Charles and Joan Henning, aged 79 and 77, respectively, have 26 miniature flags in their downstairs living room. Each represents the country of a foreign exchange student they have befriended.

"When our twodaughters got married and moved away, we volunteered to be a host family in an international exchange program," said Joan. "We love to do fun things and to hang out with young people. It's been such a rewarding experience...The students who we have hosted over the years have become our extended family."

The exchange program enables youths to travel to the U.S. to attend one year of high school, or to enroll as a graduate or undergraduate student at the University of Notre Dame in nearby South Bend.

"Some students stayed with us while they were here and others we met at various functions sponsored through the exchange program," according to Joan, who taught French, Journalism, and Drama at the local middle school for 17 years.

Although the Hennings are no longer a host family, they've kept in close contact with many of their former exchange students.

Three of them - Christine from France, Gabrielle from Mexico, and Carlos from Brazil - got married in 2002. The Hennings were invited to attend all three weddings, which were held in their friends' native countries.

To raise the money to attend the weddings, Charles and Joan decided to get a reverse mortgage. "We got the reverse mortgage, so that we could go to France and Brazil," explained Joan. "Later we were invited to Gabrielle's wedding in Mexico. Getting the reverse mortgage was a smart move, because we didn't have to dip into our savings."

The loan closed on February 25, 2002. The couple took out an initial draw of $8,000 to pay for the first two trips, and left the balance in a line of credit.

"You know how the Chinese have a Year of the Dog or some other animal," laughed Joan. "Well in 2002 it was the Year of the Weddings for the Hennings. We traveled a lot, but it was so much fun traveling to Paris, and Brasilia [the capital of Brazil] and Saltillo in Mexico. We were treated like honored guests."

In addition to paying for their travel, the Hennings also used the funds from their reverse mortgage to buy a computer. The computer, Joan said, "opened up a whole new world for us." The couple now uses e-mail to keep in touch with their children and other friends.

"I used the Internet to purchase our plane tickets, reserve hotel rooms, and make other travel arrangements," she noted. "I doubt we could have done any of this without our reverse mortgage, which is why we're advising our friends to get one, too."