For our National Advisor, Donita from Colorado, hosting became much more than a cultural experience — it became a lifelong bond! Despite living on different continents, Donita tells us how the connections only deepen over the years, growing like a family. Even when faced with challenges, Donita and her family continued to host and were rewarded with priceless experiences. Years later, she’s traveled and visited her former ‘kids’ in Sweden, watching them thrive and flourish as adults. This sweet reunion reminds us of the joy that hosting brings to both host families and students.
In December, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a couple of days in Stockholm, Sweden with our family’s fifth exchange student, Fanny, who we hosted in 2006-2007. Fanny was a DREAM come true! She was the first girl we hosted and the student who almost didn’t happen! Our first three students were great but our fourth student was a real challenge for our family. He was young, immature, and we really didn’t know or understand his culture so hosting didn’t come as easy as it had with the first students.
By the time the year was nearing the end, I made a comment to another host family that we were never going to host again. Ugh…Then a wise host dad in our group who had seen the struggles told me their family had a similar experience with their first student but they tried again and now they were on their eighth student who was wonderful. He encouraged me to not let one bad experience ruin hosting for my family.
Right image: The Santa Lucia pageant, a Swedish tradition
He was so right! That summer, we committed to host again and chose Fanny from Sweden. She fit into our family like she had always been our daughter and was a perfect sister to the two sons we still had at home. She has been back to the US to visit and to work. When she worked in the US, for part of the time she lived close to her two American ‘brothers’ as they were all working in Texas, so they saw each other all the time – I was so jealous! Both Fanny and our oldest son were expecting baby girls in January 2024, so seeing her in December before their babies were born was precious. Our family, our bonds, and our love continue to grow.
I was also blessed to visit Markus, the second Swedish student we hosted in 2010-11. Markus graduated from university, went to work right away, and then started a successful recruiting business in Stockholm. Markus said that before being an exchange student, he was shy and unsure about talking to people, but that all changed after living with our family and being brave enough to be an exchange student. Seeing Markus again made my heart sing. It was as if no time had passed at all since he left our home. He will always be family.
Our fourth student, the one who almost made us decide to never host again, grew up and reached out to us a year or so after he returned home. We’ve been in touch ever since and love him so much too! He’s all grown up, is an orthodontist, has a beautiful fiancée, and we look forward to meeting up with him one day.
Are you interested in making a student a part of your family? We are looking for American host families to welcome a student for the upcoming 2025-26 school year! Check out the profiles of our wonderful students! New student profiles go online every Thursday!
