New Adventures Begin

Hello friends and happy September!

We are now 30 days into the host exchange life and I can say we LOVE it full heartedly! After spending SIX months waiting, praying, wishing, and dreaming, we welcomed Ben, from Germany, with open hearts and arms. It was such a surreal moment meeting him for the first time, not knowing if he would like us or if he'd go purchase a one way ticket back to Germany.

But, lets back up for a moment.

The six months of waiting was so hard! Every time we would do ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING and EVERYTHING, we would say to each other, "We need to bring Ben here!" or, "I wonder if Ben would like this?" It was as if we loved this person and couldn't wait to experience every day life with him but we hadn't even met him yet! We created a nice bedroom for him, looked into sports activities, told our families what to expect, made lists of all the things we wanted to do once he was here, and made sure as a family we were ready for him. 

I would say it took about three days before Ben was fully comfortable into the family. It truly seemed like he was always a part of our lives. The days were normal flowing with sports and activites. We already had inside jokes and the sarcasm that was normal for us, was normal for him. 

Now, we are spending our evenings at soccer games and cheering on our #17! Our boys love having an older brother and Ben makes them feel loved as well. With just 30 days in I cannot wait to see what the next 9 months hold! Let the adventures begin!