Steven, our Chinese Exchange student

This summer my church hosted 300 Chinese exchange students and Lesh and I volunteered to be a host family. During the day all the students went to American culture school and the evenings and weekends our student spent with our family. I had no clue how blessed we would be because of Steven. Steven is 13 years old and from Chengdu, China. He lives with his parents and goes to school on his bike everyday. He is so sweet and kind and very intelligent. He is also brave to come across the ocean to stay with some crazy Americans! Steven was here for almost 3 full weeks and boy did it fly! The following are some pictures of moments we captured.

God showed us many things while Steven was with us. He showed us patience with communication, love for a boy we just met- when he left I cried. He blended so well with our family, I even told him he was Nathaniel's brother. :) He seemed to like that idea. Steven spent hours just laying on the blanket with Nathaniel and just staring at him amazed. He would also play with Nathaniel's toys and of course with Checkers! I know Checkers misses him because of all the extra attention he received from him. We miss Steven and he is welcome in our home any time!

This is one of my favorite pictures. This is what Steven did everyday he came home from school.

This was Steven showing Nathaniel my birthday card.

Here is Nathaniel with his "brother."


Our church took all host families and their students to the Astros game. They won!

Steven and I at the game.

This was at El Jarrito for my birthday lunch and we had to get a picture of Steven with a Mexican sombrero.

A family portrait

We took Steven to play basketball with another host family.

We also went to Moody Gardens with Steven and here is Nathaniel in the Shark cage.

Steven in front of the aquarium.

Steven also enjoyed playing table tennis with Lesh's brother. This is a popular sport in China.

We spent a lot of time with his brothers because he enjoyed time with them playing the Wii or just hanging out.

You can see by all the events we did how exhausted we were at the end of this 3 week adventure. We loved getting to know Steven and making him a part of our family. We thank God for this opportunity to plant a seed in his life. We pray one day he will also be a part of our Christian family.