Desparate times need desparate measures.

So here I am. 10 days until our host kids arrive and it hits me like a ton of bricks that Bogdon is not only NOT coming for hosting, but I have also NOT found his forever family yet. He would have come but his region in Ukraine refused to let any children come for winter hosting. So now it's even harder to find his family because he isn't here to show everyone how amazing he is.

I got another email from him this morning. We have a family at his orphanage adopting his 16 year old friend and we are sending little messages back and forth until I get a translator to help me call his cell phone. The email was again very simple but makes me cry non the less. A quick "hello, I miss you, please tell me how you are doing."

I called my friend Cara from Angel's Haven who is the middle woman for the messages. She helped found our hosting program and does all our adoptions. I feel like Google Translate is not correcting translating all he is saying to me so I told her I feel like I am missing something. Cara thinks that he is just trying to stay connected, even if it is just a simple little hello.. :,(

I shared a little story with her and thought it was something that would be good to share with everyone to show the kind of boy he is. Again, everyone who has met this child has been blown away by him. He is just so very special.

When I was in Ukraine the orphanage let me take him and his friend out for the evening. We got in the car and Bogdon said he wanted to go to Yalta so I could see it. This was a nice 1 hour drive over mountains and it was a beautiful and unique place that I was so happy to see. It was a waterfront wharf with shops, unique people, and an amazing restaurant that was a ship above water.

 

We ate and talked and had an amazing time together. As we were walking back in the dark to the car and enjoying all the amazing things going on around us, my translator got a call from the orphanage director and told us to rush back, that the police were there and they were coming back to do a bed count.

We all start to freak out and have no idea what is going on. My first though is someone was mad that the kids came with us and turned us in to the police. We had permission so not sure what was going on except to rush back. We had a total of 1.5 hours to get back before the police showed up.

We then get another call from the director instructing us to get other kids that were in the area. We were given the address and told to go get them and rush back. We have 5 of us and have no idea who we are picking up and no room in the small car we were in. All I am thinking about is a 15 year old kid on my lap in a small car, over a mountain, for over an hour. Yay! UGH!

We are not given ages or why the kids were there, just that they came over on a bus. We are thinking these kids snuck out and are parting in Yalta but not sure how the orphanage director knew where they were. We have no idea what we are getting ourselves into. Bogdon is freaking out on us. He is mad because he wants nothing to do with these kids and why do we have to do this. He says the kids are bad, he is not, and he will not look like he is a part of it. My translator is laughing at him and saying he acts like a little old man. That sounds bad but she was saying it in a cute way, that he is so worried and complaining and complaining about getting in trouble. I mean he was literally sick to his stomach about getting in trouble.

My translator and travel buddy went up the stairs of this run down apartment building while I sat outside with the kids. By this time I was really freaking out because I was just sick out about what  they were about to walk into. By this time Bogdon is by himself pacing the yard and just so upset because he didn't want anything to do with this. His friend kept looking at me saying "bad kids" as she shook her head. I am thinking OMG, they must be doing drugs for these two to be acting so scared..

I must add also that the translator will not go against the director who is telling us to get these kids. I am assuming at this point that she is not worried about the kids we have, the cops are coming for the kids that are missing. Well turns out they were 8 and 10 year old girls who ran away from the orphanage and this was their aunts house. The heard we were coming so left. We had to just go back without them. The police were called about the girls. All that worry for nothing. We rushed home and got there right before the police arrived, thank God. Not sure how we did it.

Just wanted to show how Bogdon is such a good kid. He does not like trouble, drugs, smoking, or anything like that. We were told he is the alien of the orphanage and such a mentor. Top of the class, has the best grades in the school, and just a very cool kid. Love him! We were just so impressed how hard he tried to be so good.

So my dilemma about finding him a family is now turned to desperate measure as the headline states. Bogdon ages out of his orphanage in March. His director will let him stay until he graduates in June.  I am willing to help an amazing family fundraise for his adoption. I got a note the Cara from Angel's Haven will also help fundraise for the adoption. We have until March to have a famiy submit to imigration. As long as it happens before he is 16 the adoption can happen even though he is 16. Cara has just done a couple adoptions for children over 16 from our hosting program and it is such a blessing. Families and children are thrilled. Such a blessing. To get more information about adoption in Ukraine, please contact Cara at www.angelshaven.org.

If you would like to help us raise money for Bogdon's adoption, please email me at GuglielmosHope@gmail.com or go to www.heartforhosting.org and hit the donate button.

I am also getting ready to fundraise for a safe house in Ukraine. This will be a place for amazing kids to live who age out of the orphanage. They will have a safe place to live as they go to school.  Please look for posts for this major fundraise in January. I hope to make the purchase in March when my hubby and I go to Ukraine for the summer hosting preparation. Again, to donate to theGuglielmo's Hope Safe House fundraiser, please email me or send a check to Ginger Guglielmo, 1480 E. Main Ave.,, Morgan Hill, CA 95037.