The Full Story on Foreign Exchange

My poor blog has become a bit of a derelict over the past few months. Blame my Masters degree! The last time I wrote was in January when I introduced to you our newest members of the family: Clementine and Tang. Well, I figured that adding another member might necessitate resuscitating the old blog!

So while many of you are probably very supportive of our decision to host a 16-year old foreign exchange student when we are only 23 and 26 years old, I'm sure that the "Are you completely insane?" thought has crossed more than one person's mind. And the answer to that question is: "yea, probably so!" We won't deny it. But at the same time, we're extremely excited about it and feel a great sense of peace that the Lord has led us to this decision!

If you're uninterested in the nitty-gritty details (a.k.a. Derek's version of the story), here are the reasons we've decided to do this:
1. We want to open our home to someone as a form of ministry.
2. We love students (hints why we're teachers), and there is no better way to totally speak into a child's life than have him live with you for an extended amount of time.
3. We feel this will be a good stepping stone to help us see if foster care may be right for us.
4. Our friends and family are supportive.
5. We think it will give us a unique experience of dealing with issues and working together as parents of a teenager that most young couples don't get. As Derek said in jest, "Well, I guess it's better to mess up someone else's kid so we can get it right for our own one day!" lol.
6. We've prayed and prayed and prayed and talked and talked and talked, and we feel totally cool about it!

Well, there you go, for most of you, you already got what you came for. So that means that we'll go ahead and say goodbye to the majority of males who happened upon this or are listening to their wives read this outloud (now is the time to go ahead and tune out)...

But for those of you who are more like me, here is the rest of the story... the "all the little details" story (a.k.a. Catalina's version)... :-) So, for the women (or the exception-to-the-rule type men, or I guess for those men who have wives who will insist that they listen to the whole thing and then get quizzed at the end to make sure they heard every word), we begin...

When Derek and I decided to move into a 3-bedroom apartment last year, among other reasons, we did so with the goal of using it as a ministry for others. We feel as though God has gifted us with the desire to host people and offer them a place to stay. We were successful in this endeavor a few times this past year, but definitely not enough to make it worth it. So when it came time to sign our new lease, we contemplated downsizing to a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment. But then Derek said we should stay where we are and be more focused on offering our home to people. So we had been thinking and praying about ways to offer our home to someone for ministry sake for the past few months. On a side note, we've been talking for a few months about the possibility of doing foster care one day. We have to both be 25 to do this, so we have another 2 years to think, talk, and pray about that option.

So when I saw an advertisement in a Savy Shopper insert for the CIEE program I yelled from the kitchen to the bedroom, "Hey Derek, What do you think about hosting a foreign exchange student?" Derek's parents hosted 3 foreign exchange students from Spain while he was a boy, so he was very open to the idea. In fact, he went online later, looked into it a bit, and started the application process. Later that day, we got a call from the Regional Coordinator wanting to talk to us.

So we spent quite a while talking A LOT about it. We sought wisdom from Derek's parents, my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, my dear friend Kelly Britt, and my awesome counselor friend Ashley White! We spoke at length with the Regional Coordinator, interviewed with our Local Coordinator (who lives five minutes away from us - awesome!), got references from our wonderful friends Brian and Ashley Finn and Nancy Ward, and then talked and prayed some more!

Finally, we decided we would want a boy and thought it might be an easier transition if it was a student from a Spanish culture, since we are both familiar with that culture, both from Spain and Mexico. So they sent us profiles of 11 freshmen and sophomores from Spain. We first ruled out three boys who didn't like or are allergic to cats, because obviously our babies aren't going anywhere!! :-) Then we ruled out the 4 boys with the lowest English score, since we're not ready yet to provide English tutoring. Then we looked at the 4 remaining candidates. One kid said he hates hot weather and prefers to go skiing every Saturday, so we nixed him pretty quickly. Finally we were left with Jesus, Aleix, and Alejandro.

Derek and I devised a fool-proof system for comparison: we read through each application and put +'s next to the things we liked or thought were cool and -'s next to the things we thought wouldn't be as good with our family. We tallied each student's score, and there was a clear winner: Alejandro!

Alejandro is a 16-year old boy from Spain who will turn 17 in February. He is a 10th grade equivalent to U.S. scores. He has a fabulous GPA, seems very interested in school and having in-depth life discussions, likes to play tennis and soccer, listens to Dire Strait and Bruce Springsteen, and loves watching HOUSE! He also comes from an intact, small family and seems very independent yet family-oriented. For anyone who knows us very well at all will understand why he seems to fit us so well! So after deciding the he seemed like the right one, we looked at each other, I asked, "Are you ready to parent a teenager?," and then we sent the confirmation email!!!!

So now we're getting his room ready, going through all the paperwork, and trying to get him registered for Mill Creek High School before August 11th. We've been praying for him and ourselves a lot over the past few days, and we definitely appreciate everyone else who will join us in covering us in prayer this next school year as we take on this task!

So are we excited? Absolutely!
Are we a bit scared? We'd be stupid not to be a little nervous.
Are we crazy? Probably, but we didn't need this experience to prove that point.
Are we are at peace? Definitely! Praise God!

Will we have difficult times? DUH!
Will this be an awesome experience? We're totally confident!


So how can YOU be a part of this? (No, don't worry, we're not asking you to babysit or anything... he's a bit old for that!) Well, here are the things we'd really love to have people praying for us over the next 10 months:
1. That Alejandro will feel safe and secure with us, learn a lot, and have an extraordinary time in America.
2. That Alejandro's parents will feel safe and secure and learn to cope without their boy with them all year. I can't imagine how hard this would be for a parent!!!
3. That we can learn a lot from him and our first experience at parenting.
4. That the Lord will present ways for us to show Alejandro the love of Jesus in our daily lives, that he would be open to joining us at church, and that his heart will be open to hearing the Gospel.
5. That Derek and I will become more and more united each and everyday throughout this experience as man and wife, and even as "mom and dad."
6. That the Lord will give Derek strength to become a good dad and to fine-tune his skills as the leader of our new little family.
7. That the Lord will give me strength to become a good mom and help me daily submit to Derek as unto God.
8. That the Lord will give us LOTS OF WISDOM and LOTS OF SUPPORT from "real" parents who can mentor us and speak into our lives in regards to doing what is best for Alejandro in a way that is honoring to God.
9. That the Lord will use this experience to point out ways that our life needs to be refined and sanctified, from the way we interact with one another, to the music we listen to, to the movies we watch, etc. so that all areas of our lives in front of Alejandro and others will glorify and point to the Lord.
10. And, finally, that we will grow closer to the Lord as we serve Him by serving Alejandro.


Thank you SO MUCH to each of you who will pray for us continually and to those of you who will support, encourage, and advise us over the next 10 months. :-)

The craziness begins in T-minus 2 weeks... Wish us luck! Or better yet, JUST PRAY!!!! :-)