Silver and Gold

Twelve years ago Jared started an adventure that would end up shaping not only his life, but our whole family... he came to Denmark as an exchange student. While he did spend most of his time here learning the language and Danish culture, he also made some lifelong friendships with fellow exchange students, especially Jenine, Rosie, and Tex.

Since their days in Denmark, Jared has only seen these friends a few times, keeping in touch mostly through email, but we were so happy last week to be reunited with Jenine and her family for the day. Jenine has stayed very close with her Danish host family and even named her kids after her "brother" Michael and "sister" Mette. Most of their vacation was spent in Jutland with her family, highlighted by Mette's wedding, but they were able to take the train to Copenhagen for the day and we had a great time seeing the changing of the guards at Amalienborg Slot and visiting Tivoli.

Jenine's son, Gabe, was pretty excited to get a ride pass at Tivoli, so Ruby also was able to try out a few of the tamer rides for the first time. Gabe actually tried the biggest, scariest roller coaster and scared his Mom half to death by sitting on the outside seat! She was pretty sure he was going to slide right out of the harness, but he did great and definitely has some pretty great "bragging material" once school starts!

This was my first time to meet Jenine's hubby, Jerry, and their little girl, Mette. Jerry seems like a wonderful guy and definitely a hands-on Daddy and husband. We're so happy that they found each other. We also got to meet Mikael, Jenine's "brother", who interestingly enough used to be one of the guards at Amalienborg. It was a bit funny/awkward when we were at the changing of the guards because it was just swarming with tourists and one of the guards by us was getting lots of photo ops. The only problem is that people aren't really supposed to stand that close to him and they just were not getting that. Also, some folks decided that they really needed to sit on the steps right up against the palace... this is a no no. Unfortunately, the poor guard is apparently not allowed to leave his post, so he kept trying to get their attention so that they would move. They never listened to him and eventually he gave up. Sounds a lot like dealing with toddlers all day!

It's fun to think that we now have friends not only all over the United States, but all over the world. It's such a blessing to share our lives with such a variety of people--maybe a bit like heaven will be one day. It's been hard saying goodbye to friends as we move on (or they do), but I am so thankful for the time that we have had and the wonder of the digital age which allows us to stay in touch a bit easier.

I suppose it's just like the old rhyme:

Make new friends,
But keep the old,
One is silver,
And the other gold.