[Mihoshi]

My friend is very curious about this aspect of adoption but doesn't have a pc to do the research. I'm refering to hosting a child for several weeks in the US in your own home - I've seen at least one agency that does this locally.

Would doing this eliminate the need for the 1st trip to Russia in an adoption process?

[Abdulina]

4 of our children are from hosting programs and we only had to do one trip. HOWEVER, they are now changing the rules and even those that host are having to make two trips as well. Anyone hear differently on this? The adoptions that we hosted from took place in '99 and '04. Good luck but I believe it will now have to be two trips no matter what.

Best wishes,

[Jim_in_PA]

Hosting was wonderful for us. Stephanie is correct, however, that most regions are now still requiring two trips to complete adoption, even when hosting is involved. This is to stick more closely to the "letter of the law" whereby hosting is supposed to be a vacation, not an adoption preview...while still letting you have the opportunity to get to know the child or children for a prolonged period of time. We were fortunate with only having to do one trip last November. I'm not sure of the status of our region, because all hosting programs were canceled at the last minute this summer by an official new to the job who was, umm...."strongly encouraged"...by another official to disallow the travel. Apparently, there was too much fear of losing a job, so they went along with the cancellation.

[LauraN]

Hosting was great for us also. We would not have been comfortable adopting two older boys (when we had three girls at home) without having had any significant amount of time to spend with them. It also is great for the kids. Our 12 year old was apprehensive about being adopted when he heard the rumors about americans using kids for body parts and other such awful things. He would not have said yes in court had he not spent a month with us.

The drawback is that many regions have decided that hosting is not a good idea for whatever reason. I know that there are no hosting programs this year from our region. We also ended up doing two trips and have only been home with our boys for two months. The process was much longer than we originally expected. Even with all of the stress and heartache that we went through over the past year waiting to bring our boys home, I would do it over again in a heartbeat to have these two great kids as my sons.

If your friend is looking to adopt an older child, this is a great way to discover if the child fits in well with your family. The key is to find a program in an adoption friendly region, and hope the program continues.

[mjkkbbr]

My agency did a reverse hosting this summer. They held a camp in Ivanovo region with kids from many different children's homes and interested US families stayed with them in the region. I do believe that it counted as trip #1 but I am not positive.

[SingleMama2B]

Good Morning... I have to jump in here too.... I hosted my Darling Daughter (DD) the summer of 2004. When she came, she was 7 3/4 years old. It was the Best and Hardest experience of my life!! Best when she was with me, and the Hardest when I took her back to the Airport

This allowed me the time with her, to slightly get to know her (alittle), to feel my own emotions, etc. I am a single adoptive MaMa, and honestly knew 2 minutes after meeting her (at the airport), that this WAS my Daughter!!!

At my time (Dec 23rd 2004 court date), I was only required to do one trip.... my 10 day waiting period was NOT waived, and ended during Russia's 10+ days of national Holidays. I did come home, and then traveled back to process my DD out of the country. I have to say.... This was NOT bad. It gave me time to continue to physically and EMOTIONALLY get prepared (between trips) for bringing my DD home. The anxiety and stress of the WEEK in Russia, "officially" visiting the orphanage, doctor's visits, document processing, court appearence, etc. was exhausting. When I came home, I was able to decompress, process everything, and then go back in 16 days... The second trip, I was able to ENJOY!!! Sure, you still have document processing, Embassy interview/visit, etc., but COURT was over, and I had my DD with ME!!!

True, that the rules/laws are ever changing, but I can tell you from the BOTTOM of my HEART..... EVERYTHING IS SOOOOO WORTH IT!!! In my case with 2 trips, I was able to save alot of $$$ on the second trip, as I had 14+ days notice, and ended up costing me a 1/4 of my first trip (airline ticket!!!).

Blessings to you and your friend....

[lippylulu]

Wow thats a neat idea about reverse hosting!!! What a great way to meet the kids in a more natural environment for them minus the travel exhaustion and stress!

We adopted an older child. We did not host her, but we did meet a dozen host children on our flight home from Russia. In fact, we spent more hours on the flight with a couple of those kids than we did meeting our daughter on trip #1. If we are to adopt again, I will strongly consider hosting. These days it does not eliminate the need for 2 trips, but it still seems like a wonderful way to get a referral of an older child, and if the child doesn't fit right for your family, they are often matched with another family.

One thing to be careful about is to make sure the host child is legally available for adoption as I have heard stories where this was not the case. Also, its important to know if there are siblings who you would also have to adopt in order to adopt your host child.