Hosting

About 8 years ago I heard about a woman who adopted a little girl from Ukraine. She already had 7 children of her own. Her youngest was 5 and they adopted a 7 year old. I thought that was really cool. After all, I love to hear about adoption.

I read about international adoptions. Wow! Complicated.

Then I had Two. She was such a cute baby.

Then this family adopted another girl from Ukraine. She was the first adopted daughters half sister. She was 11. They saw how rarely older children were adopted. They felt so sad that they decided to do something about it. They started a foundation called Save a Child. I read about it and heard about it on the news. They would bring older orphaned Ukrainian children to the United States for a 2-3 week visit. They would plan awesome activities and find really great families to host these children. They were hoping that the families would fall in love with the children and the program and help these children find a permanent home before they turned 16 and were displaced by the orphanage to live on their own without enough essential life skills to have a successful adulthood. That's right folks. 16. When most of us get our drivers license and go on our first date, these kids are trying to figure out where they are going to sleep and what they are going to eat and what they are going to wear when they wash their clothes who-knows- where because the only clothes they have are the ones on their back. Luckily the government is changing slightly and the age is being moved up to 17 in some regions.

Then I wanted to find out more. So I read A LOT. And it made me cry. A LOT.

Then I had Three and Four and life was pretty crazy. Like shower once a week crazy. You know.

Then, Four turned 2 and there was this little glowing light at the end of the tunnel! When she was 2 1/2, I emailed Save a Child foundation and asked for more information on being a host family. And didn't hear anything for almost a year...

And then at the end of July while I was at Lagoon with my kids and a friend for each of them I got a phone call. Right as I was getting onto Tilt a Whirl. My favorite! The lady on the phone said she was with Save a Child (hereafter referred to as SAC) and was I still interested in hosting. I said, "I'm getting on a ride at Lagoon. I'll call you right back." And I did. And she didn't answer. Then she called me back while I was on another ride. And finally, we got ahold of each other. Phew. She told me what I needed to know. I relayed the info to huz (my husband) and told the SAC lady, "Yes!! We want to host."

The next morning I went to meet with the lady that started the foundation. She interviewed me and looked over our family profile and went into her office (kitchen) and called to me, "I think I found them."

By the way, I pray all the time to find these missing kids. And as soon as I got off the phone with SAC at Lagoon, I started praying that they would with us the kids that needed to be with us. Whether for us to adopt or someone else. Or whatever the reason. Just to find the right kids for this time.

And she brought in a picture of BoyOne and BoyTwo.

And then we worked like mad to get our paperwork done and our home study completed and decided to move and did so in 3 weeks and laid sod on the day the social worker came to interview us.

Over the next month and a half we went to 3 meetings.

On October 22, 2010, we drove to the airport and waited with One and Two for the kids to be escorted down the elevator. One saw them first. When they got us all together, we huddled with a translator-but I didn't need one because I took a crash course in Russian the night before...

"Menya zovoot Stephanie."

They understood me!

They were tired, scared and stinky.

And then huz saved the day by pulling out his i-phone and showed them some games.

Instant friends. Gotta love technology.