Lots of excitement!

It's been pretty exciting around our home with the arrival of our new German daughter, Tina. She arrived at 12:10 p.m. on August 19, 2007 at Mid-Continent airport in Wichita, Kansas. We were grateful that Jarrod, Gina, Abbi and Dominick also came to welcome her and helped us pass the time while we waited for her flight to come in. She finally arrived and looked a little worried as she came down to the reception area. We learned later that she was confused about which way to go and where her luggage was. :) It didn't take long to see that she is a really exceptional girl. We got to know one another a bit better over a lunch at Applebees. She is a picky eater like Ciara, I figured that out straight away when she scraped all the cheese, onions, peppers and mushrooms off of her "smothered chicken". She barely ate a thing, but commented at the huge portions in the USA. We are learning the likes and dislikes of another child, that's interesting at times! :) She is not familiar with a lot of the traditional German foods that my family eats - and commented that "everyone thinks people from Germany like to eat sausages, but we don't!" :) It was pretty cute. Living so near the sea, her family is more apt to eat sea food and more common foods. YUMMY! She brought pictures and it's just beautiful there. I really hope we can go there and visit one day!

Anyway... back to the arrival story - we finally got home that afternoon after a short stop to the Mall in Salina. She seemed pleased with her new home, and even comfortable - but was a bit quiet the first day or two. That changed quickly as she spent time with the crazy Hespe family. She talks and talks just like the rest of the bunch. Her and Ciara have become very good friends and giggle and laugh like sisters. She laughs at Brandon a lot with all the silly things he does, but we all have a lot of fun together. He thinks she is fabulous - we all do!

We found it interesting that Tina has never eaten corn on the cob - it is only fed to livestock or made into corn flour for bread where she lives. She has also never eaten peanut butter. That would be unfathomable in the US, where we feed our kids pb&j all the time! Her family lives in Rostock, Germany which is just off the Baltic Sea. She spends her free time with friends on the beach and at the disco. She is very sociable. It's fun learning about her way of life. She is such a sweet girl and so excited for school here. She finds English III to be her most difficult subject, even though she's had 9 years of English. Ciara and her work on their homework together and Ciara helps her understand. It's been good for Ciara to build a relationship with Tina in this way, it's like the sister she never had... and for Brandon - well.... it's 2 sisters to laugh and tease him now. ha ha. He loves it though. We all think that Tina is the bees knees and we love to listen to her talk in German. Luke constantly tries to show off his German "skills"?? :) Tina says, "I will teach you!" She likes to laugh at Luke and all the silly things he says and does, and I enjoy hugging all the kids good nite and spending time with them around the house, preparing and cleaning up meals, playing with the kitties and pupper dog, etc. Mostly my time has been spent transporting 3 teenagers though, because Ciara's car has been in the shop for 10 days. We will pick it up today and that should free up some driving time for me. Thank goodness!

Tina is playing volleyball, so that adds an interesting element to an unathletic family. :) We will be most zealous about supporting her by going to home games, getting her to practices, etc. I'll share some of those pics later.

Well... there's so much more, but I better cut this short for now as it's time to once again pick up kids from school and then a quick trip to Hays to get Ciara's car and run some errands. FUN!


* Check out the slide show below for all the latest photos of the expanded Hespe family! :)