What is Orphan Hosting?

Orphan hosting is inviting an orphan child to live in your home and experience your family for 4-8 weeks over the summer or winter holidays. Host families have the opportunity to share their values, beliefs and culture as well as learn something new from their host child. The orphans available for hosting are chosen by an interview team, who travel overseas to meet each child in person. 

In 2012, our family hosted a 15 year old girl from Ukraine.

What a fun and exciting Christmas that was for our family!

This year, we are back in the saddle, but going a different route, hosting a 7 year old boy from China.  His name is Jia and he’s known nothing but life in an orphanage. Abandoned as an infant (most likely due to deformities in his fingers and toes), Jia has never known the love of a family. 

Hosting is expensive, inconvenient, and at times, uncomfortable (they don’t speak English, you know!) So why are we doing it? Well, we learned that without hosting, orphans over the age of 6, or with special needs, or who are part of a sibling set, have an almost 0% chance of being adopted. However, with hosting, these same orphans are SEEN, TOUCHED and KNOWN. They are advocated for and prayed for and LOVED by their host family. Hosting provides HOPE to orphans who would likely never have another opportunity at finding a forever family. But…you absolutely do not have to be interested in adoption to participate in hosting a child; in fact, adoption is not on our radar at this time. Most orphans have never experienced a functional, family environment and will likely repeat the same cycle unless they are exposed to a new model. It’s impossible to hope for a different outcome if you have nothing new to model. Living in a family for even 4 - 8 weeks can truly be life changing. 

You’ll be surprised at how much YOU change, too. Hosting was and will be a great opportunity for our own biological children to see and love a child whose life is so very different from their own. We honestly can’t think of a better Christmas gift to give them this year. It is so rewarding to take our eyes off of ourselves for a few weeks, to truly see someone who is struggling, hurting, lonely and hopeless. 

Would you consider hosting an orphan in your home, possibly this summer? Check out these websites for more information:

Project 143

New Horizons for Children, INC

Open Hearts and Homes

By Tracy Scoggins, group member

Adoption Day

Our family has been doing interim foster care for Bethany Christian Services since June, 2010.  Since then, we have had 9 children; 8 of whom were adopted, and one who was reunited with birth mom.
Our placements have ranged in age from 2 days old to 4 years old.  They have lived with us anywhere from 7 days to 7 weeks.
Interim foster care allows time for the birth mother to make a final decision as to whether she will place or parent her baby.  It also allows her time to choose an adoptive couple, if she hasn’t done so already.  Typically, the little ones in our care are newborns, and we keep them until the birth parents’ rights are legally terminated, and the baby is ready to go to its adoptive family. 

I don’t think we’ll ever forget our very first adoption day.  The adoptive couple had chosen not to meet or see pictures of Aaron, guarding their hearts for fear that the birth mother would change her mind and choose to parent at the last minute.  So, when I placed that 10 day old baby into his forever mom’s arms, it was equivalent to being in the labor and delivery room (yes, with some obvious differences!)  They were seeing their son for the very first time, and a new family was formed before our eyes.  To be a part of an event like that? There are just no words to describe it.  What an honor!!! 

 

We have since been a part of several more adoption days, and although no two are alike, they’ve all had one thing in common- TEARS. Not just from the adoptive parents but also from me. Tears, as I’m saying “see you later” to the precious child I’ve been having lots of 3a.m. parties with and have loved like my own. Tears, because what we are witnessing is so beautiful. It is a picture of God’s heart.  He sets the lonely in families (Psalm 68:6). Thank you, Jesus, for adopting ME!
And sometimes there are tears because the birth mom is there, and she is making a decision that is so painful and sacrificial, out of pure love for her baby. 

 

So, what is adoption day like from the perspective of an interim care family?
It is JOY.

By Tracy Scoggins, group member, interim care mom