The Lighthouse Project
We have some friends who know we are planning to adopt and, thinking of us, they kindly stuck a newspaper ad in our Christmas card for The Russian Orphan Lighthouse Project.
This program takes school aged orphans (7-15 years old) and sends them on vacation to America for 10 days. They attend Vacation Bible School and do other fun things. They stay with a host family and get to experience some family life too.
The goal is not only for these kids to have a great time and wonderful experience, but also to be adopted into a family.
We are applying. Eep!
So we're sending in our application today, and if we are accepted, there will be a little guest in our home from March 23 to April 2, 2007. Hopefully everthing will go well, and after he goes home, we'll take steps to adopt him and bring him back to us.
How does this differ from a normal Russian adoption:
- In a normal international adoption, you get your homestudy, send your paperwork to whatever country, and then they match you with a child. The waiting for the match is the long wait part. It takes months or sometimes years to get a referral for a child. With the hosting program, you already know the child you are adopting, so that step is skipped, and you just have to wait for a court date to make the adoption official.
- You only have to travel once to Russia. In a typical Russian adoption, you go to Russia the first time to meet your child and accept the referral. Then you go home and wait for a court date (could be months) and go back to Russia for court and to bring your child home. Since we already have met our child, we only have to go on the second trip. This could save $3-4K in travel costs.
- You can really meet the child you are adopting. When you visit an orphanage in Russia, you may have only a few hours or days to play with your child and then decide whether you want to adopt or not. The Lighthouse Project is only 10 days, but there are other hosting programs that last 4-6 weeks, and your family can really see if this child will fit well with you.
- The children are older. Well, that's not really a difference, since you can adopt older children without doing a hosting program. However, after orphans get past toddler age, their chances of being adopted drop dramatically. This hosting program gives familes an option to 'try out' an older child adoption even if they were not previously considering it. (like us)
So, wow. When Brent looked at the ad and said he thought it was a cool idea, my head just started swimming. There is soooo much I want to do to prepare, and only three months before it happens. Not to mention the mini homestudy which we are so not ready for. Yikes.
I am pretty freaked out.
I also want to jump up and down from excitement.
And one more thing - speaking of adoption, everyone should go over to Three Sons and A Princess and congratulate Jennefer who is finally bringing her little princess home as I type! After two years it's finally happened for her! Yay!!!
This program takes school aged orphans (7-15 years old) and sends them on vacation to America for 10 days. They attend Vacation Bible School and do other fun things. They stay with a host family and get to experience some family life too.
The goal is not only for these kids to have a great time and wonderful experience, but also to be adopted into a family.
We are applying. Eep!
So we're sending in our application today, and if we are accepted, there will be a little guest in our home from March 23 to April 2, 2007. Hopefully everthing will go well, and after he goes home, we'll take steps to adopt him and bring him back to us.
How does this differ from a normal Russian adoption:
- In a normal international adoption, you get your homestudy, send your paperwork to whatever country, and then they match you with a child. The waiting for the match is the long wait part. It takes months or sometimes years to get a referral for a child. With the hosting program, you already know the child you are adopting, so that step is skipped, and you just have to wait for a court date to make the adoption official.
- You only have to travel once to Russia. In a typical Russian adoption, you go to Russia the first time to meet your child and accept the referral. Then you go home and wait for a court date (could be months) and go back to Russia for court and to bring your child home. Since we already have met our child, we only have to go on the second trip. This could save $3-4K in travel costs.
- You can really meet the child you are adopting. When you visit an orphanage in Russia, you may have only a few hours or days to play with your child and then decide whether you want to adopt or not. The Lighthouse Project is only 10 days, but there are other hosting programs that last 4-6 weeks, and your family can really see if this child will fit well with you.
- The children are older. Well, that's not really a difference, since you can adopt older children without doing a hosting program. However, after orphans get past toddler age, their chances of being adopted drop dramatically. This hosting program gives familes an option to 'try out' an older child adoption even if they were not previously considering it. (like us)
So, wow. When Brent looked at the ad and said he thought it was a cool idea, my head just started swimming. There is soooo much I want to do to prepare, and only three months before it happens. Not to mention the mini homestudy which we are so not ready for. Yikes.
I am pretty freaked out.
I also want to jump up and down from excitement.
And one more thing - speaking of adoption, everyone should go over to Three Sons and A Princess and congratulate Jennefer who is finally bringing her little princess home as I type! After two years it's finally happened for her! Yay!!!
Labels: Hosting
posted by Tracy at 5:42 AM
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