In December, we will become a host family for a German student named Johanna. I can not be more excited to meet her, and learn all about her culture. Now you may be wondering why we are doing this, or how we even came to the decision to do it. (I get these questions a lot) Basically, ever since I have been in high school, I have always known that I wanted to host a foreign exchange student, and I would have loved it if my parents would have done it when I was still in high school. I never asked them too though, because I knew they would say no. I guess it isn’t for everyone, but I was determined to host ever since then. Now I know that you are probably wondering why I wanted to host still! Well, I had a friend in high school that was an exchange student, and she was from Germany. We became friends, and I was always intrigued by her differences, and just knew that when I was able to host, that I would.
Well, I started out the quest to host a year ago, almost two years ago, really. I got all the information, and was contacted by a representative from the agency, only to find out that you have to be 25 to host. I was 24 at the time. I was a little crushed to find that out, but at the same time, I figured if I had waited this many years, one more wouldn’t hurt. Well then this year, I started getting calls, and emails about hosting again, and after talking to Joey, he almost talked me out of hosting. We were at the time thinking about trying to get pregnant(which is a whole other blog in itself, lol), and then my sister moved in with us, and since we only have one spare bedroom, I decided that it was not the right time. After a few weeks, just as I had anticipated, things didn’t work out with my sister living with us, and she moved back home. We had decided to wait one more year to try to get pregnant, and were even planning on going on a cruise for our anniversary next year. Then all of a sudden all of those plans slowly turned around, and changed, and now I honestly can’t say that any of them are still in place! We are once again trying to get pregnant, and I finally talked Joey into hosting! We also decided that the cruise would not be a good idea either, because for one, I may be pregnant, or have a newborn, and two, we would have an exchange student. Some people may see both of those situations a hindrance to their life, but I am honestly happy to make the sacrifices, they are my own choices and couldn’t be happier with them.
So we finally decided for sure that we were going to host. We met with the area rep, and she interviewed us, and checked out our house, and we had to go through background checks, and give her references. After all that had been completed successfully and we had picked out a student, we found out that we had already missed the deadline for Columbia County, to have a student for a full year. The student that we had picked out was set up to come a full year. The agency that we are working with told us that we could host just for the spring semester, so we would get our student in December, and then they would leave in May. Neither Joey, nor myself wanted to limit the student that we picked to just coming for a semester, if she wanted to do a full year, so with the help of our area rep, we searched for another student. That’s when we found Johanna. She was setup to be placed outside of our region, so we had to get special approval for her. (In the beginning I was not really sure what it meant for her to be “outside of our region”) Now I have come to realize that the students must be able to chose where they want to go in America, because when we got all of Johanna’s information, her application stated that she preferred to be placed in Minnesota. Now I feel like I have passed up one student because we didn’t want her to be disappointed with coming for a shorter time, only to get a student that wanted to be placed somewhere else….
I have been communicating with her frequently through email, and she seems very excited, and interested to come. She has never once mentioned that she was upset to be coming to Georgia. She has sent pictures, and also tried calling once, unfortunately I was at work and wasn’t able to answer. We have about five months before she arrives, but I am already planning, and trying to get everything perfect for her arrival! I want to redecorate the bedroom, to be customized just for her, and we plan to take her to many different places, to show her as much of America as possible. We are still thinking of all the places that we can take her, and of course at the top of our list is going to a Braves game next year, and also going to Washington D.C. for spring break. I can only imagine what a teenaged girl from a completely different culture can expect, or what will make her stay enjoyable.
If anyone has any good ideas of what to show her while she is here, or also any tips for making her feel at home, even though she will be so far from home, I would be happy to hear your ideas! Also, if anyone is interested on getting more information on hosting, you can visit www.ayusa.org this is the agency that we are using, and haven’t had any problems. You can actually view student profiles on the site, and you can host students from almost any country! It seems as though it will be a great experience that we will all remember for a lifetime!
Meet Johanna!
That sounds like a fantabulous idea if you do your research and a good way to witness to someone from another country. (Even practice parenting for when you have teenagers of your own). If she wanted to go to Minnesota I do believe the Mall of America is there, mayhap you could drive up there if you have a week off for spring break. Dunno how ideal that is. Or depending where we are at in Florida maybe come down and spend time with us and go to Disney, Epcot, or something. Thanks for the ideas and keep us updated.
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