We have just recently been joined by an exchange student from Germany.

Because I generally don’t use real names of people on this blog, especially family members, I’m giving her a Gaelic name, Casi (pronounced KC), because it means brave, and I think that moving to a new country and living with complete strangers while you go to school, at the age of 15, is an incredibly brave thing to do,

Today was Casi’s first full day here in Utah, and what a way to start off. We had to go to the Health Department so she could get her TB test done. Apparently, the one she had done in Germany just before she left, wasn’t good enough for the school district. Go figure. Then we also discovered that our schools require the Hepatitis A vaccine, which wasn’t required in Germany, so welcome to America – poke.

Then we went to do a little shopping. Casi wanted shorts that she could wear to keep cool and would also meet the school dress code. Uh right. Good luck with that hunt. I think we were both almost in tears by the time we gave up. Part of me kept thinking though, “I bet Miss Sassy could help her with this hunt and turn the disaster into success. I’m so grateful I was right about that. Add Miss Sassy to the list of angels who have blessed my life this week.

Tonight, being Monday, was – Surprise! – another Family Home Evening night. Mainly we used a little of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet to have a discussion about how our good choices open the door for us to have many more good choices, and our bad choices tend to have the effect of narrowing our options and leaving us in unpleasant situations. It’s an interesting experience to have a conversation like that with someone when we don’t know how many of the words are completely foreign to her.

After we were finished with our Family Night activities, two girls from our neighborhood showed up on our doorstep, wondering if Casi could come hang out and get to know each other. There is always such a stilted awkwardness that comes when making new friends, but I think they worked their way past that part and had a nice time together. At any rate, Casi felt very welcomed and the mom in me was so thankful. More angels blessing my life and the lives of those I love. Welcome to America. 🙂

So how did your Family Night go?

winner-winner, veggie dinner