Keith, Doug, and their Danish Host Son

Keith and Doug Byron, a couple from Indiana, welcomed a Danish student into their home in 2022-2023. In this episode, the two of them discuss their initial motivations for hosting, their Danish host son's deep dive into American culture, their family's love of music and video games, and the rewarding connections made with both their student and the community. 

This might sound like a typical conversation with host parents- and honestly, it is! The fact that Keith and Doug are a same-sex couple really doesn't matter- AFS-USA knows that all types of families can provide a welcoming, caring home for an exchange student. In fact, this past year, 39 same-sex couples hosted students with AFS-USA. No matter what your household looks like, you can learn more about hosting a student this upcoming school year at afsusa.org/host.

Guests:
Keith Byron
Doug Byron

Study Abroad with AFS-USA: www.afsusa.org/study-abroad
Volunteer with AFS-USA: www.afsusa.org/volunteer
Host with AFS-USA: www.afsusa.org/host
Educator Resources: www.afsusa.org/educators
Contact us: podcast@afsusa.org

Transcript

Kate M.
Hello and welcome to The AFS Exchange. I'm your host, Kate Mulvihill. On this show, we delve into unique perspectives from members of our AFS family, providing insights that only international exchange experiences can offer.

In every episode, we open the door wide to welcome the voices of those whose lives have been profoundly impacted by AFS. This is a place to have conversations, or exchanges, with AFS host families, students, volunteers, and educators.

In this episode, we'll be hearing from Keith and Doug Byron from Indiana. They welcomed a Danish student for a year in 2022. I won't reveal the student's name just yet, we’ll get into that in a little bit. But for now, picture an easygoing, confident, funny Danish teenager.

I chat with Keith and Doug about their initial motivations for hosting, their Danish son's desire to be completely immersed in the US to the extent that he temporarily forgot how to speak Danish, their family's love of music and video games, and the rewarding connections Keith and Doug made, not only with their student but also with the community they became a part of while being parents for a year. They even got to go over to Denmark and learn a bit about his community.

Yes, this might sound like a typical conversation with host parents, and in many ways, it is. The fact that Keith and Doug are a same-sex couple really doesn't matter. AFS-USA welcomes all families to host. In the past year, 2023-24, there were 39 same-sex families who welcomed AFS students into their homes. The process for same-sex couples to apply to host is virtually the same as it is for families with a mother and a father. As in, like, me explaining this later will take about 15 seconds.  But for now, let’s get started with the story of Keith, Doug, and their Danish host son.

[Music]

Kate M.
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me this afternoon. Could you both introduce yourselves and let me know where in the US you're located?

Keith B.   
Hi, I'm Keith Byron, and we're located in Brownsburg, Indiana.

Doug B.
And I am Doug Byron.

Kate M.
And… why did they decide to host an exchange student? And why with AFS?

Doug B.   
So I've wanted to adopt over the years, but you know, as we got older, it just seemed more unlikely that we were going to do that. I didn't necessarily want to foster a child because, of course, I didn't want to get so attached to the child that I just had to turn around and give them back, you know, to their parents or something. And so this one over here decided, you know, hey, let's, let's do this program. You know, we can host a foreign exchange student. And I'm like, Okay, let's, let's do it. So he filled out paperwork, and…

Keith B.    
Well before that, I did a search online for foreign exchange programs that were okay with same-sex couples, and AFS was the first one that came up. Their website is very clear about being open to diversity of families, that love is love, basically.

Kate M.
You know, this is the first time I have heard this answer on the podcast, but I am sure that this reasoning is not unique to Keith and Doug. They wanted to grow their family, they were new-ish to Indiana after recently having reloaded from California, had space in the home, and were interested in learning more about a different part of the world.
The Byrons had done some traveling in Europe, usually related to trips with their choir. But neither of them had studied abroad or had a host sibling growing up. They weren’t looking for a student from a specific country, or someone who would be the same age as their own kid. They ended up finding their student through an AFS staff member’s recommendation, a suggestion that changed their lives.

