Do you have young children at home? Perhaps you’re considering hosting an exchange student for the first time? Today, we’re thrilled to share Taylor’s story! Taylor lives in Texas with her family, where she and her husband are raising their two children, age 6 and 3. Recently, they welcomed their first exchange student for the 2023-24 school year. Through this experience, their children not only gained a new sibling, but also a role model. Taylor shares with us how her children absolutely adore Ainhoa from Spain!
What made you decide to host for the first time?
Hosting an exchange student is something we have always wanted to do as a family. The idea of bringing in a young person from another culture and country seemed like a great way to learn and explore the world without leaving our home. We had a family member who hosted an exchange student last year and they spoke so highly of it, so that gave us the final push we needed to jump into the application process.
Did you have any concerns hosting for the first time?
Of course! The idea of bringing a complete stranger who also happens to be a teenager into your home and life for a year can be unnerving. The support we received from Aspect combined with video calls and emails with our student and her parents helped ease the anxiety a ton.
How did you end up choosing which student to host?
Our International Coordinator offered us a few options of students she still needed to place. Ainhoa seemed like the best fit for our family because she is the oldest of four back home in Spain, and here she would be the oldest of three. Reading her letter and the letter from her parents helped us see that she would be a great match for us.
What has it been like hosting Ainhoa?
This is a loaded question! To be concise: it has been absolutely amazing. Ainhoa has become like another daughter to us and an incredible big sister to our little ones. They adore her more than anyone else in our lives. She has taught us how to be more present in the moment and how to spend more time outdoors, even in the heat of southeast Texas!
Navigating the waters with a teenager has the potential to be treacherous, but we managed just fine through any of those “teen moments”, for which we find ourselves quite lucky! She has brought some fun cultural things into our routines too… for instance on Sundays, we eat her favorite Spanish Tapa called Catalana. It is so delicious and easy to make, we will absolutely continue this tradition after she leaves. We made the Spanish version of what we would call a King Cake and I will never buy one from the store again!
What has it been like for your kids to have a big sister and for you to have a teenager in the home?
Our kids ADORE Ainhoa. My 3 year old son has found his twin spirit in Ainhoa and they are like two peas in a pod. My daughter has found a role model in Ainhoa, and we are so fortunate that she is more than worthy of that title. Having a teen in our home was a fun twist to our otherwise monotonous day to day! Ainhoa was active in the high school swim team, enjoyed hanging out with friends, and spent a ton of time with us. It was a good balance of running her to practices at 6 am and picking her up from the Homecoming dance at midnight versus Friday movie nights at home eating popcorn. It’s been a blast and we are going to be very sad when she leaves.
What have you enjoyed most about hosting Ainhoa? Do you have a favorite memory?
Choosing a single moment in the last 8 months is hard!! I would say that watching her become a big sister to the little ones has been incredible. We really have enjoyed every moment of her time here. If I had to choose a single moment that stands out to me since she has been here it would be when we took a trip to the beach. Ainhoa is from a coastal community in Spain and we live in the suburbs of a very large American city — quite the change!
When we were at the beach, she walked off a bit on her own and just stood there staring out at the ocean, waves crashing at her feet, wind blowing all over, and she stayed there for probably 20 minutes. It was this ah-ha moment for me of, “Wow. This child got on a plane, left her home, her beach, her community, her family — to come live with strangers in this random suburb in Texas. These students are SO SO brave.” I think that moment of realization of what it took, not only for her, but for all these students, to come here and do life with us will stick with me forever.
What advice do you have for other first time host families with young kids?
Just do it! Our biggest concern was it being challenging having little ones and a teenager, and to be honest, at times it was — mostly surrounding transportation to those early morning swim practices. We asked Ainhoa one time if she wished we’d had older kids instead of little ones and she was very quick to say NO! Her concern was the same as mine as far as older kids — bringing a teenager into the house with other teenagers could go really well, or remarkably bad… with little ones, there is no drama, just playing and love and the occasional annoying toddler outbursts — Ha!
Are you interested in making a student like Ainhoa a part of your family? We are looking for American host families to welcome a student for the upcoming 2024-25 school year! Check out the profiles of our wonderful students! New student profiles go online every Thursday!
