Sweet 16!

My daughter Josie turned 16 yesterday! YAY!!! She now has her driver's license (she's had a student driving permit since she was 15) AND last Friday she heard from Rotary that she has been accepted by Spain for Foreign Exchange. There's still a lot to be done before she would leave in July, August, or September, but it's exciting to have a country! I've been searching for blogs or any information from anyone that's been a foreign exchange student to Spain and I found one and haven't been able to keep myself from reading it (There's a link to it on my blog homepage).
Josie will apply for her passport this Friday (it's Tuesday, Feb 8) and I'll let you know how that goes. We were going to apply for her passport earlier, but you can apply for an adult Visa once you turn 16, so we thought it better to wait a couple weeks and get her an adult visa instead of a minor one.
This whole process seems a bit overwhelming, but I have no doubt that it will pay off once she gets to Spain. We are told that the whole process will cost about $5,000. And then there's Rotary meetings and trips and traveling expenses and spending money and the list in my mind goes on and on. But it all seems a small price, if you can swing it and we are more than willing to try!