"While being abroad, I started feeling a paucity of help, especially in the situations that I've not been in before. As we all do, everybody needs a family, containing some food, a shelter, and more importantly, care and love. Last month, I found myself in an accident, getting a broken leg from a soccer game. For someone who had never broken a leg before, like me, I was appalled, falling into an engulfed fear and a loss of direction. By the door of the operation room, in the chair accompanied with my mobile bed, along the shadow of my slow-moving wheelchair, these traces cohered with love, leading each and every pace of mine out from the haze of the injury and back into a normal, unscathed life. I appreciate everything my host family did throughout this big affair in my life. It enhanced to a higher level of what family means: clan and blood are incidental, it is more about who you love and whom also love you." – Bob Liu, China

I am nominating the Louis family as the next host family of the month! Paul and Martha live in Buckingham, Virginia. When you go to their home you feel like you stepped back in time. The Louis' are very hospitable people. Fresh made lemonade is served on a hot day from a real glass pitcher, real cloth napkins and poured into real glasses. Cut flowers are in a vase in the parlor. There is no hurry—take your time, sit a spell, chat with neighbors and smell the roses.

This is the environment that Yizhe "Bob" Liu from Beijing came to in August. The Louis' are very active in their community, so Bob became very active as well. He played soccer in the fall on a community league and played for Buckingham High School this spring. On March 10th, Bob was going to make a goal when he was tackled by the goalie. Two bones in his leg were broken requiring surgery, rods and pins. Bob found out that family is more than being blood related—it is being heart related. When the CR referred to Martha as his host mom, Bob corrected him and said "you mean my mom." The whole family pulled together during this crisis and took turns spending days/nights at the hospital. They fixed a room up in the downstairs library for Bob when he was released from the hospital and he continued receiving round-the-clock care. Friends from church and from the community took turns staying with Bob as well so the host family could resume going to work. The family rearranged their schedules to make sure Bob gets to school and physical therapy. It has been a long haul, but the light is at the end of the tunnel. Thanks to all the love and support Bob is receiving, Bob is recovering very nicely.