places in our family. 

Yesterday was a banner day on that front.  

While driving to the airport, we enjoyed a face-time visit with Laura aka Swiss Miss who had just come home for the evening at her residence in Switzerland. 

Twas emotional, to say the least.  Regardless of how much time passes by, the love we all have for these kids is eternal.  

Swiss Miss, who is attending the university in Zurich,  plans to come for another visit sometime over the winter, so she will get to meet Emma.

Also, during our drive to the airport, we reminisced about Romain from Caen, France.  In the early '90s over three years, he returned every summer, spending a month with us.  

Each trip to the airport to send Romain on his way was a tearjerker!

Romain is now a cardiologist in Luxembourg. His mom Catherine occasionally sends photos of him and his family. We heard from Catherine this morning when she saw Emma's photo on Facebook. 

Besides the love, the experience with these exchange students is definitely a two-way street which leads to endless opportunities of cultural enrichment.  

Actually, it's hard to decide who benefits the most---the students or their host families. 

Long story short, we are thrilled that Emma has arrived and look forward to all the wonderful experiences our entire family will get to share with her in this chapter of her life. 

Heck, we may even learn a little German in the process!

Willkomen, Emma!

Of course, Emma had to meet a bona fide Idaho potato from the Lovestead garden. 

Bill spent yesterday with a large group of people doing a fishing-related science project while floating Priest River.

He was explaining the project to Debbie and Emma.  

Twas a "three-dog night" as two golden retrievers and one miniature daschund joined us for dinner and maybe a little subtle begging.   

Still a lot of smoke; nonetheless, the view was mighty pretty.

Thank you, Christian and family, for a lovely dinner and a memorable evening.   

By the time we began to dine, Emma has been up for more than 24 hours.   She's a trooper, though, and she kept that lovely smile going the best she could. 

I think she probably slept well last night.