Fourth-grader Kaylen Lee is sitting in the principal's office, but she's not in trouble. In fact, she can't stop grinning and giggling as she tells a visitor how fantastic Notre Dame Academy Elementary School really is --- even though she's only been going to classes for eight days.

She says, "The teachers are nice, the kids are nice" in a bubbly, sing-song voice. "It's really fun here. I like it a lot. When I first came, they were really nice to me. They were asking me questions like 'How do you feel?' and 'Did you leave before the storm?'

The outgoing nine-year-old tells Notre Dame students that she left with her sister, mother and father a day before Hurricane Katrina and the flood that followed destroyed her city, New Orleans, her neighborhood and her home. She relates how they stayed in hotels in Houston for a week.

But now she wants to talk about her new teacher here, Mrs. Young, who helps her when she's got a question about what other students are doing in English, her favorite subject. She blushes when she admits to being a good speller.

"I do miss my school and my friends," she says, serious now for moment. "But I have eight new friends already. I love this school. When I got accepted, I was like: 'Oh!' It brought joy to my heart."

It also made her mother, Karen Lee, pretty happy.

"My first thought was we really needed to get a sense of stability for the girls," the pharmaceutical sales rep recalls. "If we could enroll them in Catholic schools like they had been attending since they were three and get something stable for them, maybe things would be OK. But we couldn't afford to stay in hotels in Houston any longer. So my brother sent us one-way plane tickets so the girls could go to school out here, while my husband returned to Louisiana."

When she first went to the Archdiocesan Catholic Center and spoke with the Department of Catholic Schools, there was nothing yet in place to enroll evacuee children at local Catholic schools. But then supervisor Neil Quinly and Lee's brother started calling around, and four schools said they would accept her daughters.

The mother decided to go with Notre Dame Academy Elementary and Notre Dame Academy because both were on the same grounds in West Los Angeles and relatively close to her mother's home in Baldwin Hills, where they are staying.

"When I got there, they were waiting for me," she reports. "And both schools were very welcoming. The faculty, staff and students really made my girls feel at home."

Both schools also waived tuition for the Lee students as well as costs for books. The uniform company, after learning they were from New Orleans, also wouldn't accept any money.

"So I have to tell you that the Lord just blessed me in so many ways to get my girls in school," Lees muses.

One such blessing was Principal Kathy Norcella. She'd thought about what she would do if an evacuee student showed up on the doorstep of Notre Dame Academy Elementary. Yet only two classes had an empty desk: fourth and eighth grades. When the administrator found out Kaylen had just started fourth grade at Resurrection of Our Lord School in New Orleans, she blurted out, "You're the answer to my prayers."

Early classroom reports confirm that Kaylen is fitting in just fine.

"This is already a safe haven for her," Norcella said. "So she's very, very comfortable. And what an example to other students that you can overcome almost anything. Here's a little girl who's lost everything and is making the best of it.

"I learn from her," she added. "She's a breath of fresh air."

Sister of Notre Dame Marie Paul Grech, high school president, couldn't agree more about Kristen Lee. She says the sophomore really puts a face on service and gives teenagers a chance to walk the talk about reaching out to others.

"I think Kristen will bring a dimension to the school," she points out. "She's very articulate. She has a positive attitude. It shows young people that tragedy does not have to diminish you.

"It can be something that, with your faith and the support of the community, you can not only get through but actually grow as a human being."

For Kristen, staying in those hotels in Houston were her bad days. Waking up every morning, she'd cry and ask God to make things normal again.

"When I started school here, I told momma this was the first good day in a while," the 15-year-old says. "Just to get back to kind of a normal pace. And for everybody to be so welcoming.

"I think that's the part that I enjoyed the most: 'Hi, Kristen!'"