Some friends of ours, "K" & "C", had met a 15 year old girl through the New Horizons for Children hosting program. They formed a strong bond with this girl, whom I will reference as "J". "J" was being hosted by another family for Christmas 2009. As she was already 15 her time in the orphan system was quickly running out. Once children turn 16 in many of these Eastern European countries they age out of the system and are no longer eligible for adoption. "J" would age out of the system in September, 2010. Unfortunately, "J" did not find her forever family with the family that was hosting her for Christmas, 2009. "K" & "C" became advocates for this girl to try to find a host family for her for the Summer 2010 program. They were hopeful that they could help locate a family that wanted to adopt "J". The deadline for hosting signup for the summer 2010 program was approaching and "J" still did not have a host family. This meant that the door to finding a "forever family" in America was closing for her. While Jeff and I were not ready to make to commitment to adopt, we felt led to host "J" and see where God led us from there. We registered with NHFC and located "J"'s bio & photo only to see that another family in Texas had signed up to host her the day before. While we were happy that "J" had a host family, we were disappointed that we would not be the ones to host her. We signed up to be her "backup family" in the event that the TX family could not fulfill their commitment to host her. We really thought there was no chance that would happen though, as we learned that the family was already in the home study phase and planned to adopt "J". This was really great news to hear! Shortly after we learned that "J" would be adopted by the TX family, we decided that just because the child we had originally intended to host was now unavailable didn't mean we couldn't still bring a child into our home. That is when we went back to the NHFC website and read through all of the bios of the available children and chose Olga.
Fast forward a few weeks. It was less than a week before Olga was supposed to arrive. I received a call from NHFC. The family in TX that was hosting/adopting "J" was no longer able to do either. This was devastating news. Because "J" would be turning 16 in less than 3 months, it would take a miracle for any family to be able to adopt her before she aged out. Jeff and I still had the option to host her and we had to make a very difficult decision. Should we host both girls (they were from different countries and we didn't even know if they shared a common language) and risk losing the opportunity to bond with Olga? NHFC told me they had another backup family for "J". This family had originally planned to host a different 15 year old girl from "J"'s country, but the girl had gotten into trouble at her orphanage and was pulled from the hosting program. I asked NHFC if it would be a bad idea to have the two girls being hosted together, and they said that it very well could cause problems. People might assume that two girls about the same age with similar life circumstances would welcome having each other around. That isn't really the case a lot of times. It was decision making time, and NHFC had asked us to not discuss the issue with anyone, so we really couldn't even ask others for advice. Jeff and I prayed about it, and talked about it, and prayed about it some more. In the end, we truly felt that "J" was not our child to host. It was difficult to do, but I called NHFC back and asked that they contact the second backup family.
On June 24, 2010 we were excited to welcome an orphan into our homes for a five week hosting program. Olga arrived on Friday, June 25, 2010 and our lives were changed forever. On Saturday, June 26, 2010, Jeff looked at me and asked what we needed to do to start the adoption process. The next five weeks were wonderful and difficult at the same time. Wonderful because our entire family fell in love with this girl, and she fell in love with us. Difficult because we were not allowed to discuss our adoption plans with her, and we couldn't even ask Rhys & Maddox about it because we knew they would never be able to keep a secret like that! And in case anyone wonders how R&M felt about adopting Olga, they asked us if we could adopt her as soon as we had to say our goodbye's at the airport on August 1, 2010. They are completely on board!
And that is how we got from where we were six months ago to where we are today. We went in with the intention of hosting a different child from a different country with no plans to adopt. And we came out with a mission to bring Olga home forever.
Oh, and in case you are wondering about "J". She got her miracle. The second backup family started the adoption process as soon as they got off the phone with NHFC they day we gave her up. "J" came home with her forever family just shy of her 16th birthday. Pretty cool, huh?
Some people might look at this entire process as luck and coincidence, but I see God's hands all over it. And I am so grateful for that.
If you would like to learn more about hosting an orphan from Ukraine, Latvia, Russia or Estonia for Christmas 2010, please visit the New Horizons for Children website. Before being allowed to view any photos or bios of available children you will have to give NHFC some basic information including your name, phone number and address. If you are interested in hosting and would like to ask me any questions about my personal experience, just e-mail me and I will be happy to answer your questions.
S~
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