Forever Families

You may remember this post where I shared with you what my friend Andrea over at Babe of My Heart had to say about the orphan crisis. Not everyone is called to adopt, but we can all do something!! Maybe you are a prayer warrior? Maybe you can host a child and then become their advocate? Maybe you can help others with the costs of their adoption? What are you going to do???


Many kids found their forever families this summer after being hosted with New Horizons for Children! Their parents are now diligently working to complete mountains of paperwork and actively fundraising. Today, I'd like to share three of these families with you.


First up is the Pierce Family. They hosted Borys from Ukraine.

 

Borys is alone and has been alone as long as he could remember. He has no known family. He’s been at the orphanage his entire life. And yet, he is incredibly resilient and sensitive. He is a God-fearing young man and is caring to animals, babies, and young children. He is a teenager, but he has the playful spirit of a little boy. He deeply wishes for a family, and the last time he came to America on the host program, he just loved anything that involved spending time with the host mom and dad.

Borys is of gypsy descent. In Eastern Europe, many people don’t look too kindly upon that. The color of his skin will greatly limit his opportunity in life. Borys is an orphan. In Eastern Europe, they label orphans and do not give them the same opportunity for education and career paths as other kids. With both of those factors working against him, He will struggle if he stays there… with no family to guide him into adulthood.

Then came the Pierce family. Mom Rawne writes:


We intended to just host and advocate for a child. It was set to be a missions project for our family. I wanted my children to skip summer camps and extra activities this year and minister to the needs of another child who had far less than they did. I wanted to feel compassion and realize that the world is bigger than their community.

We went back and forth on the child to host but settled on Borys because in his photolisting he was wearing his glasses upside down. That was the first indicator that he would fit in our family. We are very silly and always up for a good laugh. 

He was a very easy child. Our three y/o daughter grabbed his hand at the airport and walked him to the car. He was very protective of her instantly. The two of them perhaps formed the closest bond. That was to be expected as they have very similar personalities, sociable, silly, outgoing.

Borys won the hearts of everyone he met. He had the coolest little games to break the ice. When we went to the mall, he chose to spend his money on a carousel ride for the two of us. I could tell the operator was irritated by a teenage boy riding. But by the end of the ride, he had people waving at him every time he went by.

Half way through the hosting, I realized he was no longer a guest in our home but a family member. In other words, I had to decide if I was going to teach him to be a valuable family member or a guest who I could spoil rotten.

Borys with his new family!!!

Luckily for Borys, the Pierce family can't imagine their lives without him and will be bringing him home forever as soon as possible!! If you'd like to help them bring Borys home you can donate to their adoption funds at Project Eli by clicking here.

Next up we have Janis and the Rominger Family. The Rominger family heard about New Horizons for Children at church and decided to host Janis this summer.

Mom Tracey writes:

We fell in love with Janis before we even met him for the first time, face to face. I knew he was my son as soon as I saw his picture and read his profile on NHFC. My husband, Timmy, was being the rational one and really wanted us to complete the 5 weeks with him before we committed to all the fees associated with getting started with the adoption. So we waited and fell in love with him all over again when we met him at the airport on June 28th. He was instantly attached to my husband and I could see immediately he was ours and this time my husband was on board. We sent our application in for the home study agency and the adoption agency right away. We are currently finishing up our home study and it should be complete and finalized by the end of August. Since it happened so quick, we cleared out what little we had in our savings account to pay the $1600 home study fee, $250 application fee to the adoption agency and various amounts for the mounds of certified paperwork and passports we had to get this past month. We have nothing left, but yet we will not let this stop us from dragging this adoption out. He asked for us to bring him home, to be with us forever and we will do that and quickly. While Janis was here he opened up and told us about life in his orphanage-having few friends, getting bullied and beat up on many occasions. He is so shy and fearful of everything. The only place he was really himself and comfortable (after 2 weeks of hosting) was our house. His true self shined and we saw a funny, sweet, amazing teenage boy who just wanted praise and love. By the end of the 5 weeks he was literally begging for it by "getting hurt" so we would make a huge deal about it and hug him and worry over him and always yelling "look mama, look at what I can do". We were his constant cheerleaders and we saw his self esteem start to grow. Departure day came and at the airport we saw him go back into "orphan" mode. He was sullen, quiet and did not even look at us as we stood crying watching him go through security. I am hurting so bad imagining  him back at his orphanage with no one to praise and hug him, no one to kiss him goodnight, no one to protect him. I could see this sweet boy hardening himself for what he has to deal with on a daily basis. I want my baby boy home, so I can protect and love him daily. So you can see why I would love to have him home as soon as possible-he needs to be rescued. We are praying for a Christmas time reunion, but for that to happen the money needs to come quickly. We figured we need close to $20K just to be able to get to Latvia on our first trip to bring him home.

Janis with his new family:)

If you'd like to read more about Janis or to donate to their adoption funds you can check out their family blog called Love In Latvia.

Lastly, we have the McLaughlin family. Danny and April McLaughlin have prayerfully considered adoption for many years and have waited upon the Lord to bring the children that He wants for them. They have one 10 year old son, Coby, but they felt that their family wasn't complete.This summer they hosted two siblings named Lilya and Alex.



Mom April writes:

Lilya and Alex live in an orphanage in an Eastern Europe.  The orphanage that they live in is a very dark place and one of the worst orphanages many adopting families and mission groups have seen.  We have been lead to adopt these two precious kids and are working on our dossier right now to try and bring Lilya and Alex home as soon as possible.  We hope to travel by November.  Lilya and Alex practically begged us to come back and get them!  They are very sweet children with such a good heart and they want nothing more than a family.  They told a translator that they do not want gifts, they just want love. 

Lilya, Alex and their new family:)

To read more about the McLaughlin family or to help with their adoption costs please check out their page on Project Eli by clicking here.



Please consider helping these families bring their babies home!! It has been my pleasure to get to know them and watch their kids personalities unfold on our facebook page for hosting families. Let's get these four home for their first Christmas as a part of a family!!!