It's a Girl!

Those of you who are visiting my blog are expecting to see pictures of the exchange student, perhaps some daily things happening whilst living with the new "sister," and maybe even some exciting happenings. However, this is not the case as there are still thirty-four days that we must wait until the arrival of our lovely girl, HyoJin.

Indeed, thirty-four days may be a long time to wait, but believe me... There is plenty of information to go over, emails to be sent, and phone calls to be made.

So, to start off my first post, I am going to begin with covering what you will be receiving in the mail soon after you are approved for exchange.

It was lovely day in the suburbs, as I sat there awaiting the arrival of our mail man. His car slowly crept up to our mailbox and eventually a large, white package was slipped into it. I didn't actually see this happening, but I imagine this is how it probably occurred.

We were actually on our way to eat a Chinese dinner, when mother calls from the driveway, "Alyssa! Would you like to check the mail?" Naturally being the teenager that hates hot, clammy weather, I refused from the shade of the garage. "Alyssa! Would you like to check the mail?!" Fact is, I already knew what was in the mail...

Anyway, long story short... We attained the packet of all our information on our exchange student and on the top of the package was stamped a little Stork with the words next to it, "It's a girl!" Ooh, how exciting! How thrilling! It's like we're adopting!

If you are hoping to host an exchange student, say, from Russia, South Korea, or Germany, then you can expect to get a package like the one we received so graciously with some of the following information:

• Pictures of your student
• List of vaccinations student has received 
• Student report card from last 3-4 years
• Questions that the student answered regarding her arrival in the U.S. (Example: "If you could only bring three things on the trip, what would they be and why?")
• A personal letter from the student and parents.
• A small packet on her home country which will cover things such as; Population, Food, Religion, Etc...

After reviewing all of this information, we became quite excited and told ourselves that our exchange will be quite successful and fulfilling (if all goes well, of course).

Please look forward to the next post!