Building a wall for refugees

In March 2000, my husband and I spent a Saturday afternoon browsing our way through a local home-and-garden show. We left with a yard ornament—and an application to host an exchange student.

It wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind in our going. (I had hoped for sparking an interest in a nicer outdoor patio). But, we followed through with the application and a few months later—after some screenings—we welcomed a young German into our home.

This was a pretty big change for us. Thomas was 17 and since we did not have children, we had never had anyone live with us before, let alone a high school student whose first language was not English.