Hosting means...

Family pays travel expenses for child to visit the United States. The child lives in an orphanage but isn't necessary available for adoption.

They must be registered for adoption with the Ukrainian government for 14 months. They are available only for domestic adoption during this time frame.

After 14 months the child is now available for international adoption.

And many of the children in the orphanages will never be registered. Their paperwork isn't complete. Or they have family who visits them.

What has been happening in the last few months....

I listed the various Ukrainian hosting programs back in May 2006. I don't think the list has changed much since then. Frontier Horizon and U.S.-Russia Global Exchange normally get the best kudos when families start trading stories.

There are positive and negatives about hosting a child.

There was the Brouhaha on the Adoption_from_Ukraine Email List in October 2006 which involved hosting.

And there was the mess that was broadcast across FRUA in October 2006. Kim & Brad tried to adopt a 7 year old girl and 5 year old brother.

The 7 year old girl had been hosted by an American family. The AMERICAN family promised the girl that they would adopt her. The AMERICAN family didn't have an approved dossier. The family called the orphanage frequently.

When the AMERICAN family found out that Kim and Brad were referred to this child... The mom posted on FRUA and asked Kim and Brad to refuse the referral. She called the orphanage and told the 7 year old girl to refuse Kim and Brad.

Can you image placing this type of emotional burden on a 7 year old girl? And there is no telling when the AMERICAN family will have an approved dossier.

November 2006, a Ukrainian delegation from the SDAPRC was in the United States. Statements were made about hosting and hosting and hosting.

November 2006 there was a beautiful story about adopting a child who was hosted via Frontier Horizon.

Hosting programs were almost shutdown. Some government officials believe the hosting programs were trafficking children.

From: December 2006 blog

But the programs were allowed to continue.

December 2006....

And then Ukrainian politics started impacting adoption. The director of the SDAPRC and the director of international adoption were on the wrong side of the politics (their party isn't exactly in a strong position). They resigned.

Families are waiting to see if this changes how hosting/adoption is treated.