Hosting to adopt Ukrainian Orphans

To those of you who may not know us, we are Aaron and Valentyna Dinwiddie. Before we married 9 years ago, we told each other we wanted to someday adopt from Valya's (Short for Valentyna) home country of Ukraine. Life got busy and we forgot about that promise, until recently. Aaron looked up adoption and found something we had never heard of, hosting orphans. Hosting for those that don't know is an opportunity for orphans to come to america for 4-9 weeks, and see life outside of their meager conditions. 

Because these nonprofits that do this are NOT adoption agencies, their mission is clear. Give a child an opportunity to be loved, and spark some hope for a better life. And expose Americans to the plight of thousands of children that go ignored and unnoticed. 

BUT these exchanges often end up in adoption, and we were excited about the idea of matching with a kid (or two) and seeing if that would be our end result too. (we are cautiously optimistic)

In all honesty, the first thought that crossed our minds is, this is crazy! The timing is off, we are trying to build both of our business, still establishing life in a new state (moved from Oregon to North Carolina 2 and 1/2 years ago) away from family. But the thought would not go away. So we reached out to Frontier Horizon. 

Dr. Vincent Rosini (the founder of Frontier Horizon)was very patient and more then happy to tell us about the work that he started years ago.  Click here to read more about him and the program. https://www.frontierhorizon.org/ 

We started looking at children in the gallery and asked some questions about some of the children. Then a new girl popped up in the gallery and we asked about her. Vlada, age 14.

When we saw her our hearts melted. We went to Frontier Horizon's Facebook page and saw this video with her brother Vanya (age 13).
https://www.facebook.com/2019FH/videos/561793300987337/

Valya and I instantly knew we had to do this.

The cost per child to Host is $3200 ($6400 total)
We have a home study to complete $1700
Application Fee: $150
The kids travel from JFK to CLT: $400
Total: $8650

The cost per child covers the costs to secure a passport, visa costs, translation of documents, in-country transport to visa interviews (if required), in-country transport from orphanage to airport, airline tickets to the US, medical insurance while on the host program, and a portion of the traveling chaperones expenses.

There is no government support for this, and Frontier Horizon is a non-profit that survives off of donations and is often saddled with recovering situations (like families backing out, or emergencies) 

That means we have to raise the funds and this doesn't include the cost of caring for the kids over the summer, which we are saving for. 
We have already started the process and put down some of our money.  We are supposed to have the full amount in by April 15th! 

Because Frontier Horizon is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, all donations over $250 will be receipted and all contributions are tax deductible. If you want that receipt, please send us the check made out to "Frontier Horizon" and put "Dinwiddies - Vlada & Vanya" in the memo line.

You can send checks to
Aaron & Valya Dinwiddie
2715 Cloven Pl
Charlotte, NC 28273

Any donations smaller than that, or if you don't care about the receipt can be made here on this site. 

Please, PLEASE help us make this happen. We found out that Vlada and Vanya were abandoned by family a few years ago. (2015?) We are still getting details about them, but there is no family left in the picture. Without a family like us, these kids have little hope of launching a successful life. 
They also happen to be from the same region of Ukraine that Valya is from!

We cannot do it without your support, and if this is family addition is meant to be, than this will only be the beginning of our journey. 

We will post updates and share in our story at
https://fb.me/lovenotsoforeign

Thank you for helping us change Vlada and Vanya's life!