Keith B.   
AFS had a list of, you know, paragraphs with the flag of the country that the kid is from, and we were looking at that. And then we got a call from AFS after we got our interview with our liaison. And she said, Yeah, AFS thinks they have actually the perfect kid for you. Are you willing to take a look at that? Or did you want to look through like, no, we'll take a look. And we had told Sarah that we like video games, that we play board games, that we're musical, all these different things. And this paragraph comes through from this kid in Denmark that says his family loves board games, that he loves video games. He wanted to potentially become a videogame designer in the future, that he plays guitar and keyboard. And we're like, oh my gosh, it sounds like he was, you know, fate.

Doug B.    
And of course, this one's, you know, pretty much nerding out, because he realized that he was going to be a choir dad.

Keith B.   
Well, I emailed him when we were chatting. I said, would you want to join choir? And he goes, okay. And so I reached out to the choir director here at Brownsburg High School, and I said, I know it's pastor auditions and everything. Would you be willing to take a foreign exchange student? And she said, we would love to have a foreign exchange student. Think that would be really enriching for the choirs. And so, yeah, I got to be a choir dad, and that was one of the most amazing things.

Kate M.
Very cool.

Kate M.
Okay, so Doug and Keith will be hosting a Danish student, loves video games, loves music, and it has been all but confirmed before he arrives that he will be joining the choir… so… what’s his name?

Kate M.   
Um, okay. And how do you, how do you pronounce his name? Mikkel?

Doug B.   
So that is a tricky one. Okay, we we pronounced it Mikkel, like nickel um, but the way that he pronounces it, the way that their accent, you know, is, is it sounds like “Migue”, but there's this, like, almost like a guttural G that you have to like sound from the back of your throat. So he it sounds like “Migue” you know.

Keith B.   
His mom said, Just say it, Mikkel rhymes with nickel. That's what she said. And so that's kind of what our default was. And then he would try to get us to do right? And I come up with “Migue.”

Kate M.   
Okay!

Doug B.   
It would be fun, because, you know, when we would introduce them to new people, you know, we would tell him to, you know, say his name, and then we would challenge people. We told them we'd give them five bucks if they could say it right. And we never gave out five bucks.

Keith B.   
And I know a lot of singers, you know, I'm a singer, so, you know, we usually have an ear for these things. But nope.

Kate M.
Nope.

Kate M.
So I did find an example online of a Danish person saying this name. Here we go…

Youtube
Mikkel

Kate M.
Did ya hear it? One more time…

Youtube
Mikkel

Kate M.
That’s what I’ve got. It’s also the Danish and Norwegian version of the name Michael. Like how in French it would be Michel, or in Spanish or Portuguese, Miguel.
Okay so for the purposes of this podcast, I am also going to pronounce his name Mikkel-rhymes-with-nickel. I would not have won those 5 bucks.

Kate M.
So now that I know how to pronounce a version of his name, what were your first impressions of Mikkel when he arrived?

Doug B.   
Well, we felt bad because his trip ended up being like, what, 27 hours, 25 hours. So, you know, he was poor kid. It was 9, 10, o'clock at night. He was tired, you know, whatnot. So we, pretty much, you know, introduced ourselves, you know, grabbed him from the airport…

Keith B.   
And where did he want to go? Taco Bell. Okay, we had to go to Taco Bell first. That was our very first stop.

Doug B.    
Him and his dad love Taco Bells.

Kate M.    
Do they have them over there? Or had he been here before?

Keith B.   
They've been here before? His dad was an exchange student in California.

Doug B.   
As was his dad's brother.

Kate M.   
Both with AFS?

Doug B.
Yeah.

Kate M.
Oh, I didn't know that, interesting. Okay, cool.

Kate M.
So after Taco Bell, and after Mikkel got some sleep, the three of them really started to connect. Mikkel also got to know the family pets.
All of them are named after video game characters. Two cats, Mewna- named after Yuna from Final Fantasy X and Khatgar named after Khadgar from World of Warcraft. There is also the pup Teefa Puphart, named after Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII.

