a gift within the gift

We are hosting a French student for the month of February. Each year our high school brings in fifteen or so students and they spend the month here in order to improve their English. We have hosted twice before and absolutely loved it. Our new student arrived Friday and we fell in love the moment we saw her as she climbed down off of the bus. Actually, I loved her from the moment I said we would host again this year, but seeing her in person sealed the deal.

The kids are having a great time asking her about her life in France, what she does during the school week, what activities she does on the weekends. Number 3 is enamored with the fact that her family has horses. When she found this out, she looked at me with eyes that pleaded, "Oh can I go back to France with her and live with her family?"

In preparing for her arrival, our family worked hard to get the house de-cluttered and sparkly clean. I told her that she should look really fast at how clean it is, because it won't last long. All this weekend, King and I were able to relax and enjoy the children because there were no pressing issues such as laundry, dining room table clutter, etc. We actually sat and drank coffee and logged in lots of reading time. We went on a walk to the park (thank God for the beautiful break in the weather!)

Number 3 actually remarked last night, "Y'know, I noticed that all this weekend you and Daddy were so relaxed."

Why, yes.

Yes we were.

Thank you for noticing.