The TallGrass Blog

My husband and I are members of our local Rotary Club of Evergreen. One of the many ways that the group helps make a difference in the world is by sponsoring exchange students who come to our town for a year to experience life in the United States. This year, our club hosted Bia, a 17-year-old girl from Brazil, and Lee Hsiang, a 16-year-old boy from Taiwan. Lee Hsiang renamed himself Henry for his time here, just to make it easier for those of us who are not fluent in Mandarin!

Chuck and I were honored to have Henry live with us for the past two months. It was quite an experience since we have never had children and were suddenly the "parents" of a teenager! It's been fun and we're fascinated to learn not only how a young person thinks and acts, but also about his very different culture.

To make things even more interesting, Chuck picked out the puppy, pictured here, from the Evergreen Animal Protective League three weeks ago. He's the cutest, ugliest little guy you could ever meet and Chuck named him "Henry" in honor of our exchange student. Little Henry goes with Chuck to his State Farm office every day to greet the clients there. I'm sure we'll be bringing him to our upcoming Wine, Washes and Wagging Tails event on July 21, so you can meet him, too. (Read all about it below.)

Hope your July is full of "interesting additions" to your life!