Welcome Tina!

A couple of months ago, a friend of ours mentioned a need for host families for several exchange students who needed homes for the school year. I told her I would think about it, and talk to Adam, but when I casually mentioned it to Adam, he didn't seem to keen on the idea so the subject was dropped and forgotten about. When I saw my friend in church a week later, she asked me if we had thought about it, and I told her we decided not to host. She kindly thanked us anyway and that was the end of it....but not really. The thing is, right after I told her "No" I felt like I gave her the wrong answer.  I couldn't get the thought out of my mind! It kept nagging me and it kept me awake at night. I told Adam how I was feeling, and together we decided we needed to look into what was involved and expected of a Host Family. Over the next couple of days we studied and prayed about it and talked to the trio. I asked my friend if I could see some of the applications of the students wanting to come. The very first application I saw was for a girl named Tina from Norway. As soon as I saw her picture and read her application, I knew we would be her host family.  The next several days were spent filling out our own application and completing background checks. After a home inspection visit and a little more paperwork, we received the news that we would get to host Tina! We found out later, that Tina had another host Family all lined up, and was excited to come to Snowflake, but the mother of that family found out she needed surgery and would not be able to host after all, so we said yes at just the right time for her!  Tina wanted to come live and study in America so she can improve her English, and experience the American way of life!

Her First day in AZ, and she made the front page news! The large picture is her and I hugging while the girls looked on. In the lower left picture she is in the background with her hand covering her mouth .
 It was an emotional greeting for all of us.

On August third, we welcomed Tina to our family! She will be with us for the next ten months.
We love having Tina in our home. She is very sweet and helpful.  She enjoys school and has already made some friends and enjoys playing volleyball after school. The trio adore her, and the attention she gives them.
She is adjusting to our routines. Some of our routines, (family scripture study, and prayer, and church) are a little harder for her to adjust to, but we can tell she is trying and we appreciate her efforts, especially since we told her she doesn't have to join us if she is uncomfortable, but she usually does anyway.
Right after she arrived, we went down to the valley to visit family and do some school shopping. She enjoyed the mall and often expressed how big everything is here.
 We let her drive our buggy around for a bit so she could practice driving and she LOVED IT!. She is hoping to be able to get her drivers licence while she is here and have it transferred when she returns to Norway. (I believe it is more difficult and costly to attain a drivers licence in Norway which is why she would like to get one here.)

We look forward to taking Tina along on our adventures and showing her more of our beautiful country.