Hosting Danielle was a life-changing experience for our whole entire family. We not only felt honored that we got to open up our home, but we felt as though we could do something for the state of Israel. We could bring the love of Israel into our home and share it with Ann arbor Jewish community.

Having Ori join our family was a fantastic experience. Through shared meals, family game nights, celebrations, holidays, chores, and daily life, we got to know each other and learn from each other in ways we hoped and ways we couldn’t have anticipated. Side comments often bloomed into interesting discussions about cultural observations and differences between American and Israeli culture and religion. He sometimes asked for advice about his job, and it was fun to share our knowledge and coach him in navigating his first professional role within a brand-new culture and community. The kids laughed and joked with him about anything and everything, especially trading pop culture references from both cultures to make new meaning together as he taught them Hebrew and they taught him ‘American.’ He integrated into our family so easily and enriched it so much. Hosting him was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

This gift is not temporary, it changed the shape of our family, it changed the shape of me. Lahav was supposed to stay for 6 months, but we couldn’t be happier when it worked out he could stay for the entire year. 6 months just wasn’t enough; we were just settling into the groove. We became a family.