And So They Wait

A group of volunteers spent several weeks earlier in the year and visited orphanages in Ukraine to interview and select children for this summer host program. They covered most of the geographic area of Ukraine, which in size is comparable to Texas, having endured record-setting low temperatures, physically and emotionally demanding travel and got to see the children in person, talk to them, love on them and see their living conditions for themselves. I am sure that to most of these women the trip was life changing.

The facilitator had to go to each orphanage’s director and ask for their cooperation and permission to allow them to interview the kids, get their information (which is generally not easily shared) and then get their commitment to help with the documents and the trip preparation if the children are selected. None of that is on the list of any of the director’s job duties and these tasks often add to already stressful job. Yet they agreed. And although the children are never promised a trip to America, instinctively they know what’s up. They’ve seen some of their friends being adopted, they see this group of Americans come and talk to them and take their picture, and these children, having wished and prayed for a family of their own for get their hopes up. May be THIS time it will be them selected. Maybe they will be the ones to get to spend a month in America. Maybe they will end up being in a nice home, with a nice and loving mom and dad and maybe they will be the ones to be adopted, just like some of their friends were a while back. The older ones are not as hopeful though. Some of them have already gone through similar hosting selection interviews, maybe even more then once. They already waited and hoped last year, and the year before that, and maybe they even saw some of their friends selected to go… but not them. And did they wonder why they were not the ones picked? Were they too old? Or should they had smiled when a stranger took their photo? Or maybe they were not good enough? Not deserving enough for a family of their own, even if for a month?

 And so they wait. For another chance. Another hope. Lucky ones will get picked. The undeserving ones will be left behind.