Doug B.    
He quickly became comfortable with us in our home.

Kate M.
However, after just a few weeks, the three had to separate for a bit. And it was pre-planned, but it was more difficult than they had expected.
So what happened was that Mikkel ended up arriving earlier than planned. Doug and Keith had organized a trip with Keith’s niece to Europe to celebrate her high school graduation. The trip was for the beginning of August, so the initial plan had been for Mikkel to stay with a temp family for his first few weeks on program, then to meet and move in with Doug and Keith once they had returned from Europe.
However, Mikkel’s high school started super early- the end of July, and the school requested that Mikkel come early to start classes. So… what ended up happening was Mikkel stayed with the Byrons for about two weeks, stayed with his liaison for about two weeks, then went back to the Byron family.

Doug B.
But we didn't quite realize how quickly, well we had gotten attached to him, but how quickly he had gotten attached to us until we were in France, and we got a call from the school, from his counselor, and you know, she's like, everything's okay. He’s just having a rough day. And we're like, Well, what's going on? And she basically told us that he really missed us. So of course, we're in France, and we're crying, but actually crying, you know, because we're like, oh my God, and I'm like, I'll get on, I'll get on a plane, I'll come home, I'll like, you know, I don't want him to, you know, I don't want him to be upset. But, you know,

Keith B.   
I reached out to him and said, you know, if you're having a tough time, pop us a note. Let's get on a video chat. We have technology that we can make that happen to use. I don't want to, I don't want to interrupt your vacation. And I'm like, That's very sweet, but it's part of what we're here for, is to be there for you. You. And if that's how it needs to happen, that's how it needs to happen. And so we got on a video chat. We talked through it, and we came up with some ways to make it better.
So instead of after school, going to the host to the temporary family, he would come here to our house, hang out with the pets, play on the PlayStation, do whatever, and then the host family would pick him up here and and then he'd have dinner and sleep at their house. Yeah. And that seemed to help quite a bit.

Doug B.    
So within just a couple of weeks, we hadn't really realized until that moment how quickly we had become close. Yeah, it was, it was quick.

Kate M.
So, it all worked out. And you know, when we are looking for host families for our students, sometimes we hear “Oh we would love to, but we have a vacation planned for August, and we wouldn’t be able to bring the student with us.” Well, okay! You can do what Keith and Doug did. Students can stay with temporary families.
I mean, like in the case here, the student and the host family really bonded, so that time apart was tough. But… if it’s between not hosting at all and hosting for all but 2 weeks… I think most students would prefer the latter! If Keith and Doug had let this two week trip to Europe be a reason for them to not host at all, then this whole story never would’ve happened, you know? And they never would have learned about Danish culture. For example…

Doug B.   
And of course, the biggest thing that we learned was, was hygge.

Kate M.   
Tell me a little bit about what you learned about hygge.

Doug B.    
Hygge, so it's basically, it kind of just boils down to that feeling that you have of comfort from various places or experiences or people, or traditions. So it's not specifically a, like, once a year kind of thing. It's an everyday way of living for them. For me, my best example is on a cold, rainy day, curled up on a couch with the fire going and having a bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. That's hygge for me. That is, it's cozy, it's comfort.

Keith B.    
So the family at Christmas that year, sent us a book called The Little Book of Hygge.

Doug B.
Yeah.

Keith B.
And one of the nicest things that Mikkel ever said to me was that he feels that I, and we, are hyggely. So we are comfort-inducing people for him. And that was super sweet.

Kate M.   
And especially, you know, being two people who he did not know at all a few months prior, in an area where he didn't know anyone and could have felt very disconnected and uncomfortable, that's calling you hyggely.

Doug B.
Hygge.

Kate M.
Hygge. I have heard of it. I've seen it around on the internet, Pinterest boards, I'm sure. But yes, comfort, okay. And so with that being a priority, kind of in his culture and the way he grew up, did you notice that with his room, or when he'd sit down to read, like, did he make sure everything was like, in place?

Keith B.    
It wasn't necessarily in place. It was…

Doug B.
Wherever he felt comfortable.

