Help Needed!

Ok. So I know many of my readers are local... and I need your help.

There are 12 Latvian orphans arriving at Akron/Canton on December 11th. Along with them will be a Latvian chaperone. Her name is Sandra and she's in her early 50's. I'm still waiting to find out if she speaks English.

We, the other host families and us, are looking for places for her to stay. Before you immediately say "no"... here's a little more info for you...

1. She does not have to stay with one family for the entire 4 weeks. If you can open your home for just one week, that would be AWESOME!

2. There is no fee to host a chaperone. They get a small weekly(?) stipend while they're here. I will note however, that there is some financial involvement as you'll be feeding them, letting them do their laundry, etc.. Also, if your family goes out to eat or to see a movie or something, it would be appropriate for you to pay for the chaperone as well.

3. You will not be completely responsible for her entertainment during her sojourn with you. As host families,  as long as we're within a reasonable driving distance we're to spend time with her as well.

4. I know you're thinking "What would I do with her??!!"  I'm SO GLAD YOU ASKED! :-)
Go look at Christmas lights,  see The Nutcracker, attend your church's Christmas Cantata, share in your family Christmas traditions, learn to cook a traditional Latvian meal, go to a museum, plan family movie night, take her Christmas shopping with you, have a family game night, string popcorn for your tree, take her to a MOPS meeting, attend a Christmas Eve service at church, go caroling... maybe she can teach YOU something!

5. If not you, do you know of someone who might be interested? Someone at church perhaps, or a neighbor, an in-law or a friend?  Help me spread the word.  Give them the link to my blog, or send them directly to the New Horizons website www.newhorizonsforchildren.org.

If you (or someone you know) is interested, please fill out this pre-application:
pre-application
and you'll be contacted by someone with New Horizons.

Thanks for praying about and considering this. You could be a HUGE blessing to someone far away from home and family.

PS... I still don't know if the chaperone speaks any English, but here's a little more about her (as copied from the NHFC website):


Sandra has been an orphanage director for 15 years. She has a Master's degree in Pedagogy which is like a Master's in Education in the USA. She is married with 3 grown sons: ages 20, 22 and 24. She likes to read books, knit, and participate in Latvian National Dance and travel whenever possible. She is not afraid of new situations and can't wait to go to the USA with kids! This is a welcome chance for her! In the USA she would like to see nature and wants to discover what she has heard about US citizens who openly offer friendship and hospitality!

Thanksgiving

Thankgiving is a time for many things... good food, good friends, good family, good fellowship... great memories, and a time to really think about and be grateful for all the many blessings we have.

I know that our version of Thanksgiving is rooted in our national history, but I wonder if other countries have their own version of the holiday?  If Mareks (or Vladik) were celebrating Thanksgiving in their orphanages today, I wonder if they would have anything for which to be thankful?

Good food.....?
Good friends...?
Good family....?
Good fellowship....?
Great memories.....?
An overabundance of blessings.....?

We have so much more than we know... so much more than we understand.

This Thanksgiving, as you overindulge in food and football, please take a moment to think about and pray for the 150+ orphans who will be coming to the US for Christmas. The Latvian kids come in just a couple of weeks with the ones from Ukraine arriving a few days later.  This is an opportunity of a lifetime for them-- and for the host families. For some kids, this is their last chance to find a forever family as they will soon "age out".  For others, they're already past the age they can be adopted. Many are coming to America for the first time. For most, this is the farthest they've ever been from home. Separated from their friends, familiar surroundings, unable to communicate easily; plopped down in a culture and society they don't know or understand.

Pray for the host families- both 1st timers and veterans. Pray for patience, understanding, and love.

Pray for the eyes of others to be opened. Pray for hearts to be burdened and lives to be changed.

A new adventure...

It's been 3 months to the day since my last post and I wasn't expecting to pick this blog back up until next summer.
We really weren't planning on rehosting until summer.

Like most other families, we have a busy, busy Christmas season. Lots going on. Commitments to honor, schedules to keep, places to go, people to see.
We didn't really want an added responsibility... something else on our plate.
Or so we thought.

I'd been monitoring the photo listing of the kids available for hosting since it was released. I'd picked my "favorites" and kept checking to see if they'd been chosen.  We really weren't planning on hosting over Christmas... HONEST. I was just watching and praying for the ones I was keeping my eye on.

No, we weren't planning on rehosting quite this soon, but the Lord knew better.
And once we felt the nudge, well, we could think of a million good reasons to host, and not one good reason to not host.

So, we are expecting 16 year old Mareks in early December.
Mareks is from Latvia, speaks some English, (YAY!).... and that's about all we know at this point.

There's a bigger age difference between Mareks and Joe and Kyle than what we had with Vladik, and to be honest, I'm not sure how that will all work out.
The fact that he speaks some English is HUGE!  I can't even tell you how much easier it's going to make things. Also, for whatever reason (maybe his age?), Mareks is not available for adoption. So that decision has been taken completely out of our hands.

I'm excited for this new experience.
As with Vladik, my prayer is that Mareks see the love of family and feel the love of Christ while he's here.

Speaking of Vladik, at this point, he's not been hosted yet. The deadline for Ukrainian children is fast approaching and he is one of a few with sizeable scholarships.  Please join me in praying for a host family for him.

I'm sure you're wondering why we didn't just rehost Vladik?
There are many reasons, but the two big ones are:
First, Vladik is not the one to which we were led.
Second, I didn't want to remove him from the "available" list and take away his chance of finding his forever family.

I don't know that I'll be as faithful with my blogging as I was during Vladik's stay, but I'll do my best.
Please pray for us as we prepare our home and our hearts for Mareks' arrival. Pray that this will be a fantastic experience for him and that above all else, he see Jesus in me.