Things I Learned from a German Teenager

Today marks one week since we took H to the airport for her return flight to Germany.  It was a very emotional send-off. I was surprised that A was the one shedding crocodile tears instead of C.  I think A understood the finality of the situation more than C.  Even J shed a few tears.  We all got pretty attached to this wonderful girl and will always share a special connection with her family.

In case your family might be interested in hosting an exchange student, I wanted to hit a few of the highlights that we're talking away from this experience (in no particular order):

1. Letting go is really hard.  The goal of parenting is to raise independent adults, so you have to let them fly away.  Right now, I can't imagine literally letting mine fly away to another part of the world.  It was hard enough to watch another mother's child walk through airport security and turn around to wave.
2. Peanut butter is addictive.  I'm proud to say we got her hooked.
3. These days are long, but the years are short.  Teenager schedules can be grueling with all they're involved in.  That makes the time fly even faster.  Before you know it, the games, practices, sleepovers, rehearsals are suddenly over and the calendar reflects the void. 
4. It takes a village.  We bit off a smidge more than we could chew on several occasions and relied on family, neighbors, and friends to bail us out.  Big thanks to all our chauffeurs and babysitters!
5. The world is big, and very close.  We brought another culture into our home and we were more alike than different.
6. Hide-and-seek translates, and builds bridges between cultures and ages.
7. It is possible to raise a respectful, thoughtful teenager.  I'm holding out hope that she wasn't just being nice because she was a guest and that my kids might treat their own mother the same way some day.  Don't burst my bubble.
8. Girls start dancing before they can walk and apparently never stop.  That girl danced around the house, on the stage, in the aisles of WalMart.  Never did find her a tutu, though.
9. Little girls get really attached to big girls.  I underestimated how much they would admire her and cling to her.  
10. God is faithful.  Starting with the way He matched us up with H, to some of our last-minute conversations together, God was all over this experience.  

We had a great experience with H as our first exchange student.  When we do it again, the next student will have a lot to live up to!  We'll definitely do it again, but might wait a few years for the age gap to close some.  If you are at all curious about hosting an exchange student, feel free to hit me up with questions.  I highly recommend every bit of it, except the saying goodbye.  

bis zum nächsten Mal, H!  wir lieben dich!  (And no, I didn't capitalize that correctly.  I hope google translate got the words right.)