August 2010 Featured Family: The Lyon Family from Ohio
The Lyon Family writes:
“A unique story that we would like to share was that Samuel got to meet and spend time with his AFS grandparents. His mom was an AFS student in a neighboring city 30 years ago. Also, our liaison’s parents were good friends with his AFS grandparents. This fact unfolded after our liaison was already chosen.
AFS truly makes the world a smaller place. Samuel’s English teacher this past year had hosted an AFS student when she was in High School who turned out to be from the same town as he was from. Samuel’s mom then connected with this girl and got to meet her. We all told Samuel that there was no denying that he was right where he was supposed to be.”
What do other AFS Host Families Say About Their Experiences?
“We have gained the experience of learning about a culture we knew next to nothing about. Most importantly, we formed a close bond with the student and his family, and hope that the relationship continues in the future.” -Host family of an Argentinian AFS student
“We learned to look at how we interact as a family in a slightly different way; Barbara made us think about why we did things the way we did, and we learned to take into consideration a different point of view. We have another daughter/sister now, although she is living in another country. It makes the world much smaller than I thought it was.” -Host family of an Austrian AFS student
“I think we all gained something special from the experience. It probably brought us together as a family as a result. It was my son who became the closest to Rafik and was probably the most emotional at having to say good-bye to him.” -Host family of an Egyptian AFS student
“No matter how many stories we heard about family bonds that last forever, we were surprised how naturally Gam became part of our family. We were concerned about dividing our time between all three daughters. However, this was not the case. Gam fit into our family as if we had always had three girls.” -Host family of a Thai AFS student