We hosted a 13 year old Japanese boy back in 1981. He and his 15 year old sister came to CA to learn English at our local university. It was a summer thing. The boy was forced to participate in the program by his mother and he wasn't the least bit interested or happy to be here. His sister on the other hand was thrilled. She was staying with another family. We asked the family if we could host the sister so that we could deal a little better with her brother. What a difference it made to have both of them. After that, we had a delightful time and even visited them in Japan a couple years later where the mother apologized repeatedly for the behavior of her son and showered us with gifts. :-) I'd love to do it again but I work too many hours and hate to plan and cook meals anymore. Can't wait to hear more about your new students Kathleen. Jodi-

Kat, yes, in fact I talked to and played Scrabble with Maria earlier today. We have an on-going couple of games going on Facebook, just whenever we have time to take our turn. She's planning to come back to visit this summer or in the fall if she gets accepted to a college here. She still hasn't heard from them. She's still engaged to her boyfriend she met here last year. I invited him to spend yesterday with us celebrating Sola's birthday because he sent me a message Friday about the tornado warnings and said he wanted to hang out with us sometime. The last I heard from Johanna was when Luther died, she posted on my facebook page. She doesn't keep in contact with any of us, including Maria, which kind of makes me sad. And, no, not at my goal weight. I gained a few pounds over the Winter, I think from eating too many carbs that I wasn't supposed to eat. I added bread back into my diet and am cutting it back out again so I'm back down to what I was before now. I'd like to lose another 25 pounds even though everyone tells me I'm too skinny now. We did try a college student, not one that lives with us just to spend time with the family and do things with. The one we started with was a graduate student from China who was always too busy. We finally had dinner together and she barely spoke to us and when I invited her to have Thanksgiving dinner with us she said she was going to the university's dinner. So, I took that as she didn't really want to spend time with us. She was older, around 27 so that may have been part of the problem. The program called me about a month ago to see if I wanted another student so I said ok. This one is an undergraduate student, same age as Alex, from China again. Our first outing didn't happen because she got drunk with her boyfriend the night before and didn't answer my text messages or calls when we went to pick her up because she was asleep. LOL! That's kind of sad, Ellendi, that's the whole point of the exchange programs to get to know the host family and their culture. Maybe that's why they don't pay us. Maybe they think people who aren't paid will be doing it for the right reasons, not just the money.

The thing that concerns me about your post is that deciding to take on the responsibility for someone else's child, a child who probably speaks English as a second language, etc, really shouldn't be a spur of the moment decision. It should be something you've given a great deal of thought to, and probably some months of planning--to make sure you have the appropriate space, you know about the program that they're involved with, you have touched base with their teachers to make sure everything goes smoothely for them, possibly your family would be taking some 'crash' language classes to help communicate with them. I just don't see getting involved last minute as being the way to go for the best experience for either your family or the visiting child. Make sure you've got all your bases covered and are truly ready to take in a person from another culture, who may have VERY different customs than your family does. If it is too late for this school year, why not consider getting involved with one of the programs where students come for a month or so during the summer. Dsis just had a little 14 year old Spanish girl (from Castille) for a month this past summer. If you plan on doing this next summer, you'll have time to get things in order, plan for some activities and trips, maybe learn something about your student's country and language in the meantime. I will say this, though.. Dsis told me that she really lucked out. Her student was lovely and well-behaved. But she got the best of the bunch, that most of the other families had major probles with the kids they took in (one got the surprise of a several thousand $$$ phone bill! among other things)

Thanks for the update. We hosted an exchange student from Italy when I was in high school, I was a sophomore and she was a senior. Initially there was a bit of jealousy on my part- but when I got over that we became more like sisters. We did not do much together socially, but got along well at home. I also was an exchange student to Germany the year after I finished high school. Homesickness is a big part of it, but having a caring and involved family helped me to overcome it. Letters from home were an important link, there was only snail mail, no e-mail or texts for instant communication. I think in some ways that helped me to assimilate to their way of life. Congratulations for taking in the 2 girls, I would bet that the cultural understanding and friendships that you gain will be well worth any expenses of having them with you. Best of luck-and please keep updated!