Our summer with Leanna - Part One

There are so many thoughts swirling through my mind...so many blog posts in the making. It's been quite a summer...a roller coaster of sorts. Before I begin sharing my current thoughts, I thought I'd share some emails that I sent throughout the summer. One of the requirements for hosting Leanna was that we had to have a minimum of 10 prayer partners. We ended up with almost double that...we are so blessed.

Anyway, Leanna arrived on June 25 to spend 38 days with us. It seems like ages ago that she arrived. Here's the email I sent out on the evening of her arrival...

Hi friends,

Well, our girl has arrived safe and sound and is hopefully sleeping for the night. She is exhausted and has a cold but is in very good spirits. For those of you who weren’t at the airport, pictures are on Facebook. We waited about an hour and half for her to get through customs but it went by pretty quickly with all the great company to visit with. When the New Horizons gal finally said, ‘they’re on the train!’ my heart dropped. I was so nervous and excited…I really could’ve thrown up right about then. But we forged ahead to the escalators to wait for them to come up. When Leanna finally got off the escalator I saw her right away but she didn’t see us. I raised up both my arms and starting waving and yelling her name. When we finally locked eyes and she came running to me and hugged me all my nervousness was gone. It was just…right. She gave everyone hugs and it was like she had never left. Praise the Lord!!

We grabbed a pizza on the way home. She was so tired. She did eat a piece but I think she just wanted to go to bed even though I asked her and she said ‘no.’ We showed her her room and the clothes in her closet. I told her we’d try everything on tomorrow and whatever doesn’t fit or she doesn’t like, we’ll take back. I could tell she was relieved she didn’t have to do it tonight. Tomorrow is our shopping day. Please pray it goes smoothly.

Leanna smiled big when she saw her picture on the fridge. We put a few pictures of her and the kids (from January) in her room and she just walked around looking at them and smiling. I don’t think she’s noticed all of the pictures of her yet, but I was glad she smiled about the ones she saw.

We are SO thankful she’s home. I can’t even fathom sending her back on August 1. She was joking around with the kids before we even left the airport. She just BELONGS here. With us.

To those of you that were at the airport, thank you so much for being there and taking pictures.

I’m off to bed now…there’s no telling what tomorrow will bring!

Love, Amy