"My friends, adoption is redemption. It's costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him."

- Derek Loux

Meet Raya, 15. Oh Raya, sweet Raya! Even though practically Yaroslav’s twin (the kids are almost exactly one year apart and are in the same grade at the orphanage), she’s clearly the middle child, wanting to encourage and make everyone around her happy. She dreams big dreams and told me she would like to go to a university and eventually become an interpreter.

 

She already speaks Italian, Russian, Ukrainian and has been studying English for the last couple of years, mostly independently. Let me tell you: Orphanage kids don’t go to universities. Orphanage kids in rural orphanages like the one where these three live in go to a vacation school (their only choice) and are lucky if they make it through to graduation and then get a low paying job and try to survive. Somehow, someway this child got an idea. An idea that is foreign to the kids she knows around her that there is a possibility of a university and there is a possibility of a professional job and that possibility is hers for the taking. In fact she is already the orphanage’s little translator.

 

When prior host families need to communicate with their hosted children Raya is the one who is normally asked to help. I often hear from host families how they were helped yet again by Raya in translating this or that for them.

 

Just like her older brother Raya is also a captain of her soccer team. In the last few years she has taken to playing tennis and has done well in several competitions. She also participates in track and field. Want to hear more? J She is superbly talented in crocheting and her artwork is displayed alongside her brother’s in the same gallery. She’s also very selfless. When there was a possibility of their younger brother being adopted by an Italian family she said that she would agree for him to be separated even if it meant that she and Yaroslav would be left behind (the Italians were only interested in their younger brother and not the older two). She told them it would be a better opportunity for him to go and have a better life than what he could have in Ukraine.

Meet Kolya, 13. Can you guess? Kolya is into soccer, too. J He’s also fluent in Italian having been to Italy several times on hosting trips. His Italian host family has been promising him adoption for several years now and we were afraid he would not want to come to US, but he said he would not leave his brother and sister. You see the Italians only want the youngest. And since Ukraine does not allow separation of sibling now the Italians told the kids they will wait till Kolya is 16 (and Raya and Yaroslav are 18 and 19 and have aged out of the orphanage system) before they adopt him. I know its hard to adopt. I am also starting to realize its hard to add three teens. I don’t blame the Italians, we just want what’s best for all three children and not short change the oldest two.

When we were preparing a package to send to the kids a week ago and asked Kolya what he would like to receive from us as a present or if there was something that he needed he said oh nothing, really, I’m ok. Well, I am sure he can use a lot of things but he was too shy to admit / ask. Kolya has been fascinated with the idea of coming to US and said he cannot wait for the summer to come. We cannot wait too, buddy!

Are you starting to get a feeling of why we couldn’t say No to the kids when they said they would like to be hosted by us and they are open to adoption? J

Meet Yaroslav, 16. In the world of adoptions Yaroslav has several strikes against him. An older orphan, a teenage boy and a part of a sibling group of three. But when you meet him you are amazed at resiliency and ability to overcome no matter the obstacle. A very humble and soft-spoken he was amazed when we asked him whether he would be interested to come to America. You mean me? He replied, Is it even a possibility for me given my age? You see, for several years his younger brother and even the middle sister got invited on hosting trips to Italy, but Yaroslav has always been left behind. Who wants to deal with a teenage boy? I’m sorry to say but that hosting family has been missing out on getting to know this precious boy. Yaroslav is into sports. Big time. A captain of his orphanage’s successful soccer team he also finds time to participate in track and field, play tennis and draw. In fact his drawings are displayed in a local gallery and his track and field team regularly places second and first. When both of his parents died he was placed in the role of a caretaker without his choosing. Having to grow up too fast and too soon he took on this role and has excelled in it. Our prayer is that he still has a chance to experience what it is like to be parented in a loving family even if he’s going to turn 17 in a few months. This boy needs love, parental guidance and family despite his age.

Welcome to America... this is what our airport arrivals look like! Want to be one of our summer host families? Can't wait to welcome your host child for the summer? Over 150 orphans still available to become part of your family this summer. See all the orphans available for summer hosting here ->
www.projectonefortythree.org/host/photo-listing-registration/

This day in September we drove FOR HOURS. The location was so remote that even our very experienced director of the Ukrainian team had to stop and ask for multiple directions and half the time people asked could offer no help. We were going to Nowhere, Ukraine. Random chickens on the side of unpaved streets (now THAT is a definition of “free-range” LOL), cows walking alongside your slow moving car (why slow moving? Well, that’s because you definitely don’t want to hit that pothole if you are lucky to be on a ‘paved’ road) and my well seasoned US partner, Colleen, who’s adopted four kids from Ukraine and “has been there, done that, seen it all” saying: “Can you image doing an adoption in THIS region?!?” The irony is that she’s also now adopting from the same orphanage in this region, almost a year after our first trip there and adding two teenage boys to her family of six kids.

 

When we finally arrived to the orphanage, we met the director, who identified the children who would ‘qualify’ to be put on a hosting list. If are a full orphan or your parents’ rights have been terminated, you get to be interviewed. We’ve had instances when the orphanage staff would make a mistake and bring in a child to be interviewed and then after checking the child’s file realize that the only remaining parent is in prison and his / her rights were never terminated and on technicality the child is stuck and legally cannot be adopted, and then have to tell the child to leave since he or she does not ‘qualify’. In the realm of qualifications this is as low as it gets.

 

When it was Yaroslav’s, Raya’s and Kolya’s turn to talk to us the kids immediately stood out. Colleen and I both made hasty notes in our files: a definite “Yes”! These kids are coming to America! They will have a family! On our way back to the US as we are discussing the trip she asks: So have you found “your” kids. I have, but now is not a good time. Surely God has someone else for them. In reality, having just done our fourth hosting of Diana we were exhausted and really needed a break to regroup, take a step back, just to breath and get back to the American normal one boy / one girl type family life. But the kids kept being on our mind. When a family stepped up to host them for the winter we were both excited and sad for the kids. Well, its an answer to our prayers, right?... But when their adoption fell through and the kids became available to be hosted we had to say yes. By then I met the kids for the second time during my January impromptu trip to Ukraine and it was a sweet reunion. We can’t wait to see them, only  now this time in Hartsfield Int’l in June.