Myriam from Germany :: She's here!!!

Yes, you read that right...we have a GIRL in the house!

Meet Myriam, our new exchange student from Germany!!  She arrived in Michigan last week Tuesday, 9/9.  Josh and I met her at the airport.  We were so excited to finally meet her!

                Josh, Patti, Myriam

And, as usual VanHuizen style, we have kept her busy ever since. 

Wednesday she spent the day with Grandma Borgman and went to the school to pick out her classes. She made some great choices, it's going to be a fun year, and I'm really excited for her.  In Germany she is technically in 11th grade, but here Allendale High School placed her in 12th grade. This way she will get to experience all of the fun things the senior class gets to do!

Thursday was her first day of school. It went really good and she is making many friends already!  I knew she would!!

Friday was her first football game.  She was invited to ride the bus with the cheerleaders so that was fun. Unfortunately the weather was cold and rainy, hopefully this week will be better. A bit of exciting news...she is going to be on the cheer team!  She did cheerleading in Germany, so this will be a lot of fun for her. She starts practicing with the team tomorrow!

Saturday she was introduced to the game of baseball. If you know our family you know how much time we spend at the baseball field! This was her first game of many more to come, I'm sure!  By the way, she said baseball was easier to understand than football :)

                  Myriam and Josh

Saturday evening we stopped by the barn to see the horses. She is a horse lover!  We will definitely be going there often, she is hoping to get some riding in. 

After the barn we headed to Grand Haven to see Lake Michigan. Myriam mentioned how happy she was when she found out she would be living so close to the water!  She really liked it out there, we will for sure be going back. 

            Myriam, Chad, Patti, Luke

Sunday is normally our day to relax, but I had a photo session that afternoon. Myriam tagged along. She has an interest in photography and will be taking a photography class at school this year. A girl after my own heart!  ❤️

So how are we adjusting to a girl

In the house?  Great!!  The boys have to share a bathroom with her but we've already smoothed out the morning routine :) Jake adores her. Although he has a hard time remembering her name (lol), he gives her lots of hugs!  Myriam brought him sidewalk chalk from Germany, he loves it. 

And I am loving all the girly things. She loves to shop, bonus for me!  Mall, here we come!!!!

Until next time,

Patti

A New Beginning

I'm sure many of you wondered what happened to me and this blog last fall. Everything was going so good.  We were creating so many great memories with Marcus. To keep a long story short, ten days after my last post on October 21, 2013, Marcus left our house.  He was extremely homesick and struggling with school here. It was hard on my family to see him go so soon and quite honestly, it was hard to talk about it. So I didn't.  Life went on for us. Marcus went home to Denmark, and we moved into our new house.  We brushed ourselves off, carried on, like VanHuizen's do. 

We are blessed. We know we are blessed, and so lucky to have what we have.  Too bad that "exchange thing" didn't work out. Maybe we just aren't cut out for that sort of thing. How nice it would be to have a student here the whole year that we could share our life with.  Maybe some day we will try the experience again.  I'm happy to say, that day has come!

As the saying goes..."As one door closes, another door opens."

Please continue to follow us as we start this new journey with yet another, great and wonderful, exchange student. 

More info to come soon, but I'll leave you with this picture...OUR NEW HOME.  Can't wait to welcome someone new.  There are a lot of great memories waiting to happen here. 

Patti