Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Meet Our Clan!

Austin, Monique (myself, also known as Mom), Matt (Handsome or Dad), Beau and Liam

This is a picture from last Christmas. Austin is our teenage son, who is now a senior in high school. Beau is our 5 year old who just started kindergarten. Liam is 7 years old and in first grade. I'm a full time Mom and I have an in-home daycare with the sweetest little ones! Handsome (Matt) is a Network Engineer.  We also have three dogs to keep us busy. 

I’m starting this blog because so many people have had questions about hosting and have suggested I do a blog to share what we have learned and experienced.  I hope this blog is a blessing to those that read and follow it.  I pray by getting to know our family (including our host teens) we will erase some stereotypes, misunderstandings, open some hearts to other cultures and encourage others to host…along with some great laughs! 

Why did we decide to host?  Good question!  Some of that will be answered in my next post.  There is a list of some of the why we have made this choice…Bring the mission field to our home, exposing our kids to other cultures, making a difference in other countries, helping our shy kids open up more, allowing our older son to have siblings closer to his age, but most of all I felt like this is what God was asking us to do!  The long term program we use puts this another way…and I love how they say it!  The teens come as an ambassador of their country and leave an ambassador of the United States to their country!