My brave girl

Emma has always had this breathtaking and stubborn fearlessness that she was born with. Paradoxically she was also equally stubborn in her shyness and reticence to speak if Braeden could possibly speak on her behalf.  When it mattered to her though, she was as lionhearted as she needed to be though.

She still is.

I talked to her the day after she arrived in Paris.  I had had two nights of sleep to her one.  She was jet lagged and overwhelmed and didn't know where to go buy food and hadn't figured out her SIM card for her phone or how to get a Metro pass.  She was in I've-made-a-huge-mistake mode.  She said, "I don't know French.  Why did I think I knew French?!?"

I spoke encouragement to her and assured her that everything would be better when she wasn't jet lagged and had eaten.

When we got off the phone, I prayed.

She rallied like I knew she would.  She went out into the Paris streets and found a grocery store and got her SIM card and got ten one way Metro passes until she could figure out how to get her more permanent pass.

Sunday she sent this:

Home is where your WiFi connects.

I talked to her after her church and before mine.  She told me that she immediately felt the Spirit when she entered that courtyard.  She said that the opening song was "I Need Thee Every Hour" which made her cry and she "pretty much cried the whole meeting."

And I cried when she told me about it so I wonder where she inherited those tears from?

She met two friends after church and they spent a few hours together wandering the streets.  One is a former BYU student living in France for a few months before she moves to New York City and one is  a girl born in Italy who speaks 6 languages and has been a student in Paris for the past two years.  Emma was thrilled to meet them and grateful for someone who knows Paris pretty well.

When I consider myself at 20 years old, I am even more impressed with my intrepid traveler.  I'll just keep cheering from the sidelines and speaking encouraging words when called upon.  Because I believe in that girl!