It's a Girl!

After years of wishing and waiting and begging, Erika finally has a sister.

Vivien's first night in the USA

It began a couple of years ago when my cousin asked us to host an exchange student. The timing wasn't right in our family and to be honest we never thought it would be to add another teenager to the mix. Then we were asked to host for the International Dance Festival which we thought we could handle for a week but they had only given us 2 weeks notice and we couldn't clear the entire week to commit to just the dancers so we turned the offer away with a "maybe next year" response. We went to the opening night of the International Dance Festival and afterward spent time on the field with the dancers and other host families and committed that next year we would host, making sure that we could clear a week to just party with the dancers.

That was Saturday night.

On Sunday, after church, LeRoy saw that he had another text from my cousin concerning hosting an exchange student. It was the third time he had asked this year. LeRoy called to tell him it still wasn't a good time but while they were on the phone the thought came to my mind, "trust me". I paused just long enough to hear it again and then wrote down a bunch of questions for LeRoy to ask about hosting. After nearly an hour on the phone we told him we would talk to the kids and get back with him that night.

The kids were immediately excited. They probably thought hosting would be a constant party like we had had on the field the night before so we discussed the realities of adding another teenager for the whole school year. In reality, we had no idea what we were in for. We had a family prayer then called my cousin back to have him send us the profiles of the students, with the commitment that we would be a "welcome family" which meant we would pick up the student at the airport and keep them until a permanent host family could be found. At the most we were looking at about 2 months.

We read through 8 different profiles, all girls as we had requested. They were from a variety of countries, had a variety of religious preferences, some liked animals, some didn't, all were from small families, most from split families. We went through a bundle of personal letters from the students and their parents trying to pick a student that we thought would blend best with our family.

After reading all eight profiles on my own I narrowed the list down to three, but I felt very strongly about one girl in particular. I gave those three profiles to Derek and Justin and asked who they would choose. It didn't take them long and they chose the same girl that I had. After Erika got home from her friend's house I gave her the three profiles and she too chose the same girl. Later that night LeRoy and I read through those three together, with me trying to keep my personal preference to myself and he also chose the same girl. The next day we contacted my cousin again and told him that we would like to invite Vivien to stay with us. His e-mail back was just the confirmation we needed. "When I kept contacting you to host, this is the exact girl that I had in mind. I think it will be a perfect match." He even tried to bet us that we would end up keeping her for the whole year instead of just being the welcome family. We were still unsure.

Over the next 2 weeks we "met" Vivien through e-mail and even more pictures. She made her flight plans and arrangements to leave home for 10 months. We reorganized the guest room to be her room and went through a bit of training to know the school policies and ICES rules for hosting a student.

And then August 20th was here. The day we were to meet our new (temporary) family member.

Erika was very antsy as we waited at the Idaho Falls airport. We had decided to just have Erika and I pick her up since she didn't have any brothers and was from a small family. After 24 hours of travel and an 8 hour time difference we didn't want to overwhelm her from the start. I had to hold back tears as we recognized Vivien through the sliding doors and Erika went right up to her and gave her a hug. She looked exhausted, with a touch of excitement. The trip from Idaho Falls was rather quiet. Vivien was unsure of the language. We were unsure what questions to ask or information to give. She was surprised at the size of the school as we drove past it and even more surprised when we got to our house and suddenly she had 5 brothers.

It took us a couple of weeks to get acquainted. There have been some jealousy issues from our kids, some homesickness from Vivien, some awkward moments, days of crying and uncertainty and all of that has turned into a whole lot of laughter, friendly banter among all the kids, and so many wonderful memories.

The struggles we had overcome during the first two weeks had molded us together as a family and we couldn't imagine her being anywhere but with us. We officially changed our status from welcome family to host family, also changing Vivien's status from temporary family member to life long family member. It will be a very sad day when she boards a plane to go back to Slovakia but in the mean time we will live it up and enjoy the 10 months that we have together. It turns out that hosting IS a constant party. Wackee Six, Apples to Apples, the Tootsie Roll Game, Farkle, In a Pickle, and even Saturday chore time all give us hours of entertainment, side slitting laughter, practice with colors, numbers, vocabulary, story telling and finding that working together can actually be fun.

The best way to relax and laugh without any language barriers during the first week was to play Wackee Six. Vivien got so good at it that she beat us nearly every time.

Even doing homework together has become a party. It's good to see the kids rally around Vivien to help her with US Government, English, Health, Adult Roles, and even practicing lines for Drama.