Well, Natasha is back to Ukraine and we’ve had time to
reflect on our experience. Our goal in
hosting was to bring a child here for Christmas to provide them the experience
of life in a family and offer them some hope. We had said from the beginning
that our primary goal was to connect that child with a potential forever
family. We were open to that family being
us, but truthfully the logistics right now would have made that difficult
(finances + travel with 3 small children + foster child in school). So we kept the door open, but said in an
ideal world we would be the conduit for Natasha to meet a family who was right
for her.
We did the best we could to introduce Natasha to potential
families, but being the first time we’d done this, we weren’t quite sure what
we were doing. When we were about 3 days
away from her return I became incredibly stressed wondering what was going to
happen. And then something amazing
did. Our friend Clio Bushland told me
that she was really drawn to Natasha and were contemplating if she would be a good
fit with their family! It truly is
amazing how things work out.
So Natasha will be returning to spend the summer with
Clio. We will still get to see her, but
I think Clio’s family will be a much better fit than ours. Natasha did well here, but she’s definitely
more of a city child than country, and I think would prefer not having
preschool age children begging for her attention all day. She kept talking about how much she loved to
dance so Clio already has found a dance studio for her to attend! It’ll also be nice for her to have a chance
to be the oldest child, I think she’ll really have a chance to shine.
We were able to meet up with Clio’s family one last time
before Natasha left and on the way to meet them I told her they’d be hosting
her for the summer. They helped us pick
out some new shoes and a backpack for her return. It was wonderful to be able to pack knowing
that she was returning and that we would still see her.
We will be hosting a different child for the summer – more on
that to come!
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