Many of you have been following along with our amazing journey having Hailey, a South Korean foreign exchange student living in our home. Its been absolutely incredible up to this point, but today the story takes a bittersweet turn. Hailey is no longer living with us in our home. 6 months ago when we signed up for the program, we actually signed up to be a welcome family which is an option, to host a student for 6-8 weeks. The idea is that you get them situated and welcomed here to the USA, and then pass them along to a real host family who will keep them the rest of their visit. Of course, any welcome family has the first option to become the host family if they choose. When Hailey arrived back in August, we had recently found out that we were pregnant, and knew that long term a situation with her in the current house could become a issue with the baby arriving before she was due to leave. At the time I was certain I would be able to purchase a new, larger house by now and the problem would be a non issue. That didnt happen. As the days became weeks, and our welcome family status came to a close, we were asked if we wanted to become her actual host family. I wanted this more than anything else. We had fallen in love with Hailey, and I in particular had developed a bond with her that I never wanted broken. So I gave myself more time, 30 days at a time, to try and figure out a solution. It was nerve racking. By early December I had to come to terms with the fact that our house was simply not large enough to host a student as well as a new baby, we had no place for a nursery, or even storage. We were turning down offers for baby stuff because there was no room in our house for them. It was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make, but I knew I had to find Hailey a new home. Secretly I began working along with help from the exchange agency, and luckily we were quickly able to find her an amazing new home, right here in Rockwall, less than a mile from my own home. Thanks to this, she will remain in the same school with the same students and teachers until she leaves in June. This became my new top priority, to keep her here in Rockwall at the same school and I am so thankful we were able to do this. Her new family is fantastic, they have a very large home with a baby grand piano for Hailey to play on, its nearby. They are kind, loving, and ready to love Hailey like we have the last 5 months. We spent 2 hours with them on Christmas Eve and it made me feel 100% better. This has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, learning about a new culture, what its like to be in charge of a teenager, and to love someone like a father. I would do it all over again. We will still be able to see Hailey, and I am sure she will visit often and we will still have some adventures together, although much less frequently than they have been. We are not her only American family anymore, and I am OK with that. I have to be. The reason I decided to post this all here is because I knew someone would find out anyways and honestly its a lot to explain and its extremely hard for me emotionally right now, so typing this out serves as a sort of therapy for me as well as an explanation for those who have been following our journey along. As she loaded her last bag in the car this morning, I couldnt help but cry. She is so brave, being here at all, and now changing homes to be with a new family. I will miss her every day, and our home wont be the same without her here. Its not the end, at least not yet, she will still be here for 5 more months. I am certain our time together is not over. Thanks for reading guys. -Jared
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 19:04:52 +0000
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