Save a Child works to find homes for Ukrainian orphans

The children arrive from Ukraine on a warm

October night, 31 orphans bundled in winter jackets. By the time they

finally get off the plane in Salt Lake City they have traveled for a

day and a half, and some of them have been too excited to sleep for

days before that.

Igor is the one in the blue parka, the boy who looks down at the

floor and doesn't smile. __IMAGE1__In the group photos taken at the airport — 31

orphans and 24 American families — Igor is the one who has his hand in

front of his face so no one can see he is crying. Behind him is Katie

Ross, who wishes she knew the Ukrainian for "everything is going to be

fine."

Or at any rate Katie hopes everything will be fine. She has not yet

realized that like any love story worth telling, this one will be

complicated.

The children have arrived courtesy of Utah-based Save A Child

Foundation and will stay in the homes of families in Utah, Idaho and

Colorado for 19 days. The program is billed as an educational

opportunity, a chance for Ukrainian orphans to experience America. The

families are called "hosts."

But there is also an unofficial subtext: the hope that the children

will find permanent homes here, if not with the hosts then perhaps with

another family. The children range in age from 6 to 15, which means

they're not likely to be adopted straight from the orphanages, because

most adoptive parents want babies. But it also means that they aren't

yet 16, which is the age when orphanages in Ukraine send them off to