Day 1!

Well,  right about now he has been with us almost exactly 24 hours.  My life will for ever be different than it was 24 hours ago.  We put the kids to bed last night around midnight.  Everything was going well until we were woken up by our youngest daughter throwing up beside the bed at 4 a.m.  She had a very hard night with the same happening about every hour or so until 6:30 when she finally fell asleep.  The rest of the kids woke up at 8:30.  Breakfast went well, after breakfast we went swimming.

Swimming was a huge icebreaker and we got to see a lot of smiles and laughs this morning.  We then got in the car and started the trip home.  I am very happy to say that the gallon freezer bags were not need.  He did not get carsick at all.  Hopefully that will continue.  We stopped at a buffet and he got to try a lot of different foods.  After lunch we went and picked up a few clothes and shoes for him..  We finally made it home late this afternoon and explored the house.  We had a nerf gun war in the first 30 minutes of being home.  Our kids were going 100 mph bouncing off the walls wanting to show him everything.  We did have a fun time making wrapping paper by stamping brown paper.  Some of the stamps that we have are of a nativity scene that I stamped out and Linda asked him if he new the story,   we found Christmas story in his bible and he was able to read it to us in L@tvian.  We saw more smiles when Libby and I beat him and Caden in a very competitive game of Foosball.  We had dinner, shared with him about our extended families and he shared with us some stuff about where he lives which was fun to see.  We could see it because he drew us a picture!  We will be referring to that picture often I am sure.

From my perspective, today has been very enjoyable.  It is fun to see the way that our kids interact with him.  Lexie talks to him like he understands her and I think that is pretty cute.  We feel like he is trying very hard to learn English.  He is repeating us and you can see that he is really thinking about it.  He obviously does not understand everything we are saying but he is growing.

Day one is in the books and it was a good one.  I would like to thank two couples.  The first would be the Robey's,who because the hosted over the summer opened or eyes to the opportunity.  I would also like to thank the Drake's who told the Robey's about New Horizons for Children.  Without these two couples we would not be where we are tonight with a little boy that we have welcomed into our home for this Christmas season!

WOW...

He is here!  Wow the rush of emotion is something that I can not communicate. He was sleeping hard on the plane when they got to st Louis. He was a bit out of it in the beginning. We took him to Steak n Shake for a milkshake and to sample. The chicken fingers fries and ketchup were a hit.  His smile is infectious and angry birds brings it out!. Headed to bed. Looking forward to what the next 4 weeks has in-store for us.

Almost here! (Please read all the way to the end)

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.

Am I prepared?

It's 2 a.m. and I have just finished translating things to put on a calender for him to see what we are doing when. I just looked at my phone and it is 10 a.m. in L@tvia. According to my phone it is 22 degrees and snowing this morning as well. As I lay here trying to go to sleep I can not help but think of the amount of travel that he is about to embark on. I am not exactly sure when he will start his traveling. My guess would be that it will be some time tomorrow.
I just envision him probably doing the same thing I am.  He is probably wondering what we are like. At this point he may or may not have read our letter and seen our pictures.   Today I read a blog from a former host family. The dad posted a short update every night. I found myself becoming a bit emotional as it hit me that I  will be where he was in just a couple of days. I think I am prepared but I will not know until he gets here. I have a feeling that Sunday night will be here before I know it.
While you are here I have added a few things to the right side if the page. Feel free to check them out. 

The power of technology!

When we started this journey I thought about first just starting a page on Facebook, but I thought that there are probably many people that may not have Facebook and I did not want to limit who could follow us if they did not want to get a Facebook Username.  So I decided to create a blog.  I think the hardest thing about starting the blog was finding a name for it.  We settled on one and started posting.

You will notice the green states in the map above.  These are the states in which at least 1 person has viewed and read our blog.  I find it simply amazing that by putting our thoughts on a page and hitting publish they can be read by people all over the country just like that.  We hope that this blog raises awareness  for New Horizons for Children as well as raising awareness to the many orphans around the word that are in need of a forever family.  One of the things that touched me from our training session was a video that was played.  It was the testimony of adopted son of the Hosting Director for New Horizons.  He said that when you get to about age 10, orphans loose hope of ever being adopted, and New Horizons is trying to give those kids hope again.

