Fu Yi Fei came to live with us in December 1996. He is from Hainan Province in southern China. We planted a tree in our yard in his honor. Our "Fu tree" is as tall as the house now and has beautiful flowers on it each spring. Fu enjoyed Karate lessons, and earned his Green Belt. We attended Karate tournaments in the state, and he won three trophies.

Fu was very independent. He was intelligent, but did not like to study, especially English and history. He has a sense of humor and liked to say things to make us laugh. Weliked to listen to music by John Lennon or the Beatles and especially liked "Imagine". He was like a son to us.

We said our goodbyes in May 1997. I have not seen him since that time.

After he left, I was so sad, and when the Exchange Program called us to see if we could take another Chinese student the following year, my husband said "yes" before he even asked me.

Sun Zhe was with us from August 1997 until June 1998.  She has an outgoing personality and is a brilliant student with a photographic memory. She was very close friends with our grandsons Russ and Ryan. We would go somewhere every Saturday, out to eat or to a movie, or shopping. She was always cheerful and friendly and talked a lot. The music we liked to listen to when we were in the car was "It's a Beautiful Life".

My husband gave her the nickname "Short Shorts". After a discussion at home about the length of the shorts she was wearing to school that day, and telling her the school would not allow her to wear them that short even though she was also wearing tights underneath, she wore them against my advice. About 9 o'clock, she called me to come and get her at school so she could go home and change clothes. We laughed so much about that, and it was hard for me not to say "I told you so." We still call her "Shorts".

The top two pictures are Sun Zhe and Russ in 1998 and in 2001. Sun Zhe is an artist and she was asked by her art teacher, Dottie, to show her paintings in the school's 1998 art show. The bottom picture is with Ryan in 1998.

Sun Zhe became a Christian in March 1998. She is like a member of our family. She IS a member of our family. All of us still miss her every day.

We enjoyed our everyday lives together, and during these months, all of us learned about customs, culture, language, and history from each other. Although our respective countries and governments are different, this does not prevent us from transcending those differences and joining our hearts and families in a common bond of love and understanding. We correspond with the parents of our students, and have said with all honesty to each other:
From our country to your country - peace. From our family to your family - love.