On 7 August 2008, I received an email message at work that included this information:
"... help him place 5 kids between the ages of 14 - 18 years old within the next three weeks or he is going to have to call and tell them they won't be able to come. The kids are expecting to be here at the end of August and will only be here for 6 weeks."
Six weeks? That sounded easy. Not allowing someone to come to the US after all of their waiting sounded cruel.
I talked to the family at around 4:00pm that day. I sent an email to EF Foundation at around 5:00pm that day. We got a call from EF Foundation at around 5:05pm that day. We received two profiles at 5:50pm that day. We also filled in the on-line application to become a host family. The family reviewed the applications over dinner. At 9:15pm that night, we received detailed applications for the two students that they wanted us to consider.
Oh yeah, we were also told that the students come for the entire school year and not just for six weeks. We could be a "welcome family" where the student would stay for six weeks and then move to another home. That didn't stop us, we were now determined to welcome an Exchange Student to the United States! After reviewing the details, we decided that Ina from Norway would be the better fit with our family.
On Saturday, 9 August we cleaned the bedroom and prepped it for painting. On Sunday, 10 August we painted the room (we even had some help from Bethany's friend Rachel).
On Sunday, 10 August we had someone from EF Foundation come to our home to inspect it and tell us that we were officially accepted as a host family.
On Monday, 11 August we sent an email to Ina telling her about our family. Four days from getting the original email to inviting a student into our home seems really fast!
- Rob
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