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Hi, everyone!
I haven't been around lately because my husband and I have been incredibly, happily busy with our summer guest from Ukraine! 
We are participating in a summer hosting program for orphans. Our visitor is 13 years old and is such a sweet, loving girl. (As I say that, she is downstairs whooping over a game she's playing on my cell phone. I had to giggle. 
)
My husband and I have been praying for her since October of last year, and now we have been incredibly blessed to have her in our home. We knew we would want to adopt her even before she arrived, and that's exactly what we hope to do! We would like to start the paperwork this summer.
We hope you'll visit our blog to follow along on our journey: http://hoffmannclan.blogspot.com. We love this dear girl! 
Big bear hugs,
Debora
P.S. I apologize if I am slow at answering e-mails or messages; I've been a little busy with a sweet little girl who loves having a mama and papa. 
Past Time BearsYou and hubby are special people, Debora, to welcome her into your home permanently. I wish you much success in the adoption process.
BruinwerksI pray everything goes smoothly for you! How exciting!
:hug:
Cheryl
Dances With Teddy BearsDebora
This is the warmest, most loving news I've heard in quite some time.
You are indeed very special, wonderful, people.
God bless.
Laura
You and Garth are a wonderful couple Debora and I wish you the very best with the
adoption process.
May you be united as a family, because you so deserve to be altogether.
Love & hugs
Carolyn
:hug: :hug:
Dolls N DreamsThat is wonderful news, I wish you all the best!!!
What an exciting and wonderful experience..and what a good family she is going to have. Teenagers often get overlooked in the adoption process yet are thoroughly deserving of stable and loving homes.
Good luck and congratulations!!
Good luck ............I'm sure it will work out for the 3 of you :pray: :pray: :pray:
Doodlebears:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
Debora what a lovely and beautiful thing you and your husband are doing for this young girl. She is so lucky to have found such wonderful and caring peole to adopt her. I agree with Jenny, often teenagers do get overlooked in the adoption process and end up on their own once they reach eighteen, which is so sad, every child deserves a good home and loving parents. Good luck to all of you and I hope the adoption goes smoothly.
Hugs, Jane. 
Laurie Lou BearsShe is a very lucky girl to have found you and I wish you all the best in the future.
Laurie :hug:
MerBear OriginalsMy husband and I got involved in a hosting program bringing kids to Canada for 6 - 8 wks from Belarus about 16 years ago. Every summer Viktor would come stay with us from when he was 10 to age 18. He became a very important part of our family and we're still in touch with him although more sporadically now. Our area has a group called Canadian Aid for Chernobyl which sends over container loads of soap, vitamins, clothing, food, etc etc for seniors and orphans in the Chousy region of Belarus. There are still many kids brought over every summer and usually 5 or 6 stay to go to collage or university, all paid for by their host families. Actually my son was dating a lovely Belarusian girl who just finished nursing collage and is hoping to bring over her younger sister. We enjoyed having Viktor with us so much and would have gladly kept him but fortunately he did have a loving family in Soligorsk and the stuff we were able to send back with him each year greatly helped them. We would have a family reunion each year and everyone would bring some item or other for him: vitamins, bandaids, aspirin, etc etc. and I would sew a couple of hundred dollars into his pocket for his Mom. I still have so many things that his Mom sent me, especially the dolls and some china. Such nice people and the kids were so polite.
I hope all works out well for you and hopefully your new daughter.
Marion
Thank you all so much for your kind words and your encouragement. 
Marion, yours is such a wonderful story--Viktor is blessed to know you!
I would like to point you all to a video made by a friend that shows what the situation in Ukraine (and many other countries) is like for orphans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reTJ_28J … gspot.com/. It touched my heart deeply to learn the grim realities these children face, like the possibility of graduating from the orphanage at 16 years of age with no family and likely no future. My heart breaks for them. 
And yet, we can pray, and we can become advocates for them, and we can love them. Thank you for joining us in our journey; I hope you enjoy the blog and will be able to rejoice with us when Elaine comes home for good!
Bear hugs, :hug:
Debora
MerBear OriginalsHere is the site for our group: http://www.canadianaidforchernobyl.com for more information as well. When these kids do leave the orphanage at 15 or 16 they are pretty much left on their own. Many end up on the streets and in jail so need all our help. More and more medical problems are cropping up in the children because of the contamination from the Chernobyl disaster and little is available. If you have respite programs in your area I would urge you to look into them. 6 weeks in a clean environment makes the world of difference for these kids - maybe even saves their life!
Marion
Thank you, Marion--I'll check out the Web site!