Keith B.
There were times when, you know, to kind of get away. He would go into the closet, in his room, and just lay down on the floor and, you know, get on his phone and do whatever he was doing, because that's just where he was comfy. And felt that, that cozy feeling. We even bought a blow up chair that we put in his closet so that he could be comfortable.

Doug B.    
But he would, he would just find the most oddest positions to to relax like the the best one was when he was in the bathroom, brushing his teeth, and he was laying on the floor with his feet up on the toilet, his back against the wall, brushing his teeth while he was on his phone.

Kate M.
So they described it pretty well. If you google image search the word “hygge”- spelled H Y G G E - you get a lot of fireplaces, pillows, warm drinks, books, socks, candles, and neutral colors. Maybe hygge for you looks totally different. But yeah, it’s about the mentality, not the aesthetics.
Anyway, Mikkel got really involved with school. He got to know a lot of folks, joined the choir to Keith’s delight, and even became the vice president of that choir.
One thing that threw him off at the beginning though, was the fact that he would be changing classrooms throughout the day. He was used to staying in place, and having the teachers change rooms. This is something we hear a lot with our European students.

Keith B.   
And when we told him he was going to have to walk around to different places at the school year, just wait what? So we got the map, and we mapped out where each of the classes were, and took him a little bit, but he ended up enjoying that too, because in between periods, you see people and are able to be like, hey, and everyone at the school knew he, who he was, and he, of course, had his core of friends, but there were some people that he was like. So they'd be like, Hi, Mikkel, and he'd be like, Hey you! Nice to see you!

Kate M.   
That's, I'm glad that that was the case, because sometimes you hear, you know, exchange students who are in a big school, or they're one of many exchange students that kind of get kind of lost, but not all the time. Seems like he really stood out.

Doug B.   
Oh yeah, he stood out, and he enjoyed it. Oh yeah, that was, that was the thing. He very much enjoyed having the attention.

Keith B.   
When the musical they were doing auditions, it was Mamma Mia, and the choir director said, Mikkel, are you gonna audition for the musical? He goes, Oh, I don't know. And she goes, I think you are. And she basically-

Doug B.    
Volun-told him.

Keith B.   
Volun-told him.

Keith B.    
And he ended up being one of Sky's friends. He said it was perfect, because he wasn't like a main tech character that had to, like, memorize all the lines and everything. But he wasn't. Just, you know, chorus sitting in the background, you know, blending into the wall. So he got to be semi featured, but didn't have to, you know, memorize all the lines. So, yeah, it was good.

Doug B.   
And the really great thing, though, was that, you know, as much as we could see his confidence growing, you know, and you know, his friendships growing and, you know, and his, basically, his love for the culture growing. We didn't really realize how much of an impact it had until we actually, you know, went to visit his parents in Denmark, and they actually told us that, you know, the changes that he went through when he came back, it was like he was, you know, did a 180 because, you know, when he left Denmark, he was a typical angsty, you know, rebellious, you know, teenage boy. And when he came back, they said that he was completely, just completely different.

Keith B.   
They said that their relationship with him is much improved. His relationship with His sister is much improved. His mom sent me pictures and videos of when he arrived back, and you can see his sister bouncing up and down when she sees him, and she goes running to get him and gives him a big old hug.

Kate M.   
Yeah, that. And then that's, I mean, that's not surprising, given what you've you've told me about him so far, but um, no, that's, that's great to hear, and that, you know, sounds like he grew up a lot, but that when he arrived to the US, he was already arriving with a motivation to learn something and maybe change, and was open to that.

Kate M.
MIkkel’s goal was to be totally immersed in U.S. culture while he was here, which included not really speaking any Danish.

Doug B.   
And when he got here, it was all about being here. In fact, we had to force him to email his dad back at one point because he's like, Yeah, I got an email from my dad, you know. And I'm like, did you respond to him? He's like, No. And I'm like, you know, at least respond to him. Like, just at least, you know, check in and, you know, and answer him.

