Wow the time has come. He has been at the airport for about 3 hours or so at least. I just checked the flight from the airport and it says that it is checking in. As I sit here in my living room, my mind is flooded with thoughts, most of which center around wondering what he is thinking right now. A ton of questions come to mind. A flood of emotions running through my body right now. Anxiously awaiting word that the flight has departed.
A couple of days ago I wrote about how wonderful technology is. Well this evening it caused quite a stir. As many of us hosting parents were communicating back and forth we noticed that one of the flight tracking websites said that the flight had departed 2 hours ahead of schedule. This caused quite a stir especially with parents that are picking up at JFK. After doing a bit more digging and finding the same information on two other sites we found out that they had not actually taken off yet and were probably going to be leaving about 10 minutes late. Even with the late departure however it looked as if they were anticipating making good time and getting in an hour and a half early. Either way it does not affect us much because there is a large enough window between flights that there will be no issue catching the flight to St. Louis.
I feel like I did when I was about 6 or 7 years old on Christmas Eve. I knew that there were probably going to be some pretty cool stuff under the tree for me, and I knew there was going to be some stuff that was ok but necessary (socks and underwear). Those same feelings are coming back now this evening. I know that there are going to be some very awesome times with him. I also know that there are going to be some times that are going to be difficult. Even though they are difficult they are necessary in order for things to happen. Grace and Love are to big things that I am sure we will be showing him during the difficult times.
I thought I would fill you all in on one of the biggest rules for the hosting program. It has to do with the "A" word. Adoption, or any form of the word used an any way is prohibited. Many of these kids don't know any or much English but I believe they do know what adoption is. There are many reason why this rule is in place. One is to protect the hosting organization and the future of hosting. When this program is presented to the orphanages and foster families, it is presented as a "HOST ONLY" program and for that reason the children can not go back talking about the fact that their host families are going to adopt them. Another reason is to protect the child, or children that you are hosting. These children come from foreign countries where the laws can change quite quickly and some children may not even be available for adoption yet. We are going into hosting with an open heart. If we feel as though we are supposed to pursue it, we will. If we do not feel as though we are supposed to pursue it we will be come his biggest advocate. One of the goals of the program is find the children a forever home. This rule has been broken in the past by the pastor of a church even. The pastor in a prayer on Sunday morning prayed that all of the children that were being hosted would be adopted. Another person was talking about a pet that they had recently adopted. To someone who doesn't fully understand the language it would be easy to see how they might think that you were talking about them. So here is my disclaimer: If you are talking to one of us and he is around, WE WILL IGNORE YOU! If you do not get the picture, as our friend that hosted this summer put it, I will have to kick you in the teeth and neither of us would want that. If you could just please to not bring it up. Thank you all for your prayers.
FYI most of my posts will be done late at night from here on out most likely.
Well said!
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