A Broad's Guide to Study Abroad: The Background Story

On July 23, I received a random text message from an unknown number.

The message read “You provided a reference for a Youth For Understanding (YFU) host family a few years ago. Would you be interested in hosting a YFU exchange student?”

I laughed to myself and thought "Oh heck no!" and didn’t think too much more about it.

Until I started thinking about it again.

And again.

And then I shared the text with my daughter and she loved the idea.

And then I shared the text with my husband and he said "Absolutely not!"

My daughter and I became increasingly curious and excited about the possibility of welcoming a new family member and my husband conceded with “Do what you want.”

I would not accept that, and let him know that it was everyone on board or we wouldn’t do it. We knew it would be a complete "rocking the boat" kind of thing and not something that should be taken lightly.

We began looking on the YFU website at the students who were awaiting placement with host families in America. There are no pictures, no sound clips—just a name and home country and a few paragraphs that describe the student. Natalie and I read through many bios on the website and when we read "Aimee from Germany" we knew she was the one. It wasn’t her activities or her accomplishments—it was the way she described her family. She said her family was "mad—but in a positive way." We thought "Wow! That's the German version of us!"

Now Natalie and I became even more intent on welcoming a student into our home. We continued to ask dear ole dad if he was on board and finally…we convinced him.

It wasn’t long after we made that decision, that the wheels began rolling. We had oodles of paperwork to fill out so the screening process could begin. We had to provide references and they had to be checked out. We had to have a home visit and our family members and pets had to be verified. The high school had to be called to make sure they would enroll her. Natalie’s queen bed was dismantled and two twin beds were assembled in its place. New bedding was purchased and drawers and closets were cleaned out to make room for another family member.

Once all the i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed, we received an email that Aimee would be spending the school year with us! We were then given one another’s names and contact information and we began reaching out to one another and getting to “know” one another.

Aimee is the oldest child of Katharina and Birger and she has a brother, Marlon. They live in northern Germany in a place called Neubrandenburg, which has a population of about 60,000.

She has completed 10^th grade in Germany.

Travel arrangements were placed in our online account and we found out that Aimee would be arriving on Thursday night, August 16^th at 9pm in Roanoke.

We continued to message one another each day up until her arrival, although it was tricky because Germany is six hours ahead of us. By the time we get up each morning, the Krabbes have already completed most of their work day. By the time we have dinner, the Krabbes are in dreamland. 

In the days before Aimee’s arrival, we made signs for her—one for the airport and one for the house.

We picked up a balloon bouquet full of red, white, and blue balloons.
We loaded up in the car and off to Roanoke!
We are so excited to meet her!

~lightningbug