Half time

We are halfway through Nadin's stay here in the US.  People often ask what the most surprising thing is about her or about our experience.  Honestly, I think the most surprising thing is how easily we adapted to having another person live with us.  One of my biggest concerns about committing to this was how we would really handle having another person here all day, every day, for 10 months.  But other than my robe getting way more use than usual, it hasn't been that hard!

She's very self sufficient, which also makes it easy.  She can entertain herself, more or less take care of herself, and if need be, feed herself.  Actually, we are both so frequently engrossed in our own activities that I sometimes think I don't interact with her enough! But we try to plan plenty of family dinners and activities to make up for the times we are independent of each other.

She's doing very well in school.  She got all A's first semester except for a B in English and this was largely due to a very questionable format of the final.  Just one of the many things about the Ozark public high school that has disappointed us.

We love that she makes us laugh on a regular basis-whether it be an animated portrayal of teenage lives at the high school, her use of vivid sound effects to go along with routine activities, or just the funny stuff she says.

One of the other things we have realized is how many phrases and sayings we have in English that don't translate literally.  We don't even think about things like "ring a bell" or "off the hook" but to a non-native speaker those don't really make sense!

The dogs love her-especially Legend.  She recognizes the sound of the school bus pulling up and will go meet her at the door if we are home.  And she Legend give each other no shortage of kisses.  Lyric enjoys getting love and snuggles, but is not as forthcoming on kisses, which is typical of her.

Overall I think everyone is enjoying the experience and we have a lot more things planned for the second half.  Stay tuned!