Sandy, Vlad, Zuka, and the boy’s mothers in Georgia.
Written by World Link host mom, Sandy Garcia
This experience will forever change the lives of your family and the life of a young person and their family from another country. The student comes to learn about our culture, and traditions and to be part of an American family. But I feel we learn more from them than they do from us.
Our Hosting Experience
When my husband and I decided in July 2022 to host a young man from Ukraine, Vlad, we had no idea how much we would learn from him. We learned about the Ukrainian language, culture, traditions, food, and time of war. Some of the traditions will now be part of our holiday traditions. Great Ukrainian dishes are part of some of our daily and holiday dinners. We had no idea how much we would fall in love with Vlad. He made it very easy to love him as our kid as he has a great likable personality. He even won homecoming Prince only being on school campus for 30 days.
The Garcia Family welcoming Vlad to the U.S. upon his arrival.
Gaining not only one but two sons!
During his stay with us, Vlad became best friends with Zuka from the country of Georgia. Zuka started spending a lot of time at our house, going to family dinners, and joining us on family vacations with our two adult daughters. We had never heard of this country before we met Zuka. We learned so much from him about his culture, traditions, and food. Of course, which is now part of our family traditions and food at our dinners. Zuka also made it easy to love him as our kid. He loves to joke around, he would make us all laugh so much. I would always tell him, “Zuka you give the best hugs.”
My husband and I say God did not only bless us with one son, but with two. We feel so honored that these two young men call us Mom and Dad. Our adult daughters, Krystal and Amanda, share a sibling bond with both boys, getting to know them through our vacations. They love them as their brothers. They even created a sibling chat! I have heard in the chat they check on each other, joke, prank, and cheer each other on when events are taking place. We love it when we hear from one of the kids and they talk about what’s going on in the sibling chat. I am sure we don’t even know half of it. These Mom and Dad hearts are filled with so much love for all four of our kiddos.
My husband’s parents live with us, so they become grandma and grampa to both boys. This has been a true life-changing experience for all the family thanks to World Link and the FLEX Program.
Vlad and Zuka wearing their traditional dress during International Education Week 2022.
Opening My Mind to International Travel
During the boy’s stay with us, they held presentations about their country’s traditions, culture, food, famous people, and places to visit. I never thought I would be traveling, but after seeing the presentations I knew I wanted to visit their countries. The boys talked to me about obtaining my passport. I did and a year later, on June 8, 2024, I boarded a flight to Tbilisi, Georgia. We have stayed in close contact with the boys and their families, cousins, aunts, brothers, sisters, and of course, Moms & Dads, which we feel are now part of our extended family.
Our Georgian Reunion
Sandy, Vlad, Zuka, and Vlad’s mother in Georgia.
Vlad and his mom Lesia from Ukraine met me in Georgia for our reunion. Our Laliashvili Georgian Family welcomed us with open arms. They are kindhearted, generous, caring, and loving. All these traits we love about Zuka. After meeting both moms, I knew why it was so easy to love the boys as our own kids. The moms and families are so thankful for everything we did for the boys while they were here in the United States. But I said all we did was love them and treat them as our own, because they are our sons, brothers, and grandsons.
This reunion was an amazing experience. As we all were at the table eating and drinking, I just sat back in amazement at how you could hear Georgian, Ukrainian, English, and Russian being spoken, but the best language there was the language of love for each other despite the miles, the culture, traditions, and religious differences. All three moms agreed and gave thanks to God!
We are waiting for the war in Ukraine to end so we can plan our next trip. We are hoping more family members will make the next trip. But in the meantime, the boys and our extended family are welcome to their home here in Hanford, California. We will forever be one big family.
My Appreciation
Special thanks to: Giorgi, Khatuna, Zuka, Gvantsa, Ika, and Marita for hosting this American Mom, you went above and beyond.
Special thanks to: Vlad and Lesia for taking care of me when I was not feeling well.
Thanks to World Link for the extra bonus of connecting us to alum Nino Kirtava. Truly an amazing young lady that toured us around Batumi for the whole day and after a few hours of rest returned to take us out for dinner and more sightseeing. When we met, we all immediately connected with Nino. She took the time to research the history of places we visited. She is kind, generous, and has a great smile. She is now part of this big family we have. I hope she comes to California for a visit.
Thanks to the FLEX program and World Link for forever changing our lives.
If you have room in your home, an open mind, and heart to learn about different foods, music, dance, culture, languages, and traditions, be a host family. It’s one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do.
Sincerely,
The Garcia Family
Hanford, California
Thank you to Sandy Garcia for sharing her experience with us. And she’s right! Hosting is one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do. Visit our Hosting Opportunities page to learn more and inquiry about becoming a host family for this next program year.
