Lindsey Meetz and her family, who currently live in Brillion, Wisconsin, recently hosted Emma from Italy. Before Emma’s departure from the U.S. at the end of her exchange year, her family visited from Italy and spent time with the Meetz family. This blog post was written by Lindsey as a reflection of their experiences together, and the unexpected impact hosting can have.
For the last few nights, we’ve had the privilege of spending time with Emma’s family, and if I’m being honest, I think I’ve been pretending this day wasn’t coming. Every dinner, every conversation, every laugh, every story shared felt like we were trying to squeeze just a little more time out of something I wasn’t ready to end.
When Emma arrived nine months ago, she came here as an exchange student. We welcomed her into our home, but what we never expected was how deeply she would become woven into the fabric of our family. What we also never expected was that one day we’d be sitting around a table with her family, feeling like we’d known them our entire lives.
The last few nights have been filled with so much laughter. The kind where your cheeks hurt. The kind where language barriers don’t matter because genuine connection speaks for itself. The kind that reminds you that family isn’t always determined by geography.
And then tonight came.
The final hugs.
The final pictures.
The final “see you laters.”
I looked around the room and realized something that hit me harder than I expected: a year ago we were complete strangers. Today, saying goodbye to Antonio, Rita and Elia felt like saying goodbye to family. As the tears started flowing — and trust me, there were plenty of them (all from me) — Emma’s dad hugged me and said, “We will wait for you.”
Five words.
Five simple words that somehow carried the weight of this entire experience.
Because what he was really saying was that this doesn’t end here. That the miles between us don’t change what we’ve built. That there will always be a place for us with them, just as there will always be a place for them with us.
Hosting an exchange student changes your life in ways people don’t talk about enough. Everyone focuses on what the student gains from the experience. What they don’t tell you is how much your own family gains.
You gain new traditions.
You gain new perspectives.
You gain memories that become part of your family’s story forever.
And if you’re incredibly lucky, you gain people who start out as strangers and end up feeling like they’ve always belonged.
Tonight my heart hurts. Not because anything went wrong. But because something went so right. Because the hardest goodbyes are reserved for the people who matter most.
To Emma’s family: thank you. Thank you for trusting us with your daughter. Thank you for sharing your time, your stories, your laughter, and your hearts with us these last few days. Thank you for raising the incredible young woman we’ve been blessed to love for the last nine months.
Most of all, thank you for reminding us that family can be found in the most unexpected places. We’ll miss you terribly. And someday, when we make that trip across the ocean, I hope you know we’ll remember exactly what you said.
“We will wait for you.”
Until then, we’ll be carrying a piece of your family right here with ours.
Hosting a high school exchange student is a transformative experience. If you’re interested in learning more about becoming a host family, visit afsusa.org/host!