We are down to exactly 5 days from the time that I am posting this!

6 Days

Six days from now... actually 5 days and 23 hours from now we will be meeting a boy that we have been praying for, for the last 6 weeks.  As the time has gotten closer it is becoming more and more real.  Tonight we received our information from our airport coordinator that is in charge of getting us all together in the same spot so that everyone is on the same page and in the same location when the kids get there.

As pickup day draws closer we get more insight as to what it takes to run a hosting program.  I am guessing that I do not even know close to everything and everyone that works behind the scenes and getting everything in line.  I do know that there are quite a few people that do ALOT of work, most of which goes unnoticed.  It is amazing how much goes into allowing these children the opportunity that they are about to receive.  The countless hours that go into getting them here.  When you sign up to host you work with the coordinator in your area.  When we were initially looking through the photo listing and narrowing our choices I had no idea that our coordinator had a full time job on top of answering all of my emails.  

The other people that I am amazed with are a group of people that I have not met, and of which I will only meet one.  This group of people are AAI Reps (they are Airline Ambassadors, off duty flight attendants), they volunteer their time to help the program by flying with the children to the cities that do not have chaperons on the plane.  I would think that this would be a very difficult job trying to lead children and keep them together in a group when you do not speak their language.  We will have an AAI Rep flying to St. Louis with the 7 kids that will be flying into St. Louis.  I am very thankful for the representative that is volunteering her time to do this for us.

I can not wait to see the other families that are doing the same thing we are.  We will be able to share stories and knew exactly what the other families are going through and thinking.

Excitedly, anxiously, nervously awaiting their arrival in now 5 days and 22 hours!

A Message from Linda!

Ryan has suggested a couple of times that I should post.  I really struggle with freely opening my heart on the internet.  I wanted to share some real stuff from my perspective about hosting.  My husband is much better at this kind of stuff.  Maybe it is a guy thing or just one of his great qualities.  I worry to much about how it will be read or could be taken out of context.  So hear it goes, my first post on our blog. LOL!

Next Sunday (Dec 16th) we will be driving to St. Louis to pick him up.  This week when you think of it, will you please pray for him.  His journey will most likely be starting on late Friday or early Saturday.  As I continually pray for this little man, I am just so amazed at the courage he has.  There is no way that I would even make this trip as an adult.  I can't stop my mind from wondering. Will he like us? Will he be disappointed?  Will my nervous extremely loud laugh scare him?  When I get nervous not only do I laugh really loud but I also just ramble, since he doesn't know English that won't go well.  Will our children transition ok?  I worry about our son.  He wants a brother so badly.  I don't want him to get expectations that are not realistic.  Then my thoughts go to the other end.  What if he is a perfect fit with our family?  How will our children handle saying goodbye?  Oh I want to protect my children but this is beyond my capabilities.  I am so excited, happy, scared and nervous.

We had our training last Saturday in Chicago.  What a LOOONG weekend.  It was wonderful to be among others who were adventuring into the same situation as us.  While each family is different and each host child is different as well, we still have things in common.  We did learn some new things about the program, but we were taught for the most part about the orphanages and their systems.  Our host child is in a foster home, but it is not known to us if was previously in an orphanage or not.  They shared a couple of videos, one was a testimony of a child who has been adopted.  Wow what that young man has gone through in his lifetime.  One thing that he shared was that once you get older than 10-12 years old you give up on being adopted.  Also in some situations the children are put in homes so they work or "do chores".  What a horrible way to live.  It breaks my heart for these children. The other video was actually made by the children in an orphanage.  Ugh, my words would not do it justice.  They need LOVE.  They need to know they have a Heavenly Father.  They might not know him but he knows each one of them.  After leaving the training, I felt even more committed to this program.  I am so thankful that the Lord has called us to do this.

This week my goal is to get as much time in Gods Word as i can, spend quality time with my children and strengthen my relationship with them the best I can.  Also I want to have as much family time as possible and last but not least strengthen our marriage.  My husband and I have to keep Christ as the center of our marriage.  We have no way to prepare ourselves for what challenges that we will be facing but God does.

As I end this post I want to truly thank everyone who has helped us in any and every way. I can not express enough how truly grateful we are.

Thank you

Linda