Junior Felina Deck’s family of 6 just added a member when they invited a stranger to live in their home for a year.

The Deck family applied for their first foreign exchange student last year and got accepted to house Nils Holtrup, an exchange student from Germany, for the full school year.

“Technically he is older than me so it was like getting a new older brother,” Deck said.

The Deck family chose to pursue inviting another member into their family in hopes that the children will decide to go about a similar route at some point in their life.

Holtrup is also giving up a year of school because of this move.

“He has two more years of school when he gets back even though he is considered a senior here,” Deck said.

Deck has a middle school aged brother and another brother and sister younger than that.

“He sleeps in my old room and I moved to the basement,” Deck said.

The biggest bonding experience between Deck and Holtrup is the time they spend on the way to and from school.

“He has become more of a friend because I drive him to school every day,” Deck said.

“Foreign exchange students aren’t allowed to drive.”

Deck’s family has welcomed Holtrop in with open arms.

“He is coming on our whole family vacation to Jamaica for Thanksgiving break,” Deck said.

Her whole family is coming on this grandparent-funded trip so they invited Holtrop along for the ride.

Though having a foreign exchange student has been fun for Deck’s family, it does add a little extra work for her parents.

“It’s basically like gaining another child,” Deck said.

Deck is personally try to show Holtrop American style experiences.

“We have taken him to baseball games and all my brothers soccer stuff,” Deck said.

“We recently took him to first watch, a classic american dining experience.”