Keith B.   
He really wanted to go to New York. We had asked him, you know, what is one thing that you would like to do when you're here? And he said, I really want to go to New York. So we stayed at my friend's house in New Jersey, and we would do little trips into Manhattan, and we saw Chicago, and we saw Sweeney Todd.
When we were in line for Chicago, there were these two ladies next to us, and I heard them speaking another language, and my interest was piqued, and Mikkel and I, like met eyes were like, are we hearing what we think we're hearing? So I turned to them, and I said, Are you from Denmark? And they said, Yes, we are. And I said, he's from Denmark. And they started talking to him in Danish, and his face went completely blank, like he had completely forgotten the language for a minute, and then finally he kicked in, and it was fine. And so that is funny enough, but his dad had told him that after his year in California, he had completely forgotten Danish. And he was like, Oh, you're dumb. And I said, are you gonna apologize to your dad now? “Yeah, I have to apologize to my dad now.”

Kate M.    
Yeah, and especially as you're saying that, you know it wasn't like Mikkel was spending a ton of time when he was in Indiana, chatting with his parents and like, FaceTiming with friends from home or anything like that. That, yeah, it can. He was really, really immersed. It makes sense that it made a switch in his brain.

Kate M.
In addition to New York City, the three of them also took a trip out to California. As part of that trip, there was one spot that they kept as a surprise from Mikkel, one that was kinda contrary to his goal of total immersion. So, there is a city in California nicknamed the “Danish Capital of America.”

Keith B.   
And we started out in the Bay Area, and then we drove down Southern California. And I figured, if we were going to be doing that drive, we should stop in a town called Solvang. Do you know Solvang, California?

Kate M.   
Yeah, I've been there.

Keith B.   
We, as we're driving into the town, the GPS is saying, in one mile, turn right on to Copenhagen drive, and he goes, What? No. And then we got there, we got parked, and he looks around. He goes, No!

Kate M.    
Did you stay or did you turn around?

Keith B.    
No, we were there for a little bit. We were meeting with a friend of mine, and we went into a bakery, and he was like, Oh, those are really very Danish. And he starts talking, and this woman overhears him, and goes, Oh, which ones are very Danish. And so he actually went up and was chatting with this woman, saying, Oh, well, there's these here. There's these here and and it was, I thought it was amazing that he just, without any hesitation, just started helping this lady out of nowhere. And that was cool.

Kate M.   
I'd forgotten about that town. I mean, I think I was there, like, 15 years ago. This, like somewhere between the Bay Area and LA, this random little Danish village, right? Yeah, yeah, that's funny. Well, I'm glad he was able to see that, and that probably really threw him off at first.

Keith B.   
His parents said that they'd been there before, and they're like, we actually kind of liked it. Is it just like Denmark, no, but, you know, we thought it was actually kind of charming. And he's like, Yeah, I suppose.

Doug B.   
Just very touristy.

Kate M.   
Yeah, I bet, yeah.

Kate M.
So briefly… The Spanish founded a mission there that was mostly abandoned when California became part of the US. In the early 1900s, a new settlement was founded around the mission by a group of Danish Americans who bought up a bunch of land with the goal of establishing a Danish community far from Midwestern winters. The community began building Danish-themed architecture in 1947. Now in 2024, it is certainly more of a tourist destination than an actual Danish hub. Although, California does have the highest number of Danish Americans in the U.S., followed closely by Utah.
Anyway, back to Doug and Keith.

Kate M.
Is there anything noteworthy at all about your experience hosting as an LGBTQ family? Did you have to get, like, permission from his parents or anything like that?

Keith B.   
So what we were told was that the family on the application has to say whether they're okay with a same-sex couple. And his response, according to him, was, uh, yeah. And why is this a thing?

Kate M.   
No, that's a great response to have, yeah.

Keith B.   
Well, and yeah. And one of the things that I think Doug had discovered about Denmark when doing the research as well, is, in Denmark, they won't talk about their desire to for upward mobility within their company, their aspirations for greater positions.That is like, We don't talk about that, but they'll talk about their sexuality, you know, because it's just a non issue.

