When our good friends, the Flemmings, asked my mother to take a child for the summer, I was less than thrilled. Who was this little stranger who would not be able speak our language? I felt as though my life, which had been slowly going back to normal, was being disrupted yet again.

However, I fell in love with Stella almost immediately. She was clumsy, but smart, and very loving. I call her my little mess because she is always walking into things or knocking things over. She has been with us two summers now, and we’re in the process of trying to get a student visa for her. She’s an irreplaceable part of our lives now, and everyone we have introduced to her.

If you’re considering hosting a child, please do so. Yes, she’s sometimes a handful, but my heart breaks for her being stuck in an orphanage when we can give her the love and life that she needs.

This post was submitted by Caroline Downing.

Link to my blog

This post was submitted by Carla.

This post was submitted by Lydia Reid.

This post was submitted by Patrick McGee.

My prayers will be with you throughout your journey and I look forward to the day we will meet!

Love, Linda

This post was submitted by Linda Hesthag Ellwein.

We do have Nicaraguan children available for hosting. Please call me at 757-749-3921 or send me your e-mail.

Dr. Vincent Rosini

This post was submitted by Dr. Vincent Rosini.

I was growing up in 3 different orphanages and then i got transported to my final orphanage, that’s was the one that I was looking for.

I’m one of 7 kids and I’m the fourth, from the oldest down.

I had really hard time in the orphanages, well i guess because without family you like a blank sheet of a paper that never been used.

I been taken to the orphanage, because my mom as a single mother could not provide for all of her 7 kids. And that’s of course challenging if you came from one of the poorest countries in Europe.

I had fun times and I had sad times. I mean you probably been there and you know what I’m talking about.

Before going to #4 orphanage i was in 2 toddler orphanages, because I was 3 at the time when the cops took me from my mom. I was very afraid, cause I was only 3 years-old and I was confused at that age. I remember one of the cops was chasing me down, when he got me I pee in my little shorts that been worn out already.

When I was growing up I met lots of wonderful people, who were considering adopting me, but never did. And then as I was growing up, we start having American missions to my orphanage a group of people who started attending our orphanage and helping out with basic needs. And it was a huge for us.

They took us to McDonald’s, which was big for us. I remember that I was about 12 or thirteen what Vinny a president of Frontier-horizon organization took a bunch of kid to McDonald’s and I was one of them and it was one of the best days in my whole life.

i knew that God just opened a new window in my life and I thanked Him for that.

Years were passing by and so was I. think I was 13 at that time when we got send to a summer camp, and I loved it, every school year I was looking forward to the next summer. It’s the time when you get your head clean from studies and teachers.

That day was a hat day and I remember that Vinny arrived to our summer camp with a new group that time. And I was shy I don’t know why but I I am, so I was sitting down on a bench and then the next thing I see a cute girl approched me and atarted speaking toungs atlest thats what I thought she was speaking.

I was just shaking my head. But I knew that she was saying something good asd wseet. Then she took a picture of me.

Then the following winter I got invited to the same family as that blond girl took a picture of me. I was very exited, because I alwasy dreamed to go to the United States. Then I knew that God just opened second window for me and it was a bright window.

It was Christmas time and I remember that it was my first Chistmas having presents and I was in shaked that entire treap I was there.

When we got to the airport I had my first cry, teers of love were coming out from my eyes. Because I already fell in love with that family.

Then the following summer I been invited to come for a visit again. I was very excited about that comming treap. It was a wonderful time once again, but the time went to quick for me. But I knew that there something about that family that I had incoming.

About 2 years later I became a sitizen of the United States of America. Then I knew that God Opend a door big door for me and I was in His house a house of reality.

I’m so thankful to my Heavenly Father for giving me this incredible family that I can call them mom and dad, words that I never used in my life and now I can actually use it.

God is good at all time.

He has dream for everyone, you just got to believe in His Holly Name, a Name that saved us all.

May God Bless you all

As He does that everyday without getting stoppin.

Amen.

This post was submitted by Angel.

This post was submitted by Vicki F..

Approximately 10 years ago in the summer of 1999 Travis and I were in Ukraine working at a summer camp for orphanage children. One day we were walking around downtown Odessa when we passed a woman sitting on the sidewalk with a 3 year old girl in her lap. She was begging for money and using the child as a tool for sympathy. The method was effective for this was no average child. She had an extremely severe scar from a burn. It started on her head and went down the side of her whole body, yet from the front the child was strikingly beautiful. I was also taken in by the child’s demeanor; she was very calm and content, strangely serene, completely oblivious to her severe deformity which every onlooker (including me) gawked at in amazement. I was immediately filled with compassion for her. After a short conversation with the “mother” I asked her if I could bring the child to the Odessa plastic surgery institute and she agreed. (In the summer of 1997 I took the plastic surgery doctors to Romania on an Operation Smile trip and since that time I had a close working relationship with them). After a short evaluation one of the doctors said that the burn was too severe for them to do anything in Odessa and she needed to go to the US for treatment. The woman said she was from Moldavia (a small country that borders Ukraine) and that she was in Odessa to obtain money for the child. I took the woman’s contact information and said that I would make arrangements to bring them to America on a medical visa.

