Rise and Shine Girl Blog

On July 22nd Charles and I became parents of a 17 year-old son from Sweden.  WHAT! 

Yes, several months ago I received a text message from Charles that included a link to a small blurb from the local newspaper asking if there were families in the community who were interested in hosting a foreign exchange student.  Rewind a few years ago, our phone rang and a stranger on the other end asked if we were interested in hosting a foreign exchange student.  I have no idea why they called us, how they got our number and why on earth they would have thought a student would want to spend time in our house with a 6 week old baby consuming our family schedule.  We said, thanks but no thanks and went on our merry way.  Back to the present, when Charles forwarded the article to me he wrote, “Didn’t we entertain the idea of doing this at one point?”  I replied yes, called the number in the article, had great conversation with the foreign exchange representation and next thing I knew profiles were sitting in my inbox to review.

That is where it all started and here is where it is at this moment…

Five days ago with great anticipation we waited at the international terminal to see Carl come out of the masked doors.  Once in sight we greeted him and we were on our way to becoming a family of 5 for the next year.

As I mentioned it has only been 5 days, but in some respects it feels like a lot more.  Carl has slipped right into our family routine and the kids just love him!  He is excited to learn about America, how we live and to play high school football.  We are excited to learn about Sweden and add a new dimension to our lives.

We have had several responses from family and friends in regards to hosting an exchange student.  Most have been favorable, but some people have seemed shocked that we would want to do such a thing.  I suppose there are multiple ways that our experience could not go as we had imagined or hoped, but that is where faith comes in.  We believe there are many great lessons to be learned from having Carl here, just as many lessons as he may learn from being here.  This is what I (we) have learned so far…

1.There is always enough love to go around.

2.One would have never known how the idea of buying Gatorade could be so exciting.

3.We have so many choices in America, as simple as a full aisle of cereal to choose from compared to 25% that amount.

4.The power of everyday pleasantries.  Carl is amazed at how nice and welcoming people are here.

5.There is great power in saying to someone we are family.  This is a message that was given to Carl the first day of football practice.

6.Texas is a lot hotter than Sweden!

7.One can never have enough milk.

8.When you share your home with someone you learn a lot about your family.

9.Our lifestyle is very convenient, but we may pay a price for that.  Think about it!

10.A 17 year-old boy eats a lot more than a 9 year-old boy.

I can only imagine what our list will look like  a year from now. At this moment in time, I’m proud to say that I’m an American as well as a Texan.  Carl has been welcomed with open arms by all.  Imagine if your arms were open all of the time.   Just think of the difference you could make!

Rise and Shine!