My heart breaks tonight as we had our final evening together. I don't know if we will ever see Sotaro again and the thought of never seeing him makes me so sad. I have invited his family to come to America and stay with us. I know they love to ski as a family and it would be a dream come true to meet them. They must be amazing people to have such a wonderful son. I feel like I already know them because of Sotaro. I really hope they will be able to come to our home someday to visit.
We told Sotaro tonight how much we love him and we know he will be successful in whatever he pursues in life. We hope he will always remember us because we will NEVER EVER forget him. We hope that he always remembers that there is a family in America, The Bloxham Family, who loves him and is cheering him on to be successful in his life. May God bless you, Sotaro and be with you until we meet again!
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My favorite Japanese friend...Sotaro Iinuma - - Out of all the Japanese people in the whole world, Sotaro is our favorite!
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Tanner with one of Sotaro's teachers at the closing social.JPG)
Daren, Sotaro, Abby and Tanner playing air hockeyTonight we said our goodbye's to Sotaro. We take him to BYU very early in the morning. We gave him a lot of gifts to take home to his family. At the end of the evening Daren gave Sotaro one of his favorite things in the whole world...his BYU flag! For those of you who know us well, Daren's BYU flag hangs in front of our house EVERY Saturday in the fall when BYU has a football game. We love our flag. With tears and heavy hearts Daren wanted to give Sotaro his flag as a token of our love and friendship. We will miss you friend! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!
4 comments:
I have tears in my eyes reading this. He'll never forget you. You'll be an important part of his life from now on. You have been such gracious hosts, it's awesome so many people are willing to do this--imagine the good that comes from it. We're looking forward to our turn when Sam gets older and we "qualify". :) I hope you have a good day.... :)
What a neat experience for your family. I am sure you have touched his life just as he touched yours. Thanks for sharing all the fun experiences you had with him.
I think Sotaro must have spoken much better English than our Keisi did. We felt a little disappointed that we couldn't get to know him as well as we wanted to because we could not communicate. We could tell he was an exceptional young man and we wanted to learn more, but whenever we tried to converse, we didn't get anywhere. But it was a wonderful experience, nonetheless. You guys should host a student for a semester or a year! You would love it!
Julie you are amazing, you are so in tune with the spirit that I know you would open your home and your heart to anyone! Thanks for the great example!
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