When I returned to the US I set up the doctor’s appointment but lost the address the woman gave me! Needless to say I was very upset with myself. Travis and I searched for them on the following two trips to Odessa in December of 1999 and March of 2000 but could not find them. However, I would not give up yet. The only thing we could remember was the name of the town she was from in Moldavia. In the summer of 2000 I ordered Moldavian visas for both of us and hired a car to drive us from Odessa to Moldavia. We wandered the streets of the town showing the picture of the girl with no luck. I was extremely frustrated. Had I lost the opportunity to help this girl because I misplaced her address? My translators tried to console me: “The woman who had her was a gypsy “they said, “it was probably not her real mother, they probably just had her to get money from sympathetic strangers”. Still, I was overwhelmed with guilt.

To make things worse, Alya, a precious 11 year old girl from Orphanage # 4 had died (possibly of appendicitis) in March in 2000. Travis and I left Ukraine on March 13 and she died on March 20, only 1 week later…one week! “If only I had been there one more week” I kept saying to myself “I could have done something”. With both Alya and the burn girl on my mind at the same time I was an emotional basket cas. I could not help Alya so now I was on a crusade to do something for the burn girl. For the following 2 or 3 years I had my contacts in Odessa scour the streets and shelters looking for her but all our efforts turned up empty. Despite my persistence to find her I had failed. Eventually, as the years passed, the pressing needs of other children pushed her out of the forefront of my mind. However, there were always reminders of my inability to follow thru with help.

I arrived in Odessa on January 22, 2009. Usually, I stay at an apartment complex that is rented out by an Irish guy living in Odessa. A few days into the trip Anya, a Ukrainian woman who manages the apartment complex stopped me in the hallway. She said “I heard you work with orphanages and that you take children to the US for visits”. I told her about the travel program and she asked if a child that was found in a shelter could travel with my group and I said yes. We talked about the process and eventually, she said this child also needs medical attention…she had severe burns. (Of course there are many children with burns so initially I made no connection), I said that was fine, we could also get her treatment in the US. Further into the discussion she said the child had severe burns on her head…the corner of my mind reserved for the burn girl clicked on. I asked two questions: Is the whole head burned of just part of it? Answer: just part of it…now my mind is racing…how old is she? Answer: 13….ITS HER! In mind I knew it but I had to be sure. I asked Anya if she had a picture of the girl and she brought up several pictures on her computer. IT WAS HER…despite the fact she was 10 years older I knew it the minute I laid eyes on her. I had found her again!!! Or maybe it’s better to say by the grace of God she found me since I was not even looking for her anymore. Her name is Galina. She was picked up in a shelter a few years ago by Tanya, a Ukrainian woman who took her into her home and adopted her….unbelievable!

I found her! I cannot describe the feeling of joy, satisfaction and excitement that I had in finding this girl and having a second chance to help her. Why care so much about one child when there are many others in similar needy conditions? Is it merely my selfish desire to alleviate some the guilt I feel for Alya’s death? Or maybe it’s to suppress the constant awareness of my inability to help all the children that need help. I always have to make hard choices so I focus on a few and if I am successful I feel as if I have accomplished something. And yet if “each one of them is Jesus in disguise” as Mother Teresa says then why do I walk by some and stop for others? Who knows? I cannot explain it and will never be able to explain it. All I know is that I was going to do everything in my power to reestablish contact with that girl and bring her to the states.

Of, course things are never that easy, it took some time to reach the family and another few days to meet them. Tanya said she wanted to meet me alone first because Galina had been let down by people promising help in the past. I finally met with Tanya and Galina’s doctor on my last day in Ukraine and related the whole story. After building up sufficient trust that I will put all my energy to help her they said they will allow Galina to come here for treatment. Unfortunately since I met Tanya on my last day in Ukraine I did not get to see Galina this trip. Hopefully that will happen soon. In any case my failure to follow through 10 years ago may yet rise from the ashes.

I am back in the US and have begun preliminary arrangements to bring her here. She will most likely have the surgery at King Daughters Hospital in Norfolk. More to come…

This post was submitted by KT.

For those families that have hosted children from Ukraine like we did this summer, it is fascinating to travel to the homeland of the children that came here and see them in their setting.

But it is also overwhelming, there are so many beautiful and special children there awaiting their forever families to come and bring them into their lives forever.

Each one of these children has their own unique set of circumstances which placed them where they are, but they all have a common thread in that each and every one of them need a forever family.

Children are not meant to be raised in institutions, as caring as many of these caregivers in the orphanages are, they cannot substitute a family, with the special bonds that families provide for children.

I took several hundred photographs of boys and girls there, aged approximately 3 years on up to 15. Each one of them is special, they are just beautiful children, and so special in God’s plan.

They range from a quiet and shy 14 year old girl that knits daily, working on socks for the younger children in the orphanage. A stunningly beautiful young lady, with a lovely soul that despite her circumstances is a survivor with a heart for helping others in the orphanage she resides in.

Then there was the clown, the one 8 year old boy we happened to host this summer. The orphanage director tried to warn me that he is a clown… Like I couldn’t figure that out in the 10 weeks he stayed with us this summer. And through his unique and special blend of humour left us no choice than to pursue welcoming him into our family.

Taking this trip, coupled with hosting through Frontier Horizons, is a unique and special experience - life changing.

This post was submitted by David Parrish.