Jada – Day 9 and 10

Day 9 was a Wednesday and Wednesdays it’s a dollar to play mini putt.  So after lunch we headed to town to go to the dollarstore and get some things for Jada to take home on her long bus ride the next day, then off to the dentist with Matthew.  Once that was out of the way we ate our picnic supper and went to play mini golf.

After our road of mini-golf the kids played on the teeter-tooters for a bit, before we had to head off home.   The meeting I had to attend was cancelled and so instead the kids had another fire before they showered up and went to sleep in the tent  … this time Marietta choose to sleep in her comfy bed and Matthew got a chance to sleep out in the tent.

 

And then a week was done and it was time to send Jada off on the bus back to New York.  We were up early on Day 10 to have a good hearty breakfast before Jada headed off for her long bus ride. 

Jada took another family picture, this time with Matthew

Good-Bye’s

On the bus, ready to go.

 

It was a fun experience and we had a good time.  I highly recommend partaking in the Fresh Air Fund Program.  They are always looking for new host families!  You can read more about the program here: http://www.freshair.org/.  If you are interested you can let them know now and they’ll be in contact with you in the spring to go through the steps needed to become a host.  The children that come are carefully screen and while not everyone has a good experience the majority of the experiences we’ve heard have been good and the children come back each year again.  If it were to happen that you are matched with a child who just does not work in your home you can contact the organizers and they will have the child removed from your home if they think it is causing too much problems for your family.    If thing go well with your family and the child you host then it is possible for the child to keep returning to your home until they are 18 years old.  The important things is to treat them like a member of the family, have them partake in the family just as the other kids do – helping, doing chores, obeying the same rules.

Jada fit in nicely with our family.  She played with the girls as well as Matthew.   While she came off the bus holding celebrity magazines and talked a bit about her favourite celebrity, once she was at our home she was a true kid who spent much time playing with the toy kitchen set and dressing up with the dress up clothes.  She was respectful and listened when told something.  From time to time we had to remind ourselves that she comes from a different background then us and so the things that are just normal in our household and the household of many of our friends (e.g. having a bedtime and a bedtime routine, not eating all the cake at once but saving some for the next day) may not be so familiar to her.  We don’t know what next summer brings, but if it works out then we’ll be happy to have Jada come spend some time with us again.