Preparing for Camp - Continuing the story

Things were up in the air for a couple of weeks about when the children would definitely be here. In the meantime, we were to go to some meetings telling us all about what we might expect and what was expected of us. We also had a manual to read. I was totally unprepared for all the commitment we would have to make, just to host! It was overwhelming at first. I don't get overwhelmed easily, either. We had never done anything like this before. Every moment of two weeks devoted just to this Camp! Going where ever they said, whenever they said. I was used to being in control of our schedule, somewhat at least. Thankfully, the boys were having a break from their regular weekly classes when the camp happened. Not to mention that we had to pay to be part of this!

The stress just kept building. Someone would come into our home and 'inspect it'?!! What would they be looking for? We were putting ceramic tile down in the front bathroom. The toilet wasn't back in place yet! All the places we would have to be at. All the things we would have to commit to, like making dinner for the caregivers that were coming, when what should be our dining room table was our computer table because we had nowhere else for our computers and printers. Our kitchen table was barely big enough for the four of us living here right now, much less having to find room for 3 more people! What would I fix for dinner? I'm not good at guessing what other people like to eat. I've never cooked anything for someone from another country.

We were able to choose the gender of our host child. We asked for the oldest girl, but we had no idea what she looked like. We didn't know what any of the children looked like. What would our host child look like? Not that it mattered. It's mostly about the unknown. Not knowing what to expect. They end up not looking anything like their pictures, but it's nice to at least have a face to look at. What type of personality would she have? Would she like us? How would she adjust to being here in America, away from all that was familiar? She speaks Russian for goodness sake! How would we communicate? What if she got frustrated with us because we couldn't communicate? The director of the camp, who chose which child went where, had never even seen us. I had only talked to her on the phone a couple of times. How could she match us with a particular child? She did tell us that we were unusual in that we wanted the oldest of the girls. Most host families tell her, the younger the better. This was something so totally unknown to us. Such new territory. Did we really want to do this??!!