[another2]

We should be leaving in a couple of weeks on Trip 1 of our adoption of a 13 year old (we think) boy from Latvia. We hosted last Christmas and I cannot imagine adopting an older child -- at least if you already have children -- any other way. Maybe others are more brave, but we found it to be a great way to see what he was like and if he "fit" with our family. I would definitely try to do one of the longer hosting programs (4-5 weeks) and not one of the 10 day programs. The kids usually try to be on their best behavior and can "fake it" for a while, but after 2 1/2-3 weeks, anything serious usually does start to show.

After a lifetime of abuse, neglect and institutionalization, it would seem that the odds are probably much higher for running into all the scary issues -- but having adopted four infants and spent lots of time in therapy of various sorts, what we keep hearing from the therapists is that it is what happens during the first year of their life that is most important in what issues they have later. Since together ours have had RAD, sensory issues, severe rage and grief issues and were all adopted at 14 months and under, that seems to be true.

Anyway, after this adoption, we plan to adopt another older child -- although after the heartache we have gone through with Russia, probably from Latvia again. From what we saw during the hosting program and from friends that have already adopted older children from the hosting program, there are lots of wonderful older children in the orphanages with issues no worse than what you can end up with if you get an infant...