This extra bedroom in our home has always been a catch all space housing various things ranging from a treadmill to ironing board so when we decided to host our fourth exchange student this school year it gave me the perfect excuse to get this room looking cute. Our previous international daughters stayed in the room where Lolo’s nursery is now and it was much easier to fill up with furniture to create a comforting .

This adorable grey fur ball entered our lives in the summer of 1998.  I was working at a wonderful day camp at Humane Society of Huron Valley and part of the camp activities included playing with some of the puppies and kittens that were up for adoption.   After just one day on the job, I knew this little lady needed to come home with me.  After a quick conversation with Steve,  we decided to adopt her on Tuesday. .

June has become the month of goodbyes for Steve and me.  Last year we sent our first German daughter, Tessa back to Waldshut and last week Jule, our second German daughter made her way back to Berlin. Just like real kids, each of these girls were unique and special in their own ways.  Coming from a large city, Jule was incredibly independent and fearless when it came to making friends.  I was amazed by .

As many of you know, Steve & I hosted an exchange student from Germany last year.  Our experience with Tessa was wonderful in many ways & we really enjoyed the time we spent with her.  After she left, we actually missed having that youthful energy in our home so we decided to grow our international family by hosting another lovely German girl this year named Jule. Jule has been living with us for a .

It’s been almost two weeks since Tessa, our German exchange student returned to Deutschland… sniff, sniff. Rewind to August 2011 – When we decided to have a 15 year old girl we didn’t know from another country live with us for 10 months, many people thought we were a bit crazy… and maybe we were, but don’t decisions like those make life more exciting, fulfilling & memorable? (I mean – some people also thought .