Only one day left until we meet our 8 year little boy from the Ukraine! Yesterday night, there was a social event for the families who will be hosting the other 17 kids traveling here. Originally, 20 children were expected for the hosting program, but two kids (13 and 15 years old) dropped out. Apparently, despite the fact that these kids are abandoned and left to fend for themselves in an orphanage, the parents of these kids (if available), must provide written authorization for the kids to travel internationally. The mother of the two boys is deceased, so they sought out permission from the dad and he refused. This makes no sense and makes me so angry. This story reminds me of Tyler's third grade teacher who's husband attempted to kill her and her children. After being charged with murder and put in prison, he hired a fellow cellmate to kill them AGAIN. His teacher attempted to change her identity, but the legal system required consent of the father to change the names of the kids. Unbelievable!!
Anyhow, we learned about all the cool events that are planned for the three weeks that they are here. Each family also received a backpack for each of the kids filled with necessities for their house guest. When I say necessities, I mean just that. There's a toothbrush, toothpaste, a T-shirt... Unlike any of us, these kids are traveling about 5,000 miles and staying 3 weeks with no checked baggage. We were told that they probably only have a small carry on bag, if anything at all. When they return to the orphanage, the goodies from the backpack will become community property. Clothes are shared with everyone in the house.
Their journey here will take about 2 days, including a 10 hour overnight train ride to Kiev where they will board their first ever airplane. From Kiev, they travel to Munich, Dulles and finally, Raleigh. We are all meeting at the airport at 11:18PM on Saturday to bring the kids back home. The little boy we are hosting has so much courage to be travelling across the globe to a strange country where they don't even speak his language. He must be so nervous. We are all so excited to have him with us, but we're nervous too. Tyler is nervous because he's not sure that he'll be liked by our guest. Alex is nervous because we've told him that we won't be playing video games while he is here. Whatever will he do? Adam on the other hand can't wait to show him "Transformers" - the movie. In our multiple training sessions on hosting international orphans, we've learned a ton of very shocking things about life in an orphanage. Most of it disturbing and sad. One such fact is that orphanages play X-rated/porno movies in the evening. At first, we thought Transformers might be too intense for him, but what do/did we know. I think we'll just stick to CARS and KUNG FU PANDA while he's here.
No comments:
Post a Comment