Blog: Our family placement…

Steven was living with a host who was entirely focused on being paid and unfortunately was not offering the kind of homestay that AHN is proud to offer international students. So, we arranged a few options for his new homestay family and he ended up with my daughter Courtenay, her husband Tim and their son Max.

He has become such an integral part of our family and we all love him to bits. When Tim’s family came from Holland for a few months, Steven came to stay with my husband John and I. Steven has settled in with us so easily and we all enjoy our family dinners together. We’ve even shared birthday celebrations with his family here in Adelaide! Family dinners are important, and we either have dinner here at home, at restaurants or at Courtenay’s home.

Steven’s mum and dad live here in Adelaide (in a very small unit) and understand the value of living with a caring homestay family to help improve his English and understand what life in Australia is like. We also recently discovered that Steven’s aunt owns our favourite stall at the Adelaide Central Markets (that we have been going to for 20 years) and she also treats us like family!

It has been wonderful to share our home and our family with Steven and to see him become more confident and comfortable here in Adelaide.

The other young man in the photo at the beach is Khoa Nguyen, he is a Vietnamese Masters student who looks like he may never leave either! Hosting has been so much fun and we have students come by for Christmas or just normal family dinners – sometimes unannounced!