Amber Shares Experiences as a Host Mother
- Chris Budden
- Jul 31
- 2 min read
Hosting two exchange students was a challenging and rewarding experience for fellow Optimist Amber Monroe. Shortly after moving into a new home Amber saw a Nacel Open Door posting about hosting exchange students. She decided to do it and ended up hosting two 15 year old girls, Nadia from Spain and Mattie from Germany. Not having children of her own, she soon discovered it does take a village to raise a child. The very talented girls were very involved in both music and sports. Just figuring out the logistics of getting them to all their activities was no small feat.
There were many events/things in life that we take for granted but Nadia and Mattie were experiencing for the first time. They had never been to a parade, a formal dance, carved a pumpkin, experienced Halloween and homecoming, dyed Easter eggs. Nadia had never held a baby or shoveled snow. Both were fascinated by the garbage disposal because they had never seen one.
The girls, as typical teenagers, were not fond of housework, cooking, cleaning or walking the dog. When Amber mentioned the lack of interest in household chores to her friends who also had teenagers, they just laughed and offered no sympathy. Welcome to motherhood, Amber! However, the girls did shovel snow after the first snowfall of the season. Both Mattie and Nadia made their favorite dishes from home for Amber to try.
Amber wanted the girls to experience as much of the United States as possible during their time here. She took them to a family lake home in Michigan, to Chicago, Madison, and Saint Louis. Locally they took trips to Galena and Dubuque, Cave of the Mounds and House on the Rock. Nacel Open Door arranged for a trip for each girl. Nadia travelled to Hawaii and Mattie to New York City. Both girls were amazed at the size the United States. Amber talked about the bonding that took place during their many long car trips.
To find out more about the Nacel Open Door and to learn how you could become involved in this amazing experience, check out their website at https://www.nacelopendoor.org/
The pictures below tell the story of Mattie and Nadia's time in Platteville.
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