My husband, Mike and I, were host parents for four Global Outreach students. The experience has been more enriching, inspiring, and fulfilling than we could have imagined.
Global Outreach personally interviews all students who are placed into homes in the US. Our confidence in their ability to make good choices has been reinforced many times through all of the wonderful students we have had the privilege to host or spend time with.
Our first student was a young man from Slovakia, Filip. Filip brought much to our family with his pleasant personality, his willingness to experience new things, and his desire to share his culture with us while embracing the American culture. We have so many fond memories of our time spent with him and the many laughs we shared. Our first experience was so good, that we wanted to host another GO student.
Our second student was a young woman from Lithuania, Milda. Again, her pleasant personality, desire to experience new things, her willingness to share her many talents, and humble personality have greatly inspired us. Watching her excitement as she got to see and do things for the first time, melted our hearts. Plus her father owns a chocolate factory, so we had amazing chocolate all year long. She was such a joy to host.
Our third student, Gergely, was from Hungary. He, too, was so much fun to host. He played football for the first time while attending school here in the US. It turned out that he was very skilled at the game, and really enjoyed playing. That was a great experience for him, especially when the coaches told him they wished he could play the next year. Gergely was very open and talkative. We had many great discussions. He was excited to share his culture with us while experiencing our culture. Again, a blessing to our family.
Our fourth student was Cezary from Poland. Cezary had never travelled before, so we were very impressed that for his first travel experience, he chose to spend a year in the US. Very brave. He embraced America, and his experience left him a changed person. While here, he discovered his talent for cooking. He had never cooked before, but started doing a great deal of cooking while living with us. He would experiment with all sorts of spices which got me to experiment with spices also. Something I had never done before. It turns out that he was a very good cook. We sure did miss his cooking when he left. And, as with all our students, we missed Cezary very much.
We have been blessed to have Filip, Milda, Gergely, and Cezary become part of our family, and will always be proud to call them our sons and daughter.
Hosting Global Outreach students was one of the best decisions we ever made, and we would encourage others to share in this amazing experience by offering to open their home to a GO student.