Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Pass it on after reading

Please take a moment and pass on the link to this post - today!  You can help to unite a child with their mother and father with a simple Facebook link, Twitter tweet, or email forward.  Something small like that was what lead us to our boys.  We know the kids in the pictures below - ask us about them!  The letter and details follow below...

Friends, Colleagues and Clients,
Last year I sent you an email about a group of Ukrainian orphans that were coming to Utah in hopes of finding their “forever” families. They arrived last summer on July 18thand by the time they returned to their orphanage 21 days later 10 of the 11 kids who came had met families who were interested in adopting them, including three siblings who did not travel here!
Opportunity for More Miracles! – Kids Arriving in Late July!
We are bringing 15 more children from Ukraine to Utah this summer to find adoptive families on July 19. I am looking for volunteers to help with their visit. I am looking for potential adoptive families, host families, Russian translators and volunteers to help with their visit here in Utah.
If you know of a family who might be interested in adopting one of these kids, hosting one of these kids in their home, translating for these kids or volunteering during the visit, please forward this email to them TODAY and have them contact me via email (robjolley@msn.com) or call me at (801) 259-7034.
Better yet, please forward this email to your email contact list and Facebook friends. The more people who see this email the more likely that potential adoptive families will be contacted. Even if you don’t think one of your contacts would be interested, please send this email to them anyway. They may know someone who might be interested. You may be a link in the chain of a child finding a family!
More Details
We expect them to be arriving in Utah on July 19th and staying until the morning of August 12th.
Adoptive families do not need to live in Utah. Two of the families from last year were from other states.
The list of kids who will be traveling here includes children from the same Ukrainian orphanage as our daughter. Five boys and five girls, a brother and a sister, and two siblings groups whose youngest sibling is not old enough to travel: two sisters (older one is visiting), and two sisters with a little brother who is too young to travel. The ages of the kids traveling here range from 6 to 16. The majority are over twelve. Two files are attached which contains a list of the kids coming and their photos. The list also contains sibling groups who aren’t traveling but are also looking for families.
The Incentives for Action: Both Positive and Negative!
The benefit of this kind of hosting program is that the kids who are coming here have been hand-picked by our adoption facilitator in Ukraine and the orphanage directors as the children most likely to adapt and bond to an adoptive family. A prospective adoptive family gets to spend time with the child here in the US. in the comfort and convenience of their own home. All members of the family can participate in sharing their lives for a few days with their guest. Hosting a child is a unique way for a family to make an adoption decision!
While there is a wonderful cause for celebrating when a child finds their forever family, life continues to be a grim existence for most orphans. The statistics can remind us what can happen “when good people do nothing”. As I told you last year:
· Ukrainian orphans "graduate" from the orphanage system at the age of 16.

· Many of them, after they graduate, will become homeless and alone and lack the education necessary to provide for themselves.

· 10% commit suicide by their 18th birthday.

· 60% of the girls will end up in prostitution.

· 70% of the boys will enter a life of crime.

· Only 20% will find work.
· These are the kids that human traffickers target and exploit.
· Typically, after the age of 5, a Ukraine orphan only has a 20% chance of being adopted.
However, over 80% of the children who come to the U.S. on hosting programs like the one we did last summer meet families who adopt them!
As you can see from these statistics, the future of orphans is very bleak if they are not adopted. Please consider taking a few minutes to broadcast this opportunity to your network of friends! Just imagine the satisfaction you would feel to help a child meet their forever family!
But equally important, the families that adopt these children will have a life-changing impact upon their own lives as well. This has been the case for my wife, my family and me. We are so grateful that we found three of our children through similar hosting programs!
Thanks!
Rob Jolley

3 comments:

  1. I met and played with almost all of these kids. The pictures don't do them justice. You can't see their wonderful personalities, their strong work ethic, their talents, their joy, the love they share with everyone. They all contribute at the orphanage, they all have something wonderful to offer. Some of them have exceptional visible talents like dance, art, academics. Others are just brimming over with love and a joy for life that will someday be squelched without a family to give them a future.

    Thanks for posting this, Becky and Kevin!

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  2. Passing this along from my daughter who is visiting freinds and family in Ukraine.

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  3. I'm happy to hear this from you guys, hopefully there will people with a golden heart and who is willing to help the kids specially those people who has extra income and willing to help. Its better to give than to receive, this thought really inspires me and maybe soon that kids will be successful to their lives and be professional soon.

    St. George Utah events rocks!

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