Kate M.   
Whereas here, you know, stereotypically American culture, it's all about like, How can I do more, right? How can I do more? How can I earn more? How can I be better? How can I be better than you?

Kate M.
So yes, the application process for same-sex host families is not much different. Actually, in the past few years, AFS has made the process for same-sex families to host even easier. When a participant is applying to study abroad with AFS, they indicate if they would be open to living with a same-sex family, or not. If they say they are open to it, they may be placed with a same-sex family, or… not. That’s it. The only exception to this process is some of our Sponsored Programs students, but on the whole, it’s pretty seamless.

Kate M.    
Why is intercultural exchange important? Why? Why is this a valuable experience for someone to have?

Keith B.    
I think, for the family, it allows you a view into different windows of the world. You know, one of the things that I preach about AFS is based on, you know, what I understand the guys that first started the program said, If we understand each other, we are more likely to have a peaceful world and and I absolutely agree with that point of view, that, you know, we focus so much on our differences that that's what it becomes about. But when you get to interface with people from those other cultures, it allows you to see where we're the same and celebrate the differences. Celebrate, oh, you know, look, this is something that you guys do that is really great. Let's do more of that.

Doug B.   
I think for me, it's not necessarily about bringing someone over here to show them how great America is, or make them, you know, American. I think it's bringing them over here so that we as Americans can understand other cultures, other ethnicities, and we can gain understanding from these other countries. From just food to their religions, to their practices to their traditions to their ancestries and understanding, you know, everything in between for them. So I think that was what I enjoyed most.

Keith B.   
And there's a bonus takeaway that if you have a good connection with your kid and with their family, you all of a sudden have a whole family in this other part of the world. When we went to Denmark, we were so welcomed. Oh yeah,

Doug B.   
So, the reason that we went was, of course, to visit and meet his family, but we had been asked by his sister specifically if we could, you know, be there for her confirmation. So, you know. So that was an experience.

Keith B.   
And then there was a party afterwards, a huge party, all the friends and family.

Doug B.   
So what amazed me was that people were, you know, walking up to us  and introducing themselves and just telling us we've heard so much about you. And we're like, oh, that's that's great. And then it, you know, it, it wasn’t just one or two people. It was like most of the people there, and again, a lot of these people were family and, you know, close friends and whatnot. But it felt pretty amazing that Mikkel came over here. He spent a year with us. He had the experience. And he didn't just go home and leave it all behind, you know, he went home and he took it with him. And so that made me feel good, that we knew at that point, and I really realized at that point that you know just how part of his life, you know we were or how much you know we were.

Keith B.
Yeah, and you know, you never know what is going on in someone else's head. So we know that we love that kid like he's, you know, our kid, but you never know how they feel, until, you know, you say something, and the response is just so full of love. There was one point at which, while he was here, he said, you know, someday you're going to be holding your grandkid, and my heart just kind of fell right out of my body. And that was like, dear, you know, he, he talks about how he doesn't have just two parents, he has four. And his parents, you know, Santa and Teddy, are exactly the same. They have explained this the same. They tell us, yeah, you're a part of the family.

Kate M.
I love to hear that. And it's also like, how five years ago, you were living in California, you moved to Indiana, who would have thought that just a few years after that, you would be the most popular people at a Danish confirmation ceremony?

Kate M.
Other things that Keith probably didn’t expect, 5 years ago? That he would have learned some Danish!

Keith B.
They actually sent a birthday card last year. And right there are words in Danish, and I started reading, and I sent a note to his mom, saying, Hey, I understand what that says. And then when I was talking through it, I said, Oh, it rhymes. And she said, Oh, it's our birthday song that we sing. And I was like, Well, now you have to sing it for me. So she sang it for me:

I dag er det Keith fødselsdag!
Hurra! Hurra! Hurra!
Han sikker sig en gave får,
som han har ønsket sig i år,
med dejlig chokolade og kager til.

It basically means, Today it's Keith's birthday, hooray, hooray, hooray. He'll surely get what he asks for this year with lovely chocolate and cake.

