I meant to introduce you to Sam a while ago, but considering that she moved in with us just three days before we brought home Lily….well, I’ve been a bit pre-occupied. 

Sam is the student who is living with us this year.  She is a junior and she is South African (yes, there are Africans of European decent, just as there are Americans of European decent) which means, of course, that she has a fabulous accent and insists on teaching my kids to say to-MAH-to

Sam spent her childhood in Tanzania.  We got to know her family well during our early years here, and then her parents were called to serve in a different country, where they’ve been for the past few years.  There hasn’t been a good schooling option for Sam in that country, so they decided to send her back to HOPAC, which is where she has always felt most at home.  But HOPAC is not a boarding school, so…..we offered to have her live with us.  We had such a great experience with Maggie last year (who is settled now at Stanford, by the way), that we decided to do it again with another student.

And Sam has been a wonderful addition to our family.  She entered into all our chaos with flexibility and a willingess to help however she could.  She is our permanent baby-sitter and is another source of laughter and color in our house.  And hopefully she likes us, considering that Gil is her Bible teacher and her soccer coach….so she can’t really get away from us!