CULTURAL EXCHANGE PROGRAM OFFERS TRIAL RUN SUMMER MIRACLES PROGRAM GIVES FOREIGN BORN ORPHANS A CHANCE AT U.S. ADOPTION.

Byline: MARK KELLAM Valley News Writer

When you're adopting an older child, wouldn't it be ideal to have a trial period when you can make sure you and the child are a good fit?

That's what hosts in Kidsave's Summer Miracles program get to do. Orphans from other countries visit for six weeks. The hosts can then choose to adopt the children, or the children might meet other people who would like to adopt them at one of the many Kidsave events held throughout the six weeks.

The children are told they are on a summer cultural-enrichment visit and are not told there's potential for adoption, said Julia Leavitt, program assistant for Summer Miracles.

This summer, orphans from Colombia visited. Two of Kidsave's hosts live in the San Fernando Valley.

Dean Marks, 46, hosted 11-year-old Luis Fernando Valasco this summer. Marks has had a good experience with Kidsave in the past. Two years ago, he hosted a boy named John Freddy, then 13, for the summer and decided to adopt him.

Marks, who has been a copyright attorney for Warner Bros. for 17 years, said he decided he wanted to adopt a child when he was in his late 30s. He had made arrangements about nine years ago to adopt the baby of a young expectant mother who wanted to give up her child for adoption, but the arrangement didn't work out, Marks said.

So he put his adoption plans on hold for a few years -- until he heard about Kidsave.

Being single, Marks wanted to make sure he could juggle his demands at work with what's needed to raise a child. ``This gave me six weeks to see if I could balance work with fatherhood,'' he said. ``I thought, If I can't get my act together in six weeks, I should stop thinking about fatherhood altogether.''

He liked how flexible Kidsave was in hosting arrangements. Three days before John Freddy was to arrive, Marks had to go into the hospital for emergency gall-bladder surgery. Kidsave quickly lined up a back-up family with whom John Freddy stayed with for a week.

Kidsave is also important because it helps find homes for children who are difficult to adopt, Marks said. For babies and young children, their chances for adoption are good. ``But after a child reaches age 10, their chances plummet,'' Marks said.

When John Freddy was first adopted and came to live with Marks, he knew very little English and had not received a good education. Marks enrolled him in a Montessori school, where he's flourished.

Marks has a strong support system -- his parents and a brother and sister-in-law live in L.A. He also hired a caretaker to pick up John Freddy from school, help him with his homework and make him a snack every weekday afternoon.

Marks added, however, that his work schedule is flexible enough that he can leave to attend parent conferences and performances at John Freddy's school as well as attend his soccer games.

Craig Frankel had focused on his acting career for many years, but he reached a point in his life when he knew he wanted to adopt a child. When he heard about Kidsave from a friend, he knew it was something he wanted to try.

``(Adoption is) something I'd always thought about, but my career has always come first,'' he said. ``I'm at a point in my life where I'm ready to have a family.''

This summer, he hosted two brothers from Colombia, Jeisson Garcia Martinez, 11, and his brother, Edicsson, 10.

He decided to host two brothers because he knew the boys would not want to be split up. Frankel, 45, has a brother and understands the security that comes with having a sibling with you when you're young and visiting a strange place.

Both Marks and Frankel plan to adopt the boys who visited them this summer.

For those considering hosting a child for the summer, Frankel said the choice, for him, was simple. ````It will change your life and theirs forever, whether you choose to adopt or not,'' he said.

For more information about Kidsave, call [phone] or visit www.kidsave.org.

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(1 -- 2 -- color) Left: Dean Marks and his son, John Freddy, 15, greet Luis Fernando Valasco, 11, at the airport for the beginning of his six-week visit. Top: Craig Frankel hosted two brothers from Colombia this summer, Jeisson, left, and Edisson Garcia Martinez.