No one said anything about so many dogs

I am not sure what Julius and Chen thought. There was alot of uncomfortable smiling. Polite smiling. But frankly what else do you do when you are greeted at your new host home and they have 6 dogs barking, jumping and slobbering all over you and some are even bigger then you?

Chen smiled and was extremely polite, as was Julius. The only comment was, "I thought your house would smell like dog, but it doesn't"

Awkward.


Sully the Newfoundland all 126 pounds of him left 4 inches of spit across Chens clean shirt.

The awkwardness past

Video games, zombies and languages

It was awkward, we didn't speak Chinese and he very little American at that moment.

My son walked right up to him and introduced himself and asked if he played video games and had he seen the movie Zombies Rising..I and my husband exchanged looks of fear.

Chen gave a hard look at Alex and minute later a huge smile washed over his face, "Ah yes, I have seen this, do you play video games with zombies?"

Each smiled and started to walk down the concourse taking their time speaking with each other, laughing, not noticing their differences.

I told my husband I think it will be OK as he reached for my hand and smiled back.

The airport a day early

Last night at last minute we were approved and given the information on our student Chen. Quickly another guest room has to be made ready and plans changed because we will now have two students this year and I have never spoken with Chen and don't know anything about him or his family.

We stood waiting as the plane was delayed and delayed our excitement building. My son had crafted a small sign from a piece of cardboard welcoming him. Finally the moment arrived. A tall broad shouldered young man walked off the plane and up to us extending his hand, "I am Chen".

I had played this out so many times in my mind and never thought it would have gone like this.

He had the most beautiful peaceful smile and great happy eyes and he was so tall!

One week to go..count down begins

Well flights have been scheduled and the room is ready. Saturday afternoon before my student arrives the local coordinator calls to make sure we are ready. We laugh at my families growing excitement and hope for a great year together.

I ask if all of the students have been placed.

Sadly no, I am told. If they do not have families in the next few days they will have to return to their countries. Well that just cant be. I hesitated.

Who do you have left?

I have a boy from China who needs a home she replied quickly.

Let me think about it and talk to my husband, I will call you back.

One month to go

A month to go until we meet our student. As I waited for my husband to meet me in a local coffee shop I again trolled Facebook, catching up with friends sharing my excitement and then,

a pop up!

"hello!"

I could hardly wait to tell my husband I had made contact with our student!

We spent fifteen minutes that morning and would continue to email our famlies daily for the upcoming weeks.

Thinking about it

Trolling about on face book a few months back a friend of mine posted her son was going to Chile on a exchange program, Although it grabbed my interest, my son was still to young to participate and I put the idea on the back burner. My friends son landed in Chile only days before a major earthquake hit and crippled the country. I watched her posts daily for information. I was intrigued. A few months later a friend posts how sad she was to put her student on a plane after an amazing year, again interesting but..

I spoke with a number of people before approaching my husband with the idea.

We interviewed groups and were overwhelmed with info on children that were coming to the US in need of host families.

As a family the three of sat night after night thinning out the stack of candidates until we were down to two.

We opted for the 5 month student from West Germany, we had things in common and it would only be for 5 months.