I Love This Guy...

This is Petar, our exchange student son from Croatia. I wasn't used to living with"young male" energy when Petar first came to live with us, soccer ball in hand. Petar, the Croation Sensation. He didn't sit for hours and do crafts with me or cook or watch hours of TV. He was always moving and doing something funny. Except when he was studying for his classes in English. Then he would sit for hours with that intense look on his face and already, I felt like his mother. I worried. 

He gave me a few scares...even when he came back to visit. When he lived with us,  he picked up a prairie dog, logically thinking it was a dog.  I had visions of calling his mother and telling her he had died of rabies. When he came to visit at the age of twenty-eight, he leaped up and down the Badlands like a boy of twelve. I had visions of calling his mother and telling her he had fallen in. 

Here he sits, in the middle of the road. Even in Croatia. I guess it is just part of his nature! Seriously, for all his dare-devil ways, he is an incredible young man. He is a terrific photographer, working for the largest paper in Croatia. He is a loving uncle to Sven and Ema and I feel like I know them because he always tells us of the cute things they do. He is kind and considerate...and he tells me he loves me. That melts me heart. He will always be the son I never had. 

In several weeks, he will marry beautiful Jelena. I am sure she is a wonderful young woman to win his heart. He certainly has won mine!