Hosting a Foreign Exchange Student By The Allen Family America! This is a place many of us call home. We easily get wrapped up in the day-to-day routines of our lives and never look back. I can say that Jason and I like a normal or typical day just as much as anyone else. We ask ourselves all the time, What is a normal day?; especially this day in time. With 5 kids ranging in ages from sixteen to eight years old, normal is not in our vocabulary and over the years we have learned to roll with the punches and go with the flow. So, as we sat on the couch reading our Mater Dei newsletter one evening in October, we were drawn to an article about a German exchange student that had a desire to attend Mater Dei. She was searching for a Host family. After a little family discussion and coming up with some questions to ask, we reached out to Jill Seiler at Mater Dei. She put us in contact with ASSE International Student Exchange Programs. We filled out an application, completed a background check and within a few days we were meeting with our local contact, Diane. We have now been a family of 6 kids since January, and will continue to be until the end of May. Linda Rattmann is our newest addition. We met with her and her family via a Zoom call to introduce ourselves. Our two older daughters, Austin and Kayla, began talking with her more, as teenage girls like to do.
She shares a bedroom with Kayla, our 14 year old daughter, and all three teenage girls, Austin , Kayla, and Linda have taken over our upstairs. Thank goodness they have their own bathroom. Our two boys, Jackson and Bryson, have enjoyed hearing about the different ways of life in Germany. Linda has enjoyed cooking bread with Caitlyn. She has showered us with traditional German sweets. She has adapted to our fast, on-the-go way of life in the Allen family. We have gained a different perspective on the world outside the United States. Linda has been able to see what life is like in Evansville, Indiana. Her visit has brought so many positive experiences to our family. Jason and I witnessed our kids opening their home to a complete stranger and welcomed her with outstretched arms. We know it changed our family dynamics for a lifetime, but it changed us in such a positive way that we will continue to see in the years to come.
After asking our children, “What has Linda living with us done for you?” We were proud to hear each one had nothing but positive remarks. Our 16-year-old, Austin, said, “She gives me a different outlook on things. What me and Kayla see as bad, she sees it as not so bad.” Kayla, our 14-year-old said, “ She is like another sister, that lets me talk As January grew closer, our excitement and listens to me talk about my struggrew larger. We welcomed her on Jan- gles. We have so many inside jokes.” uary 1, 2021. 11-year-old Bryson said, “ Linda
makes delicious sweets after school for me and I have been able to see how people in another country act.” Jackson, being 10 years old said, “It gave me an opportunity to live with and hear about the life of someone from a different country.” Our 8-year-old, Caitlyn, said, “She makes me feel comfortable. I was sad when mama left and Linda helped me feel better because she said she was going to miss her mom for 5 months.” This has been a great experience so far and we can’t wait to see how our relationship grows in the future. To visit Linda, her family, and friends in Germany would be an adventure we would like to embark on. Our family will always have this experience, and possibly more like this one, to remember and recall what it was like being a host family to Linda. 23
