Demain means Tomorrow

When we made the final decision to host an exchange student, my immediate reaction was the research.  How should we choose our student? What are the do's and dont's? What should we do with our student when he's here?  What program should we go through?

My research-hungry self was underwhelmed (to say the least) about the resources that I found.  I found a lot about how hard it can be...diatribes of why people would never host again.  I found even more about how amazing it is...how it changes your life.  What I didn't find is information about the little things.  So this blog is to share the little things with you as we go through the next year with our exchange student, Abel.

When we started the process, we knew a couple of things:

1. We wanted to host a boy: our son is currently 7 years old, and we wanted someone that he could look up to as a big brother and learn from.

2. We wanted a student from France: I was an exchange student in France in college, and I was a French major, and I'm a basic Francophile, so there was no doubt in my head that for the first time (and probably for all of the times) that we are hosting an exchange student, we want to host someone from France.

But that's all we knew. To be honest, I wish I could say that we did a ton of research around what organization we should go through.  That we looked into who had the best orientation and materials and website.  But honestly, I decided that I just wanted a program that was organized.  So when Jean from Pax called me as a follow-up to an online inquiry that I made, I was sold. 

I also wish that I could say that we reviewed tens of applications to select just the right student.  We had shared with Jean that we wanted a boy from France, and she sent us the very first application that came in.  It was from Abel, and we knew almost instantly that he was the perfect student for our family.   He comes from Sete in the South of France, plays the piano, is passionate about soccer, has a little sister, and comes from a wonderful family. 

After months of preparing for his arrival, he comes tomorrow.  His room is all ready.  Now, all we need is him.  This blog will chronicle the next 10 months of Abel's stay with us -- I know that we'll learn a little about Sete, he'll learn a lot about Minnesota, and we'll all learn a lot about ourselves.

 

Abel with his family as he leaves for his 10 month adventure.