From Paris to Rochester

It is safe to say that we make some seemingly spontaneous choices in this family. We truly do have a thought process behind everything, though! 

If I'm to be cut and dry here, we were a little anxious about the month of July once the summer began. I wouldn't be babysitting for the entire month which would be a hit to our income. As Christians we do our best to remember that worrying will not get us anywhere especially when our trust is in God to provide for us. There is a misconception with that statement where nonbelievers think that we expect God to hand us a check for the month. No. What He did do was provide us guidance with our finances as well as provide us low cost opportunities to enjoy what our area has to offer. So there we are trying not to freak out about money - what better time to decide to host an international student, right?! Our friends and family were a little surprised and wondering how we even came to this decision. I know God planted that seed in my mind to help someone better understand our culture while sharing their own instead of spending a month stressed out over bills. I hopped onto google and found CCI Greenheart, a non profit cultural exchange sponsor program committed to creating a global community sprinkled with conscious and caring people. My local coordinator was fantastic in helping us find a good match for our family which ended up being our new friend Thomas, from Paris.

Over the course of three weeks Thomas shared in our day to day lives caring for kids, catching shows at Party in the Park in Rochester, attending a Red Wings game, Bills training camp trip, a trip with the coordinator to a Civil War reenactment and he even joined us for family reunions on both sides that happened to occur while he was staying with us! We also were able to enjoy some more touristy activities like our trip to Niagara Falls which was our first as a family and for Thomas on the US side. We took him to the High Falls in Rochester to see the sister city bridge, Pont de Rennes that was named for Rochester's sister city, Rennes, France. I think some of our best times were just the relaxing evenings at home where Micah, Thomas and I would laugh all night to comedies or the lazy days where Addison and Thomas would swim and kick the soccer ball around. We were thrilled to have such an openminded young man in our house. He tried everything, even a Garbage Plate and he was open to new things like trying golf for the first time. We were so sad to see him go and we hope to see him again one day. Our daughter misses him dearly so we've already begun the cards to mail to Thomas. So much for all the financial worry, we replaced and diminished those fears with faith and a priceless experience for all!