Ava’s home!

Our Ava is home from the Czech Republic!!  She decided to come home a few months early from her year long exchange.  I am sad that she didn't stick it out until the end but she has been so homesick for months so we made the right decision to have her come home early.  She had some amazing experiences-she visited Hungary, Austria, Poland and Slovakia.  She got to visit the world famous Christmas Markets in Austria, she visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and she visited Budapest in Hungary.  She also went to Prague four times during her stay in the Czech Republic.

She stayed with two host families during her time in Czech and she loved them both so much. I still stay in touch with her first host family and her second family was just as nice.  Both sent us pictures and updates via Facebook.  I am forever grateful to both of those families for loving our girl and caring for her while she was in Czech.

Ava took a lot of stuff to  Czech and she bought a lot of clothes and souvenirs when she was over there.  I wasn't sure everything was going to fit in her suitcases but thankfully everything did!  Here she is after packing everything up. She was thrilled she didn't have to leave anything behind.

Ava's second host family took her to the airport.  They were a lovely family and she spent the Christmas holiday with them.  Czech has some interesting Christmas traditions and I am so grateful that she got to experience those customs and traditions with this family.  One of the traditions involves keeping a Carp fish in the bathtub for a few days and then killing the fish and eating it on Christmas eve.

Going to catch her plane in Prague.

I had already made plans to be in Florida so Graig and Grandma Jan picked Ava up from the airport in Philadelphia.  She was SO happy to be home!!

We are so happy our girl is home.  She will be home for a few days and then she starts school next week.  I am so thankful to have her home and I am thrilled she had this experience.  It was an adventure she will never forget.

Xoxo