A Day of Information!

Well, what a day today has been!  We heard back from Gudrun today and she informed us she is leaving Iceland on Wednesday, but beyond that, she didn’t know when she would meet us.  She wrote, “I've been really nervous these last days because I hadn't had a family so I'm also were glad, relieved and excited to finally hear from you!”  Her main thing she wants to do is a trip to New York City (of course), so I’ve sent her the cost of a train ticket so she and her parents can consider this and I am mentally preparing myself for that trip again.  It was a 24 hour odyssey with Penny, and I was exhausted for a couple of days afterwards.  But I’ll probably do it anyway.

We got both a phone call and an email from our area team and our liaison tonight that we will be picking Gudrun up at 4pm Friday afternoon.  While it’s kind of cool to meet her so quickly (seriously, we must be setting a land speed record here!), it’s also the absolute worst time to have to go to Northern Virginia and then try to battle our way home again.  Ugh.  It was the same with Penny, and it took us over 2 hours to get home that night, with a  screaming toddler and an exhausted teenager in the car.  We have tried to prepare Gudrun by explaining it’s likely to be a long ride, but I don’t know that there’s anything to prepare someone for it, particularly in light of the fact that as I mentioned, Iceland is a small country both population-wise AND area-wise.  This might well be the most cars she’s ever seen in one place!

Additionally, since I flat out refused to go to host family orientation today due to having a ton of homework still to complete, we will have to go up a bit early and have our orientation then.  State Department regulations insist, even though it seems silly, given that we were hosting less than 2 months ago!

Our liaison also informed us that the “D” in Gudrun’s name is pronounced “th”.  So her name is kind of like Katherine.  Given that both my and Leah’s middle name is Katherine, I’m quite happy about this, it seems like a nice omen.

I also managed to complete and submit my issues paper today, so that’s one less thing to worry about.  I need to finish my reflection paper and then I am officially done with my first class at library school, unless I totally screw up, in which case I would have to take this class over again and there is NO WAY that’s happening!

I also contacted one of Penny’s friends at the high school, who put me in touch with a friend of hers who is quite interested in many of the same things that Gudrun is.  I plan to have them meet up sometime next week after Gudrun’s jet lag wears off.  Also in the works are registration for school, and the school’s new student orientation.  This time last year, I was in an arm brace that made me look like the Terminator, and which seriously limited the amount of activity I could really do.  I’m so glad I’ll have much more flexibility for the next 3 weeks with Gudrun.  It should make having a busy and active teen easier!

I didn’t have to do much to the guest room to make it ready, so here’s a picture of the room just in case you want to know what it looks like:

I spent some time today making a little flag for Gudrun’s welcome gift.  Leah and I will go to Build-A-Bear this week and make her a little welcome bear, to which we will attach the flag along with a small American flag.  We will also work on a welcome gift for her, but I haven’t thought of what that will be yet. 

It’s interesting how much more relaxed I am this time around.  I’m not sure if it’s because we’ve already hosted once or that we are only a welcome family or what.  I think back to this time last year—I had the rugs professionally cleaned, I had the car detailed, I was buying “meaningful” gifts left and right, killing myself, really.  Now I’m just sort of “Eh, whatever”.  I want her to have an amazing experience and be happy here, but my frame of mind is more that we are who we are, and so be it. 

So that’s where we are, T-5 days until we’re a family of 4 again.  We’ll see how it goes!  On the plus side, as I said, I’m not in a brace, I’m not building furniture, and I’m not killing myself over little details.  Score one for experience!