"N" is for Nastya

Trevor's preschool class has a letter of the week. As part of this experience, they create a paper letter each week, with items glued to it that represent that letter. I've been hanging them up in his room and, like everything else, had gotten terribly behind. Today I decided to catch up.

I found myself hanging up the letter "N" and remembered that this was the letter of the week on the day that Nastya left to go back to the Ukraine. She has obviously been on my mind often since she left, and we pray as a family for her everyday. "N" is for "Nastya".

We were asked a couple of weeks ago if we would like to host her again this Summer...well, of course we would!! However, this Summer it will not be feasible for us for a variety of reasons. Instead, we are setting our sights on a Winter 2013 rehost and hoping that everything works out both here and in the Ukraine to make that happen. "N" is for "next time".

In the meantime, Nastya has been added to the most recent New Horizons photolisting and is available for Summer hosting. You can check out her picture and bio or those of many other kids here. "N" is for "no obligation" to take a look!

Maybe you would be interested in sharing your family with her this Summer? Or maybe you know someone who would? "N" is for "never say never"!

The other three kiddos from her school that were hosted along with her this winter are all being rehosted. It makes me incredibly sad to think that she will be the only one not returning. I would love for her to have another American experience, especially if it were with one of you! If you have any questions, please let me know. I'd be happy to talk to you about Nastya or about hosting in general. "N" is for "Nastya needs a family this Summer"...could it be you?

We talked to Nastya!!!

OK, so it's 12:40am right now...way past the time I should be asleep...but I can't sleep, because we got to talk to Nastya tonight!!!

Hello, Nastya? It's Mama and Papi!

Greg and I have been talking about trying to give her a call sometime, but hadn't taken the time to get Skype set up to do it. On Wednesday night I finally sat down to figure out everything we needed to do to attempt to call her school. We found out through another parent who hosted from Nastya's school that the kids don't have internet access or Skyping capability, but Skype still provides one of the more inexpensive ways to make international calls to a landline so this is what we set out to do. 


We had been told that calling between 11pm and 4am was the best window of time (while the kids are in class) so we kept ourselves busy for most of the evening with a careful eye on the clock. Our expectations were low. We had heard that many host families have had trouble getting through so we figured we wouldn't have any success (but you all know me...I just had to try anyway!)

Our first three attempts we got a busy signal, but on the fourth time it rang and was quickly answered. I was shocked. The lady on the other end said "hello" and I asked for Nastya by her full name. I got another "hello". Uh oh. This was going to be tough without speaking any Ukrainian. When I tried again, she said "Oh! Sure, sure, sure!" and we heard a bunch of commotion in the background. Next thing we knew we heard Andrey, the chaperone that had come here with Nastya, on the line. Hello Andrey...yahoo!! He told us to call back in 10 minutes and he'd go get her.

Nastya with Chaperone Andrey

When we called back, Andrey answered and put her on right away. We chatted with her for about 10 minutes. We knew the conversation would be mostly one-sided, but we wanted her to know we cared and missed her and were thinking about her. We asked her if her sisters and friends liked the gifts she brought back to them. To which she replied "Yes!" We also asked if she was taking good care of Grammy's stuffed panda bear that she took back with her and she said "Yes!" We shared a couple of jokes that we had from her visit and we all laughed. 

Grammy's Panda that now lives in Ukraine

We wrapped things up by telling her that it was late at night here and so instead of us telling her to go to sleep, it was her turn to tell Mama and Papi to go to sleep this time...ha! We told her we wanted to pray for her, so we did that, and then we told her Lyublu (I love you in Ukrainian) and she said it back to us. Pretty sweet!

It's strange to think that it has only been three weeks since she boarded the plane back to Ukraine. In some ways it seems like she just left and in others it seems like it was months ago that she was here. In any case, we are still so very thankful that God moved our hearts to take the leap of faith that allowed us to be her parents for four weeks. I went into the process thinking that we would be blessing her life and I believe we were, but our lives have been equally blessed. 

Host sibling love

If any of you are feeling a similar tugging at your hearts, please don't ignore it. I encourage you to head on over to New Horizons website and look at the newly posted photo listing of available kids for the upcoming Summer session at www.newhorizonforchildren.org. There is a short form to fill out to get access, but there is no obligation to host after that.

Just do it. Just go look. If you have been at all inspired by our adventures, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Don't let your laundry list of reasons why you can't host blot out all the reasons that you can. If we could do it, then so could any of you! Trust that God will provide a way for you to host if you are willing to let Him.
 

It was truly a gift to be Nastya's host family!