Arrival

We got word this afternoon that we may pick Penny up on Friday.  It’s official.  In less than 5 days, we will be parenting a teen and a toddler. 

We are so excited.  In a way, it’s like adopting all over again.  You don’t know what you’re getting.  You wait and wait and wait and all of a sudden someone hands you a kid and says “Good luck!”  I think we have an advantage—we already know that we can be handed someone else’s child who looks nothing like us and love her like she is our own.  I am excited to have the chance all over again, even knowing it will only last a finite period of time.

I have been having similar symptoms in preparing for Penny’s arrival as I did for Leah’s.  I go to the stores frequently, just in case I’ve forgotten anything.  Penny’s room is now armed with tissues, pens and pencils, erasers, tape, glue, a slew of pennies my dad left for her, a radio, new blanket and sheets, and we’ve moved the furniture again for about the 12th time.  We put risers up under the bed to lift it off the floor and give her storage room for her suitcase underneath and we finished cleaning out her closet.  This week, I washed out the shop vac, cleaned up the yard, and made an appointment for the carpets to be professionally cleaned.  I have a chore list as long as my arm, which fortunately several friends have volunteered to help with.  I am getting my hair cut on Friday morning.  Michael is taking the day off work.  We are putting the finishing touches on a welcome basket for her, and have a crack team of friends brainstorming on signs to welcome her.  Now that we have an itinerary from AFS of her arrival and our arrival, we can plan the trip north to pick her up.

I know all the students must be getting nervous about making the trip for their exchange year, and I’m sure Penny is no different.  We haven’t heard from her in a while now, and I understand that.  I’m sure she is tucked up with her family enjoying her final days with them before setting out on the adventure of a lifetime.  We look forward to welcoming her on Friday!!

One Week

One way or another, this time next week, we will have 2 daughters in this house.  We still don’t have any information about Penny’s arrival from AFS, thanks for asking, but we know if she doesn’t get here Friday, she will get here on Saturday.  I am so excited and nervous and and and!  It will be strange parenting a teen and a toddler at the same time, but I hope that at the very least, Penny will help me corral Leah for a while! haha

I think I have finished getting everything I wanted for her room.  I have most everything I wanted to put in a welcome basket for her.  I just have to make a sign and maybe get her a teddy bear or something she can hug if she gets lonesome and doesn’t want to hug us. :-)  We are having the carpets professionally cleaned on Thursday and I will spend all this week cleaning up the house and hoping Leah doesn’t totally trash the place in the meantime.  There are certain things I’m just not going to bother doing until I absolutely have to—things like washing the fingerprints off the sliding glass door and picking up toys.  Other than that, everything is fair game.

I wonder what Leah will make of the whole situation.  I wonder how our first days and weeks will be.  I wonder, I wonder, and soon I will find out! 

Advice from One Who’s Been There

Today I have chatted with my AFS brother, Frank.  He stayed with our family from 1995-1996.  He came to the US from Ecuador and stayed with a welcome family until they found him a placement in Northern New York.  Unfortunately that placement fell through and my sister, being student president of the AFS chapter in our school, was obliged to take Frank home.  What was supposed to be a 3 or 4 day thing has turned into a 15 year relationship.

I asked Frank this morning what advice he has for us hosting a student for the first time and here’s what he said:

Just be yourselves and everything will be fine. Remember that she is going to be worried about 1000 things because everything is new, specially coming from a culture so different from yours. I think she is going to be confused because when I went, although Ecuador is pretty much like the US in the way of living, I was completely lost. So just be understanding, that's it...

I love my brother! :-D 

Me, Frank, and our sister Judy, summer 2005

Orientation

Yesterday we went to host family orientation.  It was a nice mix of volunteers and families.  Some of the families had hosted several times and some of them, like us, had never hosted before. We got a lot of information and handouts about how to successfully welcome the student into our home, what things we might expect, who to call for help, and so forth.

We were also very fortunate to be able to connect with the other family from Fredericksburg who is hosting.  They are actually taking in two students, both girls, one from Finland and one from Norway.  They will both attend the same school as Penny.  We got a lot of information about how the school operates and what to expect at registration and graduation, all kinds of great information and insight.  They live right up the road from us and so we exchanged contact information and they said we can call them any time.  It is great to have a lifeline.

They STILL do not have a date for us.  Apparently it all depends on when the bus gets all the kids loaded up in New York and manages to get to Virginia.  Frustrating, but that’s how the process works.  We are also waiting to get the name of our liaison so we know who to contact if there or problems or if Penny just needs someone to talk to.  We will have contact with our liaison 3 times per month.

We also saw profiles for several other students still needing homes.  There were a couple of boys from Germany and a boy from Russia and I think a couple of girls, but I can’t remember where they are from.  So, there are still students if you want to host!!! :-D

Update on Arrival Day!

We received an email update from our local coordinator about arrival day.  This is the latest:

Probably the most important question we can answer on Aug. 1 is 'when will the students arrive?’ It is changing almost daily but we hope to have a specific answer by then.  The rough description of the process is:

Students come in to  New York ( as well as California, Miami, Chicago and other spots) on charter flights ,  Most Virginia. students come in to NY.  Depending on the time of arrival they may spend a night on a college campus .  They are then sent by charter bus to a central spot for their local orientation. There will be several busses during the period from Aug11-14, bringing students to PA, MD, and DC as well as VA. These buses can arrive any time of the day or night depending on the flights , the weather,the amount of time spent in customs, the number of students involved.  During that 4 day period literally hundreds of AFS students will arrive, be met by staff and volunteers and sent on their way . Once at the destination they receive a required Arrival Orientation .  On the day it is finished they will be available for pick-up by their host families.

Hopefully we will get an official word on August 1 when we have our orientation.

Meanwhile, I have been enjoying the hosting community on Facebook.  I have become “friends” (as sanctioned by Facebook) with a couple of other host moms (including one, Kati, who (is this cool or what?!) is hosting a girl from Thailand and who adopted an AA baby just like us!), and have been reading up on the Virginia section of the community for kids coming to the US this year.  We have one other girl coming to Fredericksburg, which is pretty cool.  I have sent an email to Penny and encouraged her to sign up for a Facebook account.  I think it’ll help her with networking with friends once she gets here as well as connecting with AFS and other students experiencing similar issues.

AFS still needs a few host families in Virginia.  It’s not too late to sign up! :-)

Welcome!

Just a quick note as I get our blog set up. Several months ago, we made the decision to host an exchange student with AFS. Approximately 5 minutes after submitting the interest form on AFS's website, we got a phone call from a local volunteer asking us to host a student from Thailand. We had no objections, not knowing a thing about Thailand, and decided it would be a great learning experience for us.

I filled out the host family application and submitted our background check information and we were matched just a few days later with Penny, a 17 year old from Thailand. About a month later, we were finally able to start emailing her and her family, in particular her mother, Linda. Our correspondence has been a lot of fun, and has only increased our anticipation in welcoming Penny into our home.

At this time, we are still not sure of the exact date that Penny will arrive, but we know it will be the second weekend in August sometime. We will attend a host family orientation in Northern Virginia on August 1st and hope to receive some additional information then.

We are a relatively young host family, and we have an interesting family dynamic that I think should give Penny an excellent year in the United States. I'll post again soon with more information about AFS itself!