Today we said “Goodbye” to Stephan, our Rotary exchange student from Germany. Actually, Stephan was our exchange student 5 years ago. This time around he was “family” home for a visit. We all had so much fun with him – remembering the moments we shared in the past and enjoying the young man he has become. Stephan could probably be a poster child for the Rotary Youth Exchange.
Stephan was here for a month and during that time he reconnected with his high school classmates, visited his former host parents, and enjoyed the amenities of southern Oregon. He had a great time – as did we all. It was almost as if he’d never left; it was really wonderful.
This morning I woke up early to bake a pie for Stephan to take home to his parents, Christian and Gabby. I made yet another brownie pie because this pie had 6,000 miles to travel. I topped it with dark chocolate espresso toffee from Cary’s of Oregon. It is just a small gift to thank them for letting us spend a month with their son – who has become like a son to us.
I think that this is the goal of the Rotary Youth Exchange program – that we get to really know the people involved, and then we begin to care about them, and then we grow to love them. When this happens, we focus less on our differences and instead we begin to see how similar we are. Then the world becomes a little bit better for all of us.
I’ll end with some music by Iz Kamakawiwo’ole
Pie a Day Give Away 
I love you! 🙂
I love you!
And by the way, the pie didn’t have one crack and was delicious as always !!!