Host a child from Ukraine orphanage

Another family turned us on to Project 143, a charitable organization that works to provide kids in orphanages in Latvia and Ukraine (and now Ethiopia if I'm not mistaken, and/or Colombia) with chances to come here to the States and live with a host family during parts of their yearly offtime from school. The idea is to let them be a part of a family. There are of course other benefits, perhaps language, perhaps just friendships, the attention given them that they may not otherwise receive, sometimes dental and eye appointments are set up for them during the stay, etc. But the main idea is sort of a chance to not be another need in an orphanage, but an appreciated and active part in a family. 

The way this works is sort of similar to missionary work, a donation is made to the organization that is meant to cover visa arrangements and airfare and then the child is able to come over here and stay for the allotted period of time.  

I was reading the email sent out recently by Project 143 talking about four kids who have as of yet not been able to participate due to a lack of people willing to host. One of the boys is about our oldest's age and apparently would like to learn about construction, as he hopes to maybe go in to that field later. They also mentioned in his blurb that he would thrive in a family with boys. Max just happened to graduate from a construction college in Russia before moving here, and of course we have a bunch of boys (PLUS are hoping to build a small cabin-y house this summer.) It just seemed like an ideal fit, so we decided to just take that leap and go for it. Here is the snag - we do not have all of the $3000+ to donate to cover all the various arrangements and whatever airfare to Denver to meet him and then bring him back might cost ($1000-1500 +/ airmiles.) We have about $2000 covered, but are hoping to raise as much as possible to get closer to the total amount required.

Site: p143.org/faq