Orphan Hosting

One of the amazing things that Payton’s adoption agency does is orphan hosting. To do this, they arrange for a group of the older kids to stay with different families in the U.S. for about a month each summer.

This past summer, Payton participated in the hosting program and spent five weeks with a family in the midwest. The agency was so sweet that they actually put me in contact with the family that he stayed with. I got to hear first-hand about our son! In talking with his host mom, I was able to find out more about him and have an idea of what to expect as far as his language skills, emotional development and physical abilities.

The host mom had so many wonderful things to say about Payton. She said that he is so determined; he does not let his cerebral palsy hinder him from anything. For example, she said one night that they were eating out on the porch. There is a step or two to get down, and Payton wanted to carry a large pitcher out. The host mom was concerned that he would not be able to do it, and almost reached to stop him, but decided to let him try to see if he could do it on his own. Instead of letting his physical limitations stop him, he walked to that step, put the pitcher down carefully, held on tight and stepped right down. Then he picked the pitcher up and kept going. What a champ!

I was also told a story that made me chuckle. The host mom said that, for the first few days of Payton’s visit, her husband would stand outside the door of the shower- just to make sure that Payton did not need anything or lose his balance. After a few times, the host dad realized that Payton was fine on his own, so he decided that he wasn’t needed. Well, after some time, the parents heard their oldest daughter shrieking and the other kids cracking up. Payton had come out of the shower and was running around the upstairs stark-naked!

An additional thing that we learned about Payton is that he is so bright. When he first arrived to stay with the host family, they relied heavily on some sort of translator (an app or Google translator, for example), since Payton did not know English. By the end of five weeks, though, they found that they could almost entirely communicate with him through English words or “signing” what they were trying to say.

The family was so wonderful- they also had professional photos taken of our sweet boy. Here are a couple (in addition to the ones on his Reece’s Rainbow page):

 

We can’t wait to bring home our son. To find out more about Payton, please visit: http://reecesrainbow.org/66175/payton-2001