She's wonderful!

And she's home!!!!!

If you're noticing that Liza's getting most of the focus these days, that would be because she's been gone so long, I'm delighting in having her here, . . . and it's summer so the twins have been spending much of the time with their dad. (I had my big block of time with them at the beginning of the summer for our Florida reunion.) They'll be back tonight and I start orientations for school this week, so I'm trying to get caught up on my blogging before things get busy again.

This picture is from Liza's homecoming presentation to the Parole Rotary club-her sponsors for her Hungarian adventure. When she made her farewell presentation at this time last year, I was so impressed at how she had grown through the process of getting ready for the trip.

I was in tears of delight that morning (as I am again now) at the young woman she is now! Liza did a fantastic job with her presentation! She put together a PowerPoint presentation with slides from some of her adventures, and used that as the basis of her talk.

She was so poised! The audience was with her the whole time, and she spontaneously included humor that had everyone chuckling, or laughing out loud.

She was real. We all felt her love for the country, the experiences, and most especially the people. Liza let us all see and feel how much her families there mean to her. It takes courage to stand up in front of a good-sized audience of any age. When they're all older than you are, and you're talking about things that evoke strong emotions, the courage required is even more. And to let them see your tears?!?, and then keep speaking. . . Tremendous!

Other parents have asked me how I could let Liza go so far away. How could I not? This was something she wanted and worked to make happen. Yes, I missed her. Yes, it was hard to hear about her challenges. Yes, I've felt her homesickness-for Hungary!, and wished there was something I could do to make it better. But all of this is part of life, and Liza's doing so well with it!

Liza, your mom is proud of you, and loves you very, very, very much!