The kids are studying Germany right now, and we're lucky to now have not one, but two international penpals, both in Germany! Woot!
One of our penpals, Sybille, stayed with my family when I was in high school.
I can't imagine how hard it must be for foreign exchange students,
to be thrust into totally new surroundings.
But I am so thankful that she braved the new country and joined our family!
Over 15 years later, and we still consider Sybille one of our sisters.
She lives in Kassel, Germany. So it's one of our first places to study.
As far as the mail goes, it costs $1.10 to send an ounce to Germany, and takes about a week to get there.
Our other penpals, Miriam and her family, live in Kandern.
Their family recently moved there, as missionaries.
When I was in high school, I met Miriam through our local homeschool group. I still remember spending the night with her, and getting up eeeearly in the morning to count cows. ;) Never could have imagined that, nearly 20 years later, our children would be writing letters back and forth across the world.
Here is our outgoing mail to them.
I do so loooove snail mail, giving and receiving.
The kids wrote letters, drew pictures, included some play American money, seals, verses.
I contributed by decorating the envelope with happy little characters.
(I have a love for stamps, too, and finally got to use some of these awesome blue cougar stamps!)
