Departure

This is the last week of the French exchange student as a resident in our home.  This coming Sunday, she gets on a plane for Paris.  We are sad, because we really bonded with her. 

I am sure that as things happen, we will become just a memory to her, but still: when her mother thanks us energetically for always being there for her daughter, and for being very supportive - in fact, she referred to us as famille et amis - family and friends -- well, its hard not to have warm feelings about their whole family.  That's a little ironic, because our contact with her parents has been minimal -- something to do with both of them working, and a six-hour time differencee between here and Paris.  But still:  we feel warmly toward the girl, and by transference, toward the family, too.

Even if they're curiously reluctant to let us adopt her.