Meet Abi

Okay.  Sidenote inserted here--I am way behind on blogging.  The past week has been chocked full of worthy blog posts.  I'll be caught up soon.  It wouldn't matter as much, but I know if I don't blog about it shortly after it happens, I forget many details...I blame old age & 4 kids. :)

First off, I'll jump right in to the major happening this past week-- Bobby & I chose to have a foreign exchange student stay with us this school year.  Many people have asked, "How did you decided to do that?"  Well, it wasn't a quick decision.  Laura Avery (who is in charge of the foreign exchange student program at ACS) asked me if I'd like to consider doing it two years ago.  To my disgrace, I kind of just blew it off with the excuse that we've got way to much on our plate right now to even think about that.  Then she asked me again at the beginning of school last year.  Once again I gave her excuses  (they were worthy excuses, but still excuses).  Then once again (she is a persistent one) she mentioned it at the end of school last year.  I'm not sure what made me think differently, but my initial thought was "okay Lord she's asked me 3 times...are You trying to tell me something."  I felt like I at least needed to be willing.  Needless to say I didn't blow her off the final time.  I told her I'd go home and talk to Bobby about it (still not thinking that we would definitely do it).  After discussing it for only a day or so, we knew that the Lord was leading us to host an exchange student.  It was a little scary to say "yes" and start the approval process, but once we knew this was exactly what the Lord would have for us.  We did choose a girl, but didn't specify any country.  After turning in all our paperwork & all the background checks, we found out we were getting a Chinese student.

So fast forward to last Wednesday...  We went to Greensboro airport and picked up Ya Gao who will live with us until June 8.  She is from Wuhan, China & is almost 15 years old.  She told us Ya Gao in Chinese means "brush teeth" so we were definitely not to call her that.  In China they call her Gao Ya, but she wanted an American name while living in the states & she wanted us to help her pick it out.  Bobby googled some names, and I believe the first one he asked her about was Abi, and she loved it.  It only took a few times of calling out her name for her to get use to the new name. 

The kids helped make a welcome sign to greet her.

The kids loved watching the planes come in (you could tell this was thier first trip to an airport).

And then we all wait.  Laura brought along another Chinese exchange student (Blackey) to help make Abi feel welcome.

Our first glimpse at her.  Bobby had to go get her at the gate since she was an unaccompanied minor.

She's finally here!!

Our fist photo all together.

Now we're heading to go eat dinner.

We decided we would go out to eat after picking Abi up.  Blackey was dead set on eating Chinese (she said she'd had it 3 times since coming to America 4 days earlier) & Abi agreed as well. So off to Golden China we went to enjoy some Chinese food.  Abi & Blackey had met once in China before coming over here, and we all got to know each other rather well over dinner.  I know Abi was a little cautious of us at first (which I would expect), but after dinner she was letting her guard down.  As the days go by I see more & more of her personality which is a great sign that she is feeling more at home here.

Abi is fitting in perfectly with our family. The kids love her, and she is really enjoying them too. She has one younger sister at home, so I think now having 3 brothers & 1 sister is a big change (but one she is really liking). What am I talking about?--living with us in general is a big change for anyone--we are one crazy family.  But she has now become a wonderful part of the craziness.  She plays with the kids like she's known them for quite a while.  Trinity now has the sister that she has always wanted. :)

We are looking forward to a great year with her.   We have a mission field in our own home & we don't take that lightly.  Sunday was her first ever experience with church.  Pray with us that we will set a good example for her & we can teach her about who God is and what He has done for us.  I know we've already learned a lot from her & will continue to do so, and hopefully she'll learn from us as well.