Hi All! I am going to dust off this old blog and write here to record my memories and pictures for our trip this spring. We leave in just two short weeks for a month long adventure. We are going to visit our exchange daughters and their family in Finland. They live just outside of Helsinki in a city called Vantaa. We will be taking two smaller trips as well, one to Stockholm, Sweden and one to St. Petersburg, Russia. We have known the Hartikkas now for about 6 years. Their oldest daughter came to stay with us when Mattie and Jonah were 5 and 4 years old...we connected easily and instantly, when two moms, miles apart, both wanted good things for this teenager living in a strange country, speaking only a bit of English, and homesick. We made memories, sent packages, had long emails and discussions. Asked questions about the differences in cultures, politics, and every day life. And little by little, our relationship grew. At the end of that first year, we got to meet Aarno and see Emma interact with her dad, but then she left for home and we felt bonded but the distance grew again. Then, just over a year and a half later, in a surprising twist, Kaisa ended up at our house....Merja sending a frantic email, telling us that Kaisa was so unhappy in her first host family, and she couldn't believe she was asking this, but could we possibly even think about keeping Kaisa for a year so that she could complete her exchange program? And I read that email, headed out the door to where Tim was mowing lawn in the backyard, and yelled, "Hey Tim! Can we keep Kaisa this year?" and his instant response, "Sure! Of course!" And then we travelled to Indiana to get Kaisa.....and again, our relationship grew. We talked about religion, life goals, ideas about family. We laughed a lot over mis-interpreted messages, funny animal sounds (did you know roosters sound different in Finland than in the US?), little inside jokes. I learned that a mother's love knows no bounds from *Merja*, whether your child is across the ocean, or an adult, or you don't see them for a whole year, you still love them fiercly and protectively, you still sit up nights worrying and wondering if they are ok, you Skype, you email, you still LOVE. And then we got to meet after Kaisa's year here, and we both cried -- joyful that we could finally see each other face to face! So on this Mother's Day, I thank God for the moments that I have learned from all mothers, but especially for this special woman across the world that I have co-mothered with. The woman that I will get to see again in just a few short weeks. Happy Mother's Day!