Tag Archives: Academic Year in America

One Month and Counting…

Academic Year in America is still looking for host families for students arriving in August. Join in on the excitement and take the plunge! Visit the AYA Website and register to become a host family to an international teen.

“It’s a world of laughter, a world of love…”

“…the very real blessings that sustains me are the relationships we share with our friends and family we met by chance. These are the relationships gathered from cultural exchange begun because we welcomed an international teen into our home and heart”

First Semester…. check!

The Fall semester of school was a whirlwind at our house. With two biological high school teens (A Senior cheerleader and a Freshman marching band drummer) plus a foreign exchange student teen, our calendar was full! It wasn’t until planning out this post and creating our latest video for Youtube that I realized my feelingContinue reading “First Semester…. check!”

It’s not goodbye…

Proms, final exams, and graduations have come and gone. Lockers have been closed for the last time and the once slightly unsure new international student has transformed into a confident bilingual “American” teenager. It’s June and that means another Academic Year in America has come to an end. As a Local Coordinator, I am alwaysContinue reading “It’s not goodbye…”

My Moroccan “daughter” Meriem…

I will keep this brief. Today is a hard day for our family and for Meriem. Today was the day we chose to avoid talking about, but prepared for nonetheless. Today was the day at 6:20AM when bleary-eyed and sleep-deprived we drove to our local airport, helped her sort out the weight distribution between herContinue reading “My Moroccan “daughter” Meriem…”

Why yes! Mr. Incredible is my “son”!

The 2015-2016 school year brought two young men into our lives to live as our exchange sons, but I only refer to one as “Mr. Incredible”. Fifteen year old Javier stepped off his plane to meet our family in mid August of 2015. He was exhausted, having just spent a whirlwind four days at hisContinue reading “Why yes! Mr. Incredible is my “son”!”

My “daughter” Leoni is pretty awesome too!

The fall of 2014 was the beginning of our daughter Micah’s Senior year in high school. We thought about hosting an exchange student, hesitated because we knew it would be a busy year of “Senior” events, and then finally decided to commit only to find out our local high school had enrolled all the exchange studentsContinue reading “My “daughter” Leoni is pretty awesome too!”