Tag Archives: Hosting

Heartbroken

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Late Wednesday afternoon, we received a call that Y’s aunt had assumed guardianship of him and was no longer available for adoption.  Our hearts were crushed.  We were already looking forward to getting his adoption paperwork started and having him here this summer.  Planning and preparing.  Suddenly halted.

We knew when we started this that there was no guarantee that we would actually get to bring Y home until the court date.  But to have everything end so quickly.  To know that we will never get to squeeze him and love on him and hear him say he loves us in Ukrainian and English.  That is hard.

But…

We know that God is Sovereign.  We know that while we can’t protect and care and disciple Y that the Lord is providing and caring for him even now.  God is bigger than us and can do so much better at caring for Y and for all of our kids way better than we can ever do.

We are praying for Y and for our healing heart.  We are trusting that God is providing and protecting and guiding him.  And we are praying for his aunt as she raises him as a mom would.  I pray that they both can grow in knowing the Lord.  Will you please pray that with us?

And I am praying that one day.  Even if it’s only one day, we’ll be able to see Y again and give him hugs and loves.  If only one more time.

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Nine is Divine!

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The end of October brought us a beautiful picture and much anticipation and preparation as we hosted an 8 year old boy who couldn’t speak English and, as far as we know, had never experienced a Christmas with family.  We wondered if he would love us the way we already loved his picture.  If he would think we were insane or just absolutely crazy…

Yeah,  he fit right in.
December brought that boy to our home and our hearts…well, they melted.  With each smile and simple request and heart attack (the boy would jump down several steps at a time to go downstairs, I honestly wondered if he would make it without an ER trip or two), we melted more.  He took our hearts back with him when he got on that plane in January and we knew that we needed to move heaven and earth to make sure he came home to us soon.

Our Y the Brave!
And here we are.  Starting our home study.  Starting this journey.  Scared, thrilled, nervous, and anxious.  The kids are thrilled that we are seeking to adopt Y.  As we started hosting they all agreed to host him and when we asked them if they would like for him to live with us forever there was a resounding yell of approval.  We have a great agency and tremendous support from family and friends.  
So, with all that said, we are happy to announce that we are praying to add #9 to our family by the end of the year!
There are a lot of unknowns so we are taking each step slowly and carefully.  We are anticipating everything yet expecting very little (the same way we walked through hosting).  
We would covet everyone’s prayers as we walk this journey.    
Our first step is to get our home study done.  We are anxiously awaiting on that paperwork to make it to us in the mail.  After that is a commitment paperwork for our agency and then dossier paperwork and fingerprinting etc.  We’re hoping to start our travel by the fall but we know that nothing is predictable and nothing is planned when it comes to adopting.
Our goal is to do this debt-free.  We obviously don’t have $30,000 lying around to do that so we are praying that God will provide.  Within the week we will be setting up a crowd funding site and planning fundraising events.  So, keep your eyes and ears peeled!
And Y, well, he’s a part of our family, now and forever, no matter what, no matter how goofy we all are.
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Merry Christmas!

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I’m just a bit sick when I think about these next pictures.  We realized at the end of January that we have some how deleted a lot of pictures.  All of our Christmas day present opening chaos pictures are gone.  We had a tinsel fight after we decorated the tree.  Those pictures have disappeared.  And, even sadder, Liam’s birthday pictures are gone.  So from here on through almost the new year, most of these pictures are from our phones so please be patient.

 Zoe and I not only made pants for all the kids, Zoe wanted to make pants for her and Ceili Rain’s American Girl Dolls.   She did an amazing job!

 Christmas Day!  I was so excited I got to make some cute embroidered shirts for everyone too!

 We finally did it.  We got Mark a coffee maker!  And it’s a pretty red.  It has definitely been used quite a bit since then.
Christmas Breakfast and Y’s first time eating hot fruit compote and my homemade biscuits.  He approved.

 Meal time is always quite entertaining in our house.
 We got Y a rubber band bracelet hook and bands.  By the time he left he had over 15 bracelets made and they almost made it to his elbow.
 We found out pretty quickly that Y LOVES cycling!  He would have been riding every single day, no matter the weather.

Okay, we worked hard to make sure Y not only tried a lot of American food but that he had some that was rather familiar to him.  He did not like borscht even though his brief description said he did.  But cucumbers and radishes and any kind of meat…that was perfect for him.  A veteran hoster had mentioned a blog called Natasha’s Kitchen and testified that her recipes were pretty authentic for Eastern Europe.  Every time I made one of her recipes, Y was super excited and would quickly give me two thumbs up.  For Christmas supper, I made meat piroshki.  Oh my, we won’t even discuss how unhealthy these things are all fried up.  But the taste.  Ahhh, they were amazing!  This may be our new traditional Christmas supper.

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Hosting Party

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We first learned about hosting from some loooong time friends B and H.  We followed along on Facebook as they hosted S and then prayed and prayed as they worked to bring her home in to their family forever.  She came home in the Spring, by the way.
You know how people say it just takes one pebble to make a ripple?  That’s B & H.  After their hosting, we had a set of friends host and then this past winter, there were about four of us that hosted in the area.  We all had heard about hosting from B & H. 
Since there were so many of us hosting this winter, we were able to have our own get together.  Only three families came but, hey, our family is a traveling party.
We had a “Wrap the Snowman” game.

And Y got to try his first cupcake.  Little things that we don’t think of having to tell our kids sometimes caused a few giggles.  Like, don’t eat the paper on the cupcake.  And, we don’t try on clothes in the middle of the store (Thankfully, I was paying attention and able to direct him to the fitting rooms before he disrobed).  Sugar, it’s safe to say, is his favorite treat.

B & H have been such a positive influence, encouragement and source of knowledge throughout our hosting.  We are forever grateful for them sharing their experiences and helping us through our first hosting.

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Hosting Starts!

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December flew by and before we knew it, it was December 17th and Y was here.
 The flight had landed and all the families waiting on their host child gathered together for a group picture!
 The flight got in at 10:30 at night.  Poor Emmie had to go since I am her food source.  She was so sleepy but did so well.

 Everyone from Liam down to Malachi had a spend the night party at Kristina’s house (and thereby earning her about 1,000 jewels for her crown).  Zoe and Ace made the trek to the airport to pick up Y.  Ace was as excited and anxious as we were.

 Zoe tracking Y’s flight in.
Mark and I love the airport.  It’s like a mini-world with all sorts of interesting people to see and things to look at.  This lady was no exception.  She had on elf leggings and hat, a hula skirt and coconut bra.  And I do believe she had a lit up necklace too.  I believe several people had stopped and watched and waited to see who in the world she had dressed up for.  It did not disappoint as a lady about her age with two adorable young girls were met to this get up as she sang “Mele Kalikimaka.”  The little girls lit up as soon as they saw her and ran up and gave her the biggest hugs.  Definitely not a disappointment to watch.
And before we knew it Y was with us.  He was so tiny, ya’ll.  He’s just a few weeks younger than Liam but with all the older kids with him, he looked so small and alone.  We grabbed him and hugged him but he didn’t light up with a big ol’ smile until he saw Emmie! 

 He grabbed her up as quick as he could and then quickly pulled out the letter we had written him and pointed to her picture and each of ours.  He was so excited.

And he had to push the stroller.

It’s safe to say that everyone except Mark and I slept soundly on the way home.  Y had been traveling a full 24 hours.  We had to wake him up the next day!

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