[This is part of my mini-series sharing the challenges of hosting. You can read Part 1 here.]

I shared a few of weeks ago about how we’re really doing. It’s the number one question we’re asked. Last week, I read this post from Incourage about how the answer can be “Oh, I’m so blessed!” and ““I’m ready to be done with all of this. It’s harder than I thought it would be.” at the same time. It really resonated with me. Living in the reality that you can be blessed AND things can be hard.

The truth is things are good. I’m NOT ready for hosting to be over. I think when August 27th rolls around, I’ll be a tiny bit relieved to have my life back to “normal”, but mostly I’ll be incredibly sad to see her go home. I’ll be worried about sending her back to a country which is currently unstable, although her particular part of the country is still safe. I’ll pray that she doesn’t lose the confidence and language and joy that I’ve seen her gain while she is here.

So, my completely honest answer would be “Things are great. I’m so blessed, but there are many hard and frustrating moments, too.”

Things are FAR from perfect. I mentioned before that one of our biggest challenges was the language barrier. That’s still very real, but it’s getting better and better by the day. We use Google Translate less and less and are beginning to communicate using English for everyday things. She is talking in English more and more, particularly with Reed, Lena and Gus. I sometimes overhear her talking with them when they’re playing upstairs and I downstairs. I understand being more confident with kids and I’m very glad she’s trying.

The other challenge I mentioned at the beginning of July is entertaining her. This is still a real challenge. We are awaiting some more books in her language, which will help quite a bit. There’s just a lot of time to fill each day and we’ve gone through most of the craft type of things already.

We’ve also started running into some sibling type of fights. Almost entirely between Big L and Reed. I think this is related to keeping everyone entertained– when they’re bored or have spent too much time together, they start to get into nitpicky fighting and doing things to annoy each other. This doesn’t concern me, as Reed and Lena do it to each other as well.

I hate to even mention these things, because they’re tiny when looking at the bigger picture. She’s a great kid and we’re all having a fun time. I find her attitude and outlook on life, happy in spite of all she’s been through, to be totally inspiring. Love this kid.