I am a Host Mother

We are hosting an exchange student from Japan for the school year and she arrived this week.  She wasn't the only excitement in our week: my youngest son Jason came back from a week in Indianapolis with his uncle on Tuesday, my daughter Jessica came back from 6 weeks in Japan as an exchange student and a week with her great-aunt in California on Wednesday, and our host-daughter Aya arrived on Thursday.  In a mere 3 days we went from one mostly adult kid at home to 4!  I am happy to have them back and to add one more to our family. Friday we took our Aya on a brief driving tour of town, including the town beach.

Aya and Jessica at the beach

So far everyone is working hard to communicate and mostly succeeding.  Aya has jumped right in and helped with setting the table and cleaning up after meals with the other kids.  The other kids have been open and helpful and I am enjoying it all.  I know there will be some difficult times in the year to come, but it's a good feeling to see everyone start out with such positive efforts and good intentions.

This coming week we go into the school to register Aya for classes, Jessica has band camp all week, and I have my final week with Jeff, my oldest, before he's off to college for his sophomore year.  The summer just flew by and I hate to see him go.

Soon school will start and we will all settle into a routine, but until then, we have 2 more weeks of relative freedom to take advantage of.  I'd better get busy.

Shelley in CT