One of the Family

Both of my parents have always been the types to have an open door when it comes to friends, neighbors, relatives, even strangers sometimes! So it's no big surprise to me that my family keeps expanding as "new members" are allowed in. This was again shown to me at my stepsister's wedding this past weekend. During the song, "We are Family," there were about 10 friends of the family who just naturally joined us as "one of the Ingleby's." I love this about my family. Along with accepting friends of the family, my parents also seem to take on extra kids every once in a while. My dad has Brock, both parents have Erick and my mom now has YiQi, her foreign exchange student from China.

YiQi lived with my mom all of last year while attending Marshalltown Community College and as my mom opened her doors to YiQi, she also became the "2nd mom" to a few Koreans, a Japanese girl and the Russians who lived in our basement for a week. It has been so cool to see my Marshalltown home become such an international dwelling place...it suits me just fine!

This past June YiQi even came to visit me in Tianjin! She brought her dad along and I was the official tour guide (strange concept, huh? The American showing the Chinese around!) Here's a picture of YiQi and her dad at a hot pot restaurant...


YiQi has brought a lot of joy to our household as our Chinese mei mei (little sister) and she has been a part of a lot of family celebrations throughout the last year - a trip to Michigan to see Laura, a trip to Philly to see Lindsey, Christmas with the family and a trip to Wyoming with my mom, Tony and I this summer. The pictures below are from that trip!


One of the best things about YiQi is how she can make us laugh at the most random things! One of the recent things she said that cracked us up: "Does this movie have Jack Hughman (Hugh Jackman)? I LOVE Jack Hughman!" Hehehehehe....


Now that you're in, you're in for good, YiQi! Welcome to the family!