New Daughter
Independently Speaking

Publication Date 9-9-99

We had another interesting occurrence last week. We acquired a new
daughter.Well, not really, not one we get to keep, but we do have a lovely
young woman from Germany who’s going to stay with us for the next ten months as a foreign
exchange student.

My wife was concerned about how she would react to our family.
This is a valid concern, of course, because our family is just a tad different, but I
don’t think her attitude helps at all. We picked the girl up in our car. She made a very good
impression on me because everything she needed to survive for one year in a foreign
country was contained within two suitcases. This was late afternoon on the same day I’d
spent carrying mountains of gear up six flights of stairs to my daughter’s dorm room.
And she only moved thirty miles from home. We loaded the suitcases in the trunk, the young woman in the back seat and headed toward home.

We were driving along, making pleasant conversation, when
my wife turned in her seat, looked the girl in the eye, got a serious tone in
her voice and said, “Nita, one thing you need to know is that you can’t believe ANYTHING
Brent tells you.”

That doesn’t seem like a good way to build trust.

I think she’s still holding a grudge because of the bedtime stories
I used to tell the kids when they were little. “Bambi and the Pack of Starving Wolves.” was one of my personal favorites. I did it with gestures and sound effects. It was really
pretty entertaining, but the kids had a little trouble dropping off to sleep when I finished.
Anyway, that was a long time ago. I’ve learned a lot about kids
since then. For instance, one hard won lesson was that no matter how much personal
amusement you are going to get from it, it’s stupid to do anything that will keep young
children from falling to sleep.

That whole sleep thing has nothing to do with Nita, of course. I
was just trying to explain why my wife would feel compelled to tell her not to believe a
word I say. She may have a point, but it’s going to be a long year if Nita keeps turning to
my wife and saying “No, is that true?” every time I make a statement.
Actually, everything has gone very well so far. When we got Nita
to our house we discovered that she liked cats a lot, which is good, because we have a
lot of cats.

Over the next couple days she learned the names of about twenty of them,
helped do the dishes after every meal, and handed me the TV remote control every time I came into the living room. She eats the food we cook and laughs at most of my jokes. All in
all, she’s a perfect addition to our family.

In fact, she would be perfect if she’d just stop looking at my
wife and asking her if I’m telling the truth.

copyright 1999 Brent Olson