We didn't set out to be host parents.  It wasn't like one day we woke up and thought, "Let's be host parents!" We actually did it because there was a student whose family changed their minds. Now, we were really reticent at first. We moved to Arizona Memorial weekend 2016. We found out about hosting July of 2016. We had been in our house for less than two months after moving over 1800 miles from the Northwest suburbs of Chicago to the West Valley in Arizona. We knew about three people - our realtor, our loan officer, and the sales rep for the builder. If anyone was ready to bring in a teenager into their house, it was NOT us.

What we did have was an extra room and the ability to provide reasonable transportation and three meals a day (plus snacks). We also created a quiet place for our student to study and got to know how to get to and from the school, which was not our local public school because we started hosting so late.

We picked our Italian host son up at the airport on July 30, 2016, and our adventure began. One of the things I was surprised by was how much of a challenge eating out was. One of the factors was that he had only left Italy three days prior so jet lag was still an issue. Another factor was that the kids had been up all night so no one missed their flights to their host families. Also, not all foods translate well. We ended up ordering for him after we got a general idea of what type of food he liked. We both assumed that ordering food at a restaurant would be a fairly universal activity. It took at least a month before he was able to order food with some confidence.

He has been with us for almost four months. The house feels emptier when he is not here. It is unnaturally quiet when he is not here. He is not a loud person, so it is not like his voice fills the house. We just miss him when he is not here.

We are both thankful we made the decision to host. It has been an amazing and life-changing experience.