Tag Archives: Travel

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!”

Welcome to the USA

For the past several years AYA has asked me to help chaperone one of their student orientations during the month of August. Held in NYC, this is always an exciting, fun-filled four days as we greet students from all over the world, help them adapt to the fast-paced American lifestyle, site see in NYC, andContinue reading “Welcome to the USA”

Throwback Thursday: NYC Girls Trip

Part of my work as a Local Coordinator for Academic Year in America includes planning “enhancement activities” or educational field trips for the exchange student and their host families if they choose to tag along. Most of these enhancement activities are completed locally and involve learning about local government, history and culture. This past May, however,Continue reading “Throwback Thursday: NYC Girls Trip”

We are now on YouTube!

Today is the launch of a new Youtube Channel for “An International Family”! We have only one video (haha) but hope to add more as the days/ weeks continue and our adventures do too. Take a moment and visit us: A Day in Niagara Falls with David Don’t forget to “like” “Subscribe” and of course HOST!Continue reading “We are now on YouTube!”

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”!”

You must meet my “son” Mirko!

It was a cold, wintry January day when I opened my email to see that my Regional Director at AYA had sent me  an application to view for “an Italian kid ” he thought my family would like to host. Before I wondered too long how Pieter had read my mind, I opened the attachment to readContinue reading “You must meet my “son” Mirko!”