Kate M.
I thought I heard the word chocolate in there.

Keith B.
Everyone always says, "I think I heard chocolate.” Yes, yes, you did.

Kate M.
Over the year, Doug and Keith got to form a bond with Mikkel and his family. But something they weren’t expecting was the connections they would make in their community.

Doug B.
You know, not only did Mikkel impact our life and and, you know, and change our lives for the better, but he definitely made, you know, an impact on others as well.

Keith B.
His friend, Kaimana, her whole family is now, you know, part of the family. Yeah, there were so many people that we met through all of that, you know, even aside from the whole interchange, you know, cultural interchange aspect to this, being a parent for a year introduced us to so much joy and love through new connections as well as our connection to this kid. So I can't think of a single negative for when he was here. The only negative I had is that he had to leave.

Kate M.
Someone else who got very attached to Mikkel was Teefa, the Byron’s dog.

Doug B. 
She was, she was really a lot of times inseparable from him. So he would take the bus, so he, you know, started getting on the bus in the morning. Taking the bus in the afternoon. So she actually got to the point where she would hear the bus, and she would run downstairs, and she would go to the window, and she would wait for him to walk in the door. And then after he left. You know, when the buses started up again, she did it for a couple months, where she would go downstairs and she would wait because she would hear the bus, but then he, of course, wouldn't walk through the door.

Keith B.
We had a video chat with the family at one point, and I was chatting with him, and she was perked up a little bit, and I, I mentioned his name, and she goes and runs to the top of the stairs and looks down, like, Oh, is he here?

Kate M.
Speaking of dogs, Mikkel had a nickname around the Byron household that I found quite amusing…

Doug B.
Oh, our Great Dane. Oh, yes.

Keith B.
We did. We do call him our Great Dane. And yeah, he says he's the Greatest Dane. But, you know, I did try to teach him modesty over the year, but that just didn't stick.

Kate M.
I’m pretty sure Keith is joking here. So, it sounds like Mikkel had an amazing year, grew a whole lot, and formed some long-lasting relationships. And of course, Doug and Keith too. They learned what it was like to be parents and for Keith to be a Choir Dad. They played video games, took trips, ate Taco Bell, and laughed a lot.
Keith also created a Mikkel impression that he broke out a couple of times during our conversation. Maybe you noticed it earlier.

Kate M.
I loved your impression of Mikkel, Keith. There's a voice. It doesn't seem like the voice has a Danish accent, so maybe his accent got real Americanized, but there you play the character very well and consistently cool. No. No.

Keith B.
No. I don't wanna.

Kate M. 
Well. Thank you both very much. Have a good afternoon.

Doug B.
Thank you, bye.

[Music]

Kate M.
That was Doug and Keith Byron of Brownsburg, Indiana. A big thanks to you both for chatting with me about your year with Mikkel. Doug and Keith are the second same-sex family who I have interviewed for the podcast. I also spoke with Jim Walker and Ethan Taylor in Season 3, in an episode called Hosting an Exchange Student: Insights from Host Siblings and Families.

But… there are more than just two same-sex host families hosting AFS students. Like I mentioned, this past year, there were 39. These students are looking for families to open their homes to them and exchange cultures, ideas, customs, and love. Yes, corny, but   true. It does not matter if that family is a man and a woman, or a same-sex couple, or a single parent…

So, if any of those descriptions sound like you and you’re interested in hosting with AFS, head over to afsusa.org/host. We have many students coming to the U.S. this fall. Even if you can’t commit to a whole year, reach out anyway. We often need families for just a semester or for a few weeks at the beginning of a student’s program. Again, that’s afsusa.org/host.

Kate M.
Thank you for listening to The AFS Exchange! I’m Kate Mulvihill. Let us know what you thought of this episode by sending a message to podcast@afsusa.org. You can also rate and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe there as well so you don’t miss any episodes in this 4th season.

This podcast was created by Kate Mulvihill. Social media by Julie Ball and Nina Gaulin. Special thanks to Rachel Meyer.