Ornaments for Adoption: Hosting Orphans

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It's week 6 of Ornaments for Adoption which means we're in the second half of this fundraiser. Things have really picked up. Thank you all for your orders and helping spread the word. 

On a side note, please keep last year's OFA family in your thoughts and prayers. They are going through a rough time.  

A few weeks ago, I was browsing on Pinterest and came across a family's adoption blog. As I was reading some of the posts on this blog, I read the story of some friends of theirs who had hosted an orphan from Ukraine. I had never heard of hosting orphans before, so I messaged Ally about writing a guest post for OFA. I hope you are as touched by their story as I was.

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This past summer we were provided with an unexpected and last minute (3 weeks before he arrived) opportunity from God to host a 15 year old orphan from the Ukraine for 5 weeks over the summer.  This program allows orphans to come and spend time with a family in America and provide them with hope and inspiration to what they can have one day as well.  In the Ukraine children age out of the orphanage usually by the time they are 16 and are sent out on their own, with the majority of them turning to drugs, gangs, and prostitution.  The children that participate in programs such as these are much more likely to go on to attend school, find a job, and have a family one day of their own.   

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Our family was in the middle of the adoption process for the DRC and we did not think we would be able to participate in this amazing program because cost and our growing costs for our current adoption, however the child we wanted to host obtained a sponsor from here in San Diego that helped a great deal with the funding, making us able to provide him with a family to stay with. 

 

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I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed by the mental preparation of having a 15 year old orphan from the Ukraine coming.   I was nervous, apprehensive, and questioning what I had signed up for agreeing to host a 15-year-old orphan form Ukraine.  But when we truly trust in God and do what he asks of us (against our better/selfish own opinions) the amazing blessings and life altering events that take place. 

 

 
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To say that we are blessed to have been able to host Vlad is an understatement.  He has become a part of our family in every way possible.  Both of our children adore him to pieces and he is amazing with them, playing with them, helping to carry them, exhibiting patience with them when I am at my wits end, and above all loving them back. We did not expect to bond and form the connection that we did with Vlad.  We fell in love with a 15 year old boy who had not been loved for most of his life.  He is a remarkable young man that was put into a life situation that he never asked for nor did he deserve to be in. He is incredibly smart, funny, athletic, kind hearted, and is a normal smart mouthed witty boy when he feels challenged. We love that being in an orphanage has not broken his will and belief to stand up for what he thinks is right. Not only has he embraced our children but us as well.  We became a family.  

 

 
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Our daughter Lainy has truly grown from this entire experience, though it has been very difficult with him gone.  I feel like she has matured beyond the maturity she already had (if you know her then you know she was already 4 going on 14).  She has taken on more responsibility at home, shares her emotions openly about missing Vlad and things she does (like sleeping with his picture) so that she won’t miss him as much.

When he returned home to Ukraine we were all devastated and heartbroken.  We felt that God had put this child in our life for a reason (as we were not planning on adopting from Ukraine let alone a teenage boy), and that we needed to do everything that we could to give him the family he deserves.  Which led us to file a petition in Ukraine to find out his adoption eligibility and begin the longest 6 weeks of waiting ever.  But God has continued to guide us and prove that this is the path and plan he has for our family, and Vlad is eligible and we are in the process of doing what needs to be done to adopt him and give him a forever family.  

 

 
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Thank God for the Internet, which I now believe is the most amazing invention ever!  It allows us as a family to continue to show our love, support, and guidance to a child that would not receive it otherwise.  We are able to hear about Vlad’s day at school, playing soccer with friends and the number of goals he scored, and still strengthen the bond that was formed in the short amount of time we had him.  We send pictures almost daily of things we have been up to, he especially loves seeing pictures of Lainy and Gavin.  We are able to share our adventures with him, even though he is not here.

 

Before this will be finalized we will host him again this Christmas (thanks to some awesome fundraisers), and be able to hold him in our arms and just love him and show him God’s love.  I encourage everyone that has the means and even those who would need to fundraise to participate in a host program at some point.  Even those who do not want to adopt, it is a life changing experience that you will only be blessed by.  To truly witness and see God’s grace and love for the fatherless is the most humbling experience you will ever have.

 

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TO FOLLOW OUR JOURNEY VISIT WWW.TINYLITTLEFOOTPRINTS.COM