Pros and Cons of Hosting Programs for Soviet Bloc Orphans

Check out the in-depth article in The New York Times, "A Taste of U.S. Family Life, but Adoption in Limbo," By Jane Gross (Jan. 13, 2007).

The article details the ever-changing face of adoption and chronicles a family who hosted a Ukrainian child this Christmas in hopes of adopting her.

Gross writes:

Conditions in [Russia and Ukraine] have grown so unsettled, some [adoption] agencies have suspended hosting programs, and the debate is growing about the ratio of risk to reward. Do the many success tories for older orphans make up for the heartbreak when adoption is thwarted?

Gross explains that the fee for the two-week hosting visits (organized by humanitarian organizations and adoption agencies) is $2,500 per child, which includes travel, bilungual escorts and a sizable donation back to the orphanages.

The article details several pros and cons of hosting programs:

• Even though there are no guarantees that the children who participate in hosting programs will get adopted by their host families, many of them do. A trip to the U.S. heightens a child's expectations of getting adopted, which could result in heightened disappointment should they not get adopted.
• The children feel as if they are "auditioning" for adoption.
• Children and their host families quickly grow attached to one another.

I'd love to hear from readers who have hosted a child through one of these programs.

• What program did you use and how was it set up?
• What was your experience like? The child's experience?
• Did you end up adopting the child you hosted? Why or why not?

Please submit your stories to the Comments area or e-mail me.

For more news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com, and check out my Exploring Adoption bookstore.

Comments

[Juan Valdez]

Some Cons:

badly behaving children who are on a vacation from authority. They arrive like little angels and then when all normal authority is gone, they turn into devils.
example: This year I hosted a child who refused to bathe for three weeks. smelled like a european kid.