It is a bittersweet thing, knowing two cultures.
Once you leave your birthplace nothing is ever the same.
~ Sarah Turnbull
Okay, okay - enough with the pestering - I'll 'fess up...
The whole "just say no" thing didn't exactly get off to a great start.
But - bottom line up front - we do NOT have an 18-year-old exchange student from France living with us.
(And it would only have been for three weeks anyways...)
So, here's the full story:
A friend on Facebook posted about an international exchange program that was desperately seeking five additional families to open their homes to teenagers from France and Spain.
It's only a three week program, there are two, day-long activities per week planned for them AND there is a three-day trip to Disney over the middle weekend. So, it wasn't exactly a huge commitment, right?
We applied, the Orlando coordinator approved us and matched us with an 18-year-old young woman from France, and it looked like all systems were go.
Then, the state-level coordinator saw our application and made the executive decision to shut us down, because we live too far from Orlando.
When we heard the news, my husband's response was, "Oddly enough, I'm a little disappointed."
Mine was, "Oddly enough, I'm a little relieved."
I do hope they are able to find a home for her and she is able to participate in the program - but there's nothing else that I can do. It is not "my fault" if she can't come. So often, it feels like the people that I care about won't be able to have, or do, the things that are important to them if I don't help. This time, I am officially off the hook.
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