Celebrating our Small World

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for hosting Slice of Life every Tuesday. I invite you to visit their site and read other slices.

Tonight was a night that I think will bring a smile to my face for a long time.

And here's why...
Keith and I got to have dinner with some very special people...

• John and Donna who we first met 4 years ago when they were counselors for our very first exchange student Sana.   They not only supported us each time we hosted a student, they have become good friends. 
• Fiona who lived with us 3 years ago for the first part of her exchange.  She's visiting the States from Germany.  We haven't seen her since she went back home.
• Our son Zach drove up from Cincinnati to see Fiona.
• Annie, who is always fun to be around.  :)
• Max, Annie's good friend who is from Mexico and she met while she was on exchange in Turkey. He's visiting us for a week and he and Annie have been inseparable.

The four (older) adults sat back and listened to the 4 young adults laugh, speak in English, speak in Spanish, attempt to speak in German, and laugh some more.  In fact, when it was time to leave the restaurant, we didn't want to say good-bye, so everyone came back to our house.  

We would never have had this time together if I hadn't read an email asking for host families and called out to my husband 4 years ago, "Do you care if we host an exchange student?"  

He said, "Let's do it."

Our world expanded from that moment on.

So there we were, celebrating old friends and new friends at Texas Roadhouse ~ Fiona's favorite American restaurant and relishing every minute.