Thorben Arrives

Our new family!

Carrie leading orientation

Taller than Brad!

Today we went to Charlotte to pick up Thorben (Torben). As our niece, Lauren, says....it makes sense....you don't say the 'h' in Thomas either.

We left the house in time to go by our favorite donation stop in Granite Falls (The Salvation Army Store).....where we dropped off some items and went in to look at a chair that Tommy had seen the day before....but it was gone....guess it was not the chair for us..:) Then we went to Wal-mart where we were going to purchase an item but found it to be about $11 more than it was online.....after a discussion with the manager we found we could order it online and have it sent to the store and save this $11 so we decided to take this route. We were going to go by the Family Christian Store in Hickory but we were running short on time and decided to head on to Charlotte.

When we got there.....Gretchen was leaving as she had been there......I guess since Thursday.....she said the kids were done with their orientation and were here and there but that most of them were pretty much wiped. We were one of only two families there that had hosted before and everyone else were first timers so the orientation was basically question and answer for them.

There was one lady...have no idea her name who make a suggestion about better communication between the liasions and the parents as she pointed out that last year most of the communication came between the AFS folks and the kids and even though they are great kids.....they are kids and sometimes things would get misinterpreted or not communicated at all which would cause problems....Frank said they were working on this problem. I was just glad to see that someone else saw this problem and was working on it. This lady also pointed out that there is an option of a pre-paid phone for $20 per month and you can get unlimited texting at AT&T.

The lady that led the training was really great....her name was Carrie something....wish I could remember....but she is very nice...she helped Brad and I get some ice for Thorben's insulin when we were getting ready to leave.

We met Thorben's friend's host parents right before Thorben came in....they live in Hickory. He has a host brother that will be attending Hickory high with him. There is also another German student that will be attending Hickory high also.

Thorben seems like a very sweet young man....he is very tall...taller than Brad.....and cute as a button. We did our greeting and took pics.....and then we were off.....our adventure begins!