Hosting, A View From The Start

So a few weeks ago I had a fellow volunteer of P143 and host mother reach out asking if I would share our story of hosting.  "Your heart", is what she asked to know more about out, as well as the why.  One of these is far easier to explain than the other.

When we hear of a child without a family, one without a safe place, a group of people championing a love, consistency and connection based relationship and WE have the opportunity to be that for them, to show them Christs love, we shouldn't need a why.  Jesus gave us the answer to why all those years ago, and His answer and our answer will always be the same, Love.

Exploring God

This story that goes back to our College days and meeting a fella, Samuel, through my roommate Amy.  Twelve years later God would lead us back to Sam and his family and their story of orphan hosting.  While moving in my heart nearly 2 years prior for the orphaned child and continuing to neglect and push aside this call from God, God never stopped pursuing me as He knew that there was a child who needed our YES instead of our WHY.  After reading briefly about orphan hosting and following up with a phone call to Sam's wife regarding their hosting, I found myself researching all I could about Project One Forty Three (P143) and orphan hosting.

After so much prayer, and fear being trampled by courage our family knew that God had us in mind for orphan hosting.

October 2015 is when it all began, the prayer, paperwork and fundraising it would take to bring a child from across the world into your home is never ending.  While the paperwork and fundraising comes and goes the need for prayer is constant.  We had no idea how our lives would change on that December day when we would finally meet our host son.  It was another moment that the "why" was so evident and God would bind our hearts for one another with the smile of a terrified 10 year old boy finding an over excited and tear faced couple smiling back.

This child.  Prior to arrivals we prayed over which Country to host from as there were three options at the time we began researching.  After meeting with our coordinator we soon found out that two of the three countries deadlines had already passed.  Leaving Ukraine as our only option.  Being honest here, I'm not even sure if I had ever heard of, and know for sure I had never given ANY thought to Ukraine prior to these days.  God at work.

1st Hosting

 Days would pass and we continued to look through a photo listing of children eligible to travel and be hosted.  With tears down our face as we scroll through photo after photo we could not find peace in choosing one specific child.  After praying and meeting with our pastor we narrowed down our age range/gender to a pre-teen/younger boy.  There were 2 left.  We reached out to the coordinator about the two remaining and she informed us that one of the two had already been placed on hold by another family.  There was one child left.  A126 - the number attached to a child with a name, with a story and with a hope that he would be chosen by a family.  Literally a week before the photo listing was closed and only days remaining for paperwork and financial agreements to be turned in God chose the child for us that we would have never been able to choose on our own.  God at work.

We are 5 years in now.  We are who he calls when he needs help on homework - English of course, when he breaks his arm - TWO different times, with girl trouble - whom we advised about in the first place, but who listens to adults these days anyway?  We are also who he writes "I love you" to, who he can count on to say I love you too.  We're who he called when his legal guardian of 9 years, and grandfather passed away suddenly.  He's who I flew across the world to see just so I could hug him and remind him that he is still loved despite his GREAT loss.  We are Mom, Dad, Brothers and Sister.  We are his family and he is ours and we are seeking God's will and guidance as we navigate a hopeful adoption. Something we never anticipated when we began this journey. God at work.

8th Hosting

Orphan hosting, it's a beautiful mess... heavy on the mess most days yet God beautifully and perfectly creates masterpieces from such messiness.   It's a YES that will forever change a child's life.  It connects them with family, with people who let God take care of the whys and focus on His answer on the cross, Love. God at work.

I'm not sure many know, but we were his 3rd host family.  He had been with one family for two host seasons and with another for one.   Up until his arrival at the airport in Ukraine to fly to Texas that very first time he thought he was headed to Florida.  It's where he was hosted the summer before us.  My first thought, and likely yours is "That seems hard" or "Unfair" and I agree.  This boy of ours has had to walk through some pretty hard and unfair things prior to walking into our arms.  Life has since been hard and unfair, meeting us didn't change any of those things for him, what it did change was that he had a family to go along side him as he walked through these things.  He now has hope.  He now has faith.  He now has family.  He knows love, and love knows him. God at work.

Summer hosting is coming and there are So. Many. Children waiting on a YES, a yes from someone who sees the cross before they see the child.  I understand that not everyone can host.  It's logistically impossible for some, but we can ALL play a part.  We can all pray for those on the photo listing.  If hosting is something you can do and you are willing to look to the cross and past the whys and the daunting how's, God will connect you with a child.  Not to sugar coat any part of the process, and certainly not to sugar coat the actual hosting, I will say with truth and experience that it is HARD and sometimes these children come with more than we can handle.  Sometimes we host and never host again, and that is not a sign of defeat.  God is who He says he is in the hard, the easy and in what I believe to be the most lived in, the uncertain.  It's the place where we just aren't sure what's coming next or if what we have done or are doing matters.  Any and everything done for God's glory matters and shines light and points the world to Him who then leads us to eternity and Y'all, that is GOD AT WORK!

Pray how God will use you this coming hosting season.  Will you be a prayer warrior?  Will you go alongside a family and be their encouragement?  Will you financially donate to someone you know who's hosting or to P143 so that grants can be used to lessen the financial costs to a family waiting with a YES?  Will you be the one who says YES to a child?  I encourage  you to look over the photo listing as you pray.  Let God move in you in the direction He desires you most.  You can visit www.p143.org to view the photo listing - once the summer listing is active.  In the mean time share this, pray over the waiting children - the millions of children both here and across the world waiting on a family!  The need is all the same - love.