As senior Mirabelle Heinen was walking the three boys she nannies to tennis, she got a call from her mom. An exchange student from Warsaw, Poland, was coming to live with her. The next day. She had no idea what he looked like let alone what his personality was like.
“When I heard he was coming, I was excited but also appalled, because what do you mean I'm going to have a foreign exchange student come stay with me in one day?” Mirabelle said. “I was speechless, genuinely speechless.”
Heinen’s mom received an email from the STS foundation asking if the Heinens would be open to hosting another exchange students, as they have in the past. When Heinen was around six they hosted an exchange student from Hong Kong, leaving the foundation with the Heinens email which is how the whole thing came about.
She then called Heinen and pitched the idea, and at first Heinen wasn’t super into the idea as she had a lot on her plate with it being her senior year, cheer and finding out where she wants to go to college. But when she found out junior Piotr Lebiecki had already been living with a different host family who was unstable in Atchison, Kansas Heinen didn’t have to think twice.
I learned about his situation and figured out it wasn't anything he was doing, and thought it was the right time, right place and we can take him in to give him a better experience,” Heinen said.
Lebiecki’s original host household was with a single mom who was abusive and had five other kids. There were always people coming in and out of the house so he finally contacted the foundation, saying he couldn’t stay there any longer.
After the Heinens got the call, the same day at 7 p.m., the STS Foundation workers came to inspect their house and prepare for Lebiecki to arrive.
Heinen knew nothing about Lebiecki, his appearance or his hobbies, but knew she wanted to make him feel at home. While waiting for Lebiecki, Heinen went out to buy the essentials to make him feel at home — notebooks, pencils and, of course, candy and chocolate.
When he first arrived, they were both nervous but quickly got to know each other when Heinen helped him unpack and move in.
“When I first went into meeting the family, I was super nervous,” Lebiecki said. “But Mirabelle was super nice and welcoming. In Europe, we always talk about the American dream, and that is what I thought of when first seeing the house and her.”
Their first day together, Heinen booked him a haircut appointment as he hadn’t had one since he’s been in the U.S., along with taking him shopping on the Country Club Plaza to get him ready for his first day at SM North.
While Heinen had to get ready to cheer at the basketball game against SM South, she called her friends and asked them to take Lebiecki with them to let him experience an American high school basketball game for the first time.
“In the beginning, I was super excited to be staying with someone more around my age, as my original hosting family was all younger children,” Lebiecki said. “So I'm glad were able to do things together and I'm able to have more of a normal high school experience.”
Lebicki is staying for about two months before returning to Poland, and Heinen's main goal is to give him the experience he wasn’t able to have the previous seven months in Atchison,Kansas.
“Just getting to share my daily life with someone who has no idea what America is like is so exciting, even if it’s just driving around and seeing golf courses,” Heinen said. “ It just makes me so grateful for my life that I have and just him getting to experience those things on his own.”
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