Welcome to the Family!

We went to the airport last night and picked up the first kid we saw, grabbed her and stuffed her in the van. Off we went!

That's the short version, but amazingly accurate.

Saturday seemed to drag on and on. Finally, it was time to head to the airport to pick up our exchange student, Fenna. She traveled all the way from The Netherlands and across 9 time zones. As my husband explained, "We are Greenwich Time Minus 8 and she is Greenwich Time plus one." I said, "Sure hope she likes nerds."  Anyway, we finally left the house. We took the two little girls in their brand new American print dresses and we left Charlie home with Lexie. Charlie needs to keep his bedtime since he is such a good sleeper and has a constant sleep schedule; it's a very nice sleep schedule!  The timing was perfect, Lexie got off work just in time for us to leave.

The four of us drove down to San Diego. We got stuck in a bit of  traffic at the Pechanga exit. Apparently there was a concert. Keith reminded me it is a Saturday night. This put us a little bit behind schedule. Fenna's flight schedule arrived in the mail earlier that day (really! That day! Good thing I asked Fenna on facebook two weeks earlier) said her flight arrives at 8:04pm.  We drove as fast as we could and prayed for no more traffic jams - I had visions of her standing alone in the airport feeling abandoned. We pulled into the airport at 8:12, not bad considering. 

Keith figured it would be silly to pay to park since we're late and she'll be waiting on the curb in the loading zone. Oh, whoops, I totally forgot to tell Keith we are all going in like a big welcoming committee. In my mind, we'd all be in the airport standing together with big silly grins. In his mind, she'd be ready to just hop in the van while we drove by. Since we were late, his imagination won.

The airport has a loading zone but you aren't allowed to stop and wait. It is strictly a pull-in, load and leave type of deal. Security will write you a ticket and yell at you too; they are big and scary so I don't dare stop the car for more than a minute. In the loading zone loop, there are three lanes, and all cars were stopped so I hopped out and Keith said he'd drive around the loop.

I ran in and there she was, coming down the escalator!  We weren't late - timing was just perfect!  After a big hug, I waited with her for her giant pink suitcase to come out of baggage claim and Keith had to drive another loop around. While we waited she told me that when her mom came to America for her exchange year, her luggage was lost for two days. Oh gosh, I sure hoped that wouldn't happen! But if it did, we would have a great excuse to go shopping.

Her bag came along, and she had one carry-on bag and that's it. The girl travels light!  We took her bags outside and there was Keith crawling along in the van; he stopped, we shoved her and her bags in and off we went. The little girls were so excited! They did their best to greet her from the confines of their carseats in the dark, Keith too.

We stopped at a Mexican restaurant, On The Border, so that we could visit and have a proper hello. We didn't know if she'd feel like eating or not, so she could easily get something light or a big meal or nothing, whatever. We were all pretty hungry since we skipped dinner  and just snacked for lunch. Katie, Andrew and Henry met us at the restaurant. I had imagined that we would eat at the Cheesecake Factory since it has a large menu of a variety of foods, and a lot of American food. Again, Keith and I were not imagining the same scenario and since he was driving, we went to a Mexican place for local style food. I love it, so I wasn't going to argue! Turns out, Fenna has not had Mexican food before. She was a lot more hungry than she thought and she enjoyed her meal. She eats like a teenager - no leftovers!  Actually, everyone at the table cleaned their plates, what a hungry bunch we were.

We had a nice drive home, but it was too dark for her to see much except the other traffic. We counted the lanes and talked. Eight lanes in each direction in a much wider road than what they have in Holland. We got home and she found her room right away. She loved it! I am so glad she will be comfortable in her room, she will have some house and neighborhood noises to get used to but she was too tired to be wakened by random strange noises. At least, we all thought she was tired. She was pretty excited and needed to explore a bit and get her bearings before settling in for the night.

Today, Sunday, was a planned day of laziness. With a 9 hour time change and a night in a strange house, I figured a lazy Sunday might be just the thing. It is our usual Sunday thing anyway.  Fenna got to explore the whole house and get to know each of us better. She met Charlie and Sandy gave her some love and tail wags too. She didn't seem to be tired at all; sure wish I had the energy of a teenager!

Best part of the day: Presents! Fenna brought lots of gifts for everyone from Holland. She spoiled us generously. The little girls and Charlie were so excited, they were squealing with joy and had so much fun opening presents and asking "what is this?" I think the concept of different cultures and different geographic places is out of their reach just yet. But they love their presents anyway. It was very sweet!

We went grocery shopping at Sams Club in the afternoon. I didn't think she would want to come, maybe she'd like a break from the little ones, but she came along. It was nice having someone come with me for groceries, especially because I had all three wild ones and none of them enjoy grocery shopping. Today they were all behaving so nicely! I could get used to this.  We used this opportunity to drive around town a bit and take a quick drive-by tour of the school.

Burgers on the grill, OreIda fries and a green salad were on the menu tonight, very American. We all ate together on the patio while shooing away flies. After dinner I decided to take the little girls to the park and let them run off the rest of their excited energy. Fenna wanted to come along, so we loaded up the little girls and said goodnight to Charlie. He was going to have some quiet playtime with Lexie while we went to the park for noisy playtime.

We've had a wonderful past 24 hours. Fenna is a good fit in our family. Her English is great, so we are able to communicate very well. She is already teaching us about the Netherlands and learning about the USA. She also told us a bit about her daily medications and how she cares for her Cystic Fibrosis. It sounds very complicated but she seems to know exactly what she is doing.

Tomorrow we'll be registering Fenna at the high school and registering Gracie for Kindergarten. After enduring hours of paperwork at the schools, we will go shopping for school supplies and whatever else we need. I'm excited to introduce her to Super-Target; I think she'll like it!