Newport Coast family looks to adopt Kyrgyzstani orphan

With the sun shining and the ocean only steps away, the haze of lazy summer days can make it easy to forget not everyone lives this way.

But a group of local kids got to meet someone who showed them how fortunate they are and made them want to help others like him.

His name is Andrey, a 9-year-old Kyrgyzstani orphan.

“We want to help the orphans and we want to help this kid, Andrey, get a new life,” said 11-year-old Allyson Lobel of Newport Coast.

“There’s kids out there that don’t have homes,” said Gabby Brutman, 11, of Newport Beach. “If you do stuff like this you can make that change.”

Allyson, Gabby and their friends sold lemonade and sweets Thursday on Balboa Peninsula to raise money to help give Andrey a new life with a Newport Coast family.

David and Tiffany Rosenblum want to adopt Andrey into their family of five after he spent two weeks with them over the summer. But, while they have the love and finances to care for him, the $49,000 orphanage and government fees are out of their reach.

Still, they aren’t giving up, and their friends are leading the effort to help cover the costs.

“We just fell in love with him,” said Tiffany, “and he is the sweetest little boy.”

The Rosenblums met Andrey through Nightlight Christian Adoptions, which brings orphans to the U.S. to stay with host families, but they almost didn’t volunteer after a previous adoption effort failed.

The disappointment was difficult on the family, and they weren’t ready to host again. They eventually came around, but weren’t considering adopting again after the last emotional roller coaster, David said.

Then they met Andrey.

“He just became a part of the family,” David said. “It was a very natural thing.”

The boy felt it too. The night before his departure, he was hysterically crying and confessing his love for the family. Letting the boy leave, especially knowing he goes back to “devastating conditions,” was gut-wrenching.

The Rosenblums have started the adoption process, but are at a standstill until they can come up with the adoption fees.

Knowing their friends, especially the kids, want to help is amazing, and the family wants to return the favor once they get Andrey by raising money for other families to adopt, Tiffany said.

“We hope that we’ll be successful, and already I feel extremely lucky to have friends around me pulling to help Andrey,” she said.

britney.barnes@latimes.com

Twitter: @britneyjbarnes

How To Help

Donate to the nonprofit Adopt Together to help the Rosenblums and other families at adopttogether.org/therosenblums.