How a friendship began
My flight is finally booked- I thought I'd be arriving later and staying longer, but it didn't work out that way and yet I know God is in control, and it's all for the best. On December 14th, 2006, I'll depart LAX via Air NZ and December 15th will vanish as we cross the International Date line to get to the other side of the world. The flight is over 12 hours.
I've made this flight twice before, and the first time, was when I was seventeen. In fact, this very flight was my first experience on a plane - ever - and I was traveling by myself. Somehow, I'd convinced my parents earlier that year to host an exchange student from New Zealand, and they'd agreed because 1) all the students were females, and 2) she was only visiting for 2 weeks.
I had a Geography teacher who'd fallen in love with a Kiwi (New Zealander) and married her, and she'd been a teacher at Westlake School for Girls in Glenfield, (a suburb outside of Auckland - North Island), so the two of them decided to bring our schools together with an exchange program. I didn't even know how to spell New Zealand let alone what language they spoke there, but I had always been fascinated with the other exchange students floating around at our school - from Finland, Germany, and El Salvador, and I had pen-pals I had been writing to weekly for 3 years from Austria, France, and Sweden, so I suppose my interest in meeting people from across the globe was inevitable.
After presenting my case first to my mom (the softy) both my parents agreed that we'd make room in our small home to host a strange young girl from New Zealand, and in exchange, her family would then host me when my class made the trip abroad later that year. During a lunch meeting, us host students were presented with 30 pictures and letters from girls excited to come to the US. I prayed a little prayer "God help me pick the right girl" and searched through several photos and profiles for answers to whom would suit me & my family: Natalie Jane Vedder: Age 16. Has a younger sister and brother. Loves art, animals, plays the flute, hates rap. Interesting . . . I then put it down to glance over a few others to "consider all my options."
Kristina Klien, the popular girl, held up Natalie's picture next, as I watched and held my breath as she pondered Nat's profile - it was then I realized I'd made a mistake so when Kristina passed over Natalie's profile, I scooped it up again and made my final decision.
Two weeks later, I received Natalie's first letter written by hand on some Cat stationary (which I eagerly responded to) and we followed by regular mailings, and an introductory phone call. A jet-lagged dark-haired girl was pushing her cart when the Westlake group arrived at the airport, and I told my Dad that I thought it was her, so we asked if her name was Natalie. She smiled, and a shyness overtook us both as we packed her into our van and she waved goodbye to her classmates dispersed amongst the other host families.
She quickly bonded with my family and we continued our correspondence after she returned home. None of the other hosts stayed in contact with their girls, and the trip to New Zealand was cancelled because of lack of interest . . . so my parents encouraged me to use part of my college fund to go it alone because "it was part of my education". 
Christmas 1993 was spent with the Vedder family, and it was the first time I'd ever been away from home that long or out of the country. I missed the American way to do things- even Mac Donald's tasted different over there, and Mexican food is unknown - still the Vedders treated me like family, and I appreciated the fact that a family functions the same way across the globe.
By the time I boarded the plane for the States, I was incredibly homesick for Los Angeles, but sad to be leaving so soon. Natalie and I had become two peas in a pod, and we promised to write and see each other again. She wrote me in her next letter that she'd cried so much on the way home from the airport, that she locked herself in her room for the rest of the day.
