I love summer!  I would love the long, lazy days to stretch on forever! Food, music, and fireworks on the Fourth of July, swimming outdoors, the salt air at the Jersey shore, vegetable gardens bursting with bounty, fragrant flowers:  I love it all!

 

At the same time I'm looking forward to getting our next exchange student in the Fall.  I want to take time this summer to paint, scrub, and polish the spare bedroom, maybe hang some new curtains, perhaps put a fresh, new quilt on the bed. 

 

I hope that on his first morning in America the songbirds in our woods wake him up.  I hope he looks out the window at our old dogwood tree and the lawn, and maybe he'll see a white-tailed deer grazing on the edge of our place.  I know he'll be nervous and excited, but I also hope that the environment of our home will inspire confidence in him.  I hope he goes off to his very first day of school in America brimming with anticipation.  I know he'll struggle with culture and language, but I hope he'll have no real disappointments.  I hope that every afternoon he returns to the safety and welcome of what he considers his real, true home away from home.  And, I hope he calls me, "Mom."