free write

When I was in the second grade my world was opened up more than I could have ever imagined. While everyone else was getting a baby brother or a new puppy, my family was getting a German. I knew nothing about Germany or even that there were other places besides America. My dad came home one night after a long day of teaching technology at a local high school and we had a ‘family meeting’. He told us that there was a girl in his class who was a foreign exchange student here from Germany. He continued to tell us that she was involved in basketball at school and was a great student and had an amazing personality to go along with it. I was a little confused as to why he was telling us everything that was so great about this girl I knew nothing about. After telling us how much she loved Garrett (his school) and everything she was experiencing he told us how miserable she was at her ‘host home’. She would come to school crying and go to his room to talk to him about all the problems she had at home. Once he was done telling us everything about this young girl we'd never met he asked if we would all be willing to open our home to her and accept her as a part of our family.