Twelve days from Homecoming...

Seriously, there must be a way to visually represent the excitement that is building as we get closer and closer to the arrival of our young women at the Academy!  As of today, we're at 12 days from our Boarders arrival.  Some of them will be coming to AHF for their first year, while others will be returning home.  One more day, and our Day students will join them.  All will be "home."

Home.  This is what the term "homecoming" really means.  I'm just about 39 years away from the day that I graduated from my own high school, and I can honestly say that it is still an incredibly special feeling to go back to visit.  It feels like I have returned home after being away for a while.  There is comfort. There is familiarity.  There are memories that I share with a very select group of other women. Last year, Mother Marie Julie, our Superior General, asked one of our international students "Where do you live?"  The young woman answered, "Here."  Mother asked her again, "Where is home?"  The young woman clarified, "This is my home.  My family lives in _______, but this is my home."  Home.  

Although I only had to "travel" around the corner to get to my high school, I understand what this young woman was explaining.  To think of someplace where we are able to establish relationships with those who start out as strangers and can actually become our sisters...what a blessing!  This is a cycle that will return to the Academy on the 25th of August.  Our young women will arrive on our doorstep and the tradition of becoming family which began over 130 years ago will renew itself. 

Please pray for our young women as they prepare to return to their home in Baltic.  Some will be traveling from halfway around the world, while others will simply walk up West Main Street.  Regardless of where they are coming from, they will be coming Home.  I'm excited for them, and I hope that you are, too.