Till I see you again.

This year.... man.
A single post can't sum it up.

It was a great year to be a part of Kirby School.
Our school community has, at different times in the past, hosted an exchange student from time to time.

But this year, we had a collective total of 19 kids, some first semesters, some second semesters, some all year... and they have ALL left footprints on our heart.

Today I went to a farewell gathering for these students at Pilgrim's Rest Church in Lodi. Bro. Kyle Cowart spoke, we watched a couple of videos, ate cake... and cried!

At least I did.

Words really can't express how awesome this year has been. We've all become extremely attached to these brave kids who traveled so far, in Bill's case, 23 hours on an airplane, to spend a year living with people they know nothing about, in the country we call home.

There was lots of talk at the beginning of the year by people with nothing nice to say... about what we were doing over here with all these kids.

I remember Lais telling me that as all that talk was happening, some of the kids began asking questions.

Well, here's some answers. This year, many of our great local families hosted kids, and it did help our numbers at school. Everyone who participates in any type of exchange program has a reason. Maybe they have an empty nest and want company. Maybe they, like me, have wanted to do this since they were young. (I always wanted a brother! Instead my kids got brothers and sisters and Mich and I got sons and daughters!)  In our case, we were fighting for our school. And here is what happened-

19 kids came in and out of doors this year. They lived with us, day in and day out, they experienced the same challenges we all do on a daily basis living in rural America. They dealt with bumps in the road. They lived with people they, or their families, have never known and did so with faith in the goodness of human decency. They did this while overcoming the lack of mastery of a language learned but likely not practiced on a daily basis. They could have been placed in the cornfields of Kansas, the suburbs of St. Louis or the smog of LA. But, this particular group of kids were placed here, in Kirby, Arkansas.

They learned to play, and love, basketball. They learned the thrill of running out with a group of friends who turned into an international band of brothers. They learned about our traditions. We learned about theirs. They taught us. We taught them. They learned about God. They got new little and big sisters and brothers and large extended families. We all downloaded google translate on our phones. We all attempted to learn, and probably hacked, new languages. We laughed. We cried.

Bill and I were talking earlier about this year. I asked him if it was totally different than he expected since he ended up in a small town. He said it was totally different but it was great. How do you possibly imagine what and where you are coming when you sign on for such an adventure?! When I was their age, I would probably have wanted to live in a high rise apartment in Manhattan or in some ski resort town in Colorado.

But this year, this particular group of kids landed in Kirby because these are the families who opened their hearts and their homes.

Here we are, ten months later.

All of our hearts are both full... and broken.

Today we watched a couple of videos about the kids time here. By the end, there wasn't a dry eye.

This may have been a different experience than they would have gotten if they'd lived in a high-rise Manhattan apartment... but here, they learned what a close knit community is in a small town where the flags fly high, community pride runs deep and neighbor really means something, in what I consider the very heartbeat of America. Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy, but when it all comes down to it, this is a community who cares deeply and loves deeply.

This year 19 kids became close friends with one another, their families and brought a whole new world to our community.

It was a great year. I can't imagine it without them.

Click here to watch the video!

International Trojans of 2015