Getting Ready!

We have an official pick up date!  We will be getting Ine on Tuesday evening.  So excited.  What's even more fun is that 2 of the families I interviewed for hosting will be there getting their students as well.  So it'll be nice to watch all the reunions (or is that unions?) of new families I worked with this summer.

I've spent the last 2 days getting Ine's bedroom and bathroom ready.  I think everything in that regard is as ready as it's going to get.  Leah even helped wash down the walls and get rid of the remnants of when it was her room.  This weekend, we will clean the rest of the house.  Everything is straightened up, now we just need a good cleaning.  In my sights are laundry, cleaning out the inside of the refrigerator, washing and vacuuming floors, vacuuming out the car, cleaning up the front porch, all things that have needed doing, but never quite seemed to get done with Leah tearing around all summer.  Last night Leah fell asleep in the car with ice cream in her lap, so now I have a big ice cream mess to clean up in the car, but it shouldn't take too long.

Leah is not too sure about this big sister business--we hung out last night with Kathy, my liaison student, and she loves Kathy, but I think probably having another human being in her house to share my time with is going to be interesting.  Leah is already mad about Ine's welcome basket, little does she know there are a few things in there for them to do together to help break the ice a bit.  Leah was not even 2 when Penny arrived and just 2 when Kristin arrived, so she didn't have too many issues.  It'll be interesting to see how it goes now that she's 5.

I've also been in touch with Ine's family, and her parents have been very responsive and kind via email.  So I'm quite happy about that.  It's always nice to contact the parents when you have issues, I prefer to do that to contacting AFS sometimes.  It helps you understand your student better than all the counseling in the world on occasion to find out "that's just who she is".  It is so late in the year, we have only heard from Ine once, but the family is understandably busy traveling and enjoying their days together, and we are about to hear from her a whole lot, so I'm not too worried about that either.

I downloaded Ine's school calendar so I can match up her vacation days with Leah's and start to make some travel plans.  Ine's school finishes June 6, which I think is a full week before Leah's, and she has the week BEFORE Columbus Day off, while Leah has Columbus Day off, so I'll have kids around at different times.  At least their spring breaks match up!  We look to have about 2 weeks at the end of the school year for family time before Ine flies back to Belgium, so that's kind of nice.  I need to start putting everything into my calendar so I'm fully prepared.  Or as prepared as I can get!

I'm trying to envision our new regular day schedule--so far Leah and I have it worked out that she wakes up around 6, we really get moving around 7:30, and she's on the bus an hour later.  Now we will have to be in the car by 7:30.  Adjustment, as with all things, it will work out!

All in all, we are very excited for Ine to arrive. I feel far calmer than I did when Penny was coming--not having the car detailed or the carpets shampooed--but still very excited.  I know we're going to have a great year!