Tianyu

These past 2 1/2 weeksweeks we have had an exchange student staying with us. Each summer a group of about 60 students comes from a Japanese University to take classes in ESL and American Culture. They all live in host families.

This year, we were lucky enough to have Tianyu stay with us! She is actually Chinese, but lives in Japan with her family. She can speak 3 languages!

We started e-mailing each other near the end of June and I immediately knew she was someone special. We have done a lot, shared a lot, and laughed A LOT these past weeks together, and the thought that she will soon need to return home is making all of us very sad. Please enjoy these few "snapshots" of her stay with us.

Waiting for the student to arrive:

Meeting a real horse for the very first time:
Playing croquet at my dad's 70th birthday party:
The Rainforest Cafe:

Meeting SpongeBob and Patrick (very important day!!)

Visiting a Native American museum:

She told us she wanted to do some work, so DH taught her how to mow the grass! Unfortunately, we all discovered she has an allergy to grass....

After months of preperation and traveling half way around the world to live with strangers for 3 weeks, she gets her program diploma at graduation last night.

Celebrating at Dairy Queen after the Graduation Ceremony.

We are all really, really going to miss her. She has fit into our family like she belongs here and it is going to be hard to say good-bye on Monday. We are trying hard to remember the saying by Dr. Suess, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

Tianyu- THANK YOU for coming! We've had such a good time with you and hope this is just the start of a lifelong friendship!