What to do?
We hosted a precious 13 year old girl from Guatemala for 2 months last year. It was a wonderful experience. My girls had a new big sister who loved them, played with them, etc. So....when I heard that a 14 year old girl from S. Korea needed a place to stay from Jan. - May (and they pay a nice stipend to the host family), we quickly agreed. Chris was unemployed at the time and we really needed another avenue to draw some income (love my job, but we will not be able to afford beanie weinies for a month on my income alone). So comes...Seoyoung.
We expected this experience to be different from the one with Mariana due to the extreme culture differences between Central America and Asia. We just were not prepared for how different this would be. Where as Mariana was always quick to oblige to our rules, Seoyoung is not. She is not typically outright defiant, it's more of a passive-aggresive defiance. I was looking to provide shelter, a room, food, ride to and from school, and, if desired by the student, for Seoyoung to participate in family activities. I was NOT in the market to raise another child.
Seoyoung is extremely smart. She excels academically and musically. However, emotionally and responsibility wise, she is not prepared for this venture (neither am I). We had to enforce some punishment last night for continual disobedience to our rules - which are not many. We used one of the harshes forms of parental punishment for a teenager --- taking away the IPod for 2 days. Let's see if it helps.
Which brings me to my initial questions : To Host or Not to Host next year. We could really use the income that this program offers. Yet, I have a hard enough time keeping up with my job, home, kids, husband.....not sure if I can continue to keep up with a teenager's lack of respect also.
Continuing to pray............
