A question that is often asked to
Whitney and me is, “Why Ethiopia?” I do believe this is a valid question being
that there are statistically 153 million orphans in the world, but it is a
rather overwhelming question. I think the real questions behind; “Why
Ethiopia?” are why not adopt domestically rather than internationally? Why go
to Ethiopia
when there are 400,540 orphans in the foster care system in your own country
and 115,000 of those are waiting to be adopted? Why not adopt from a country
where many children are not being adopted from? Why not adopt from China , Taiwan , Hong Kong , Congo Uganda ,
Bulgaria ,
Hungary ,
Poland ,
Ukraine ,
Columbia , Costa Rica Dominican Republic ,
Haiti ,
Honduras ,
Peru ,
and many other countries. And last of all, why not open your home to children
who need to be fostered in hopes that those children can return back to their
family in order to be an advocate of family preservation. As you can see, “Why
Ethiopia?” can be an overwhelming question for us as our hearts desire is to
care for the orphan. When this question is posed, please excuse the glassy look
in our eyes or the stumbling of words in our mouth due to our hearts being full
of emotions for the least of these, bursting forth deep within us as we try to
explain.
When Whitney and I knew that we
wanted to expand our family by adopting a child, our first thought was to explore
the need where we live. As we began our exploration, we also had a desire to
adopt where there was great need. You may say there is a need everywhere,
because every orphan has a need and I most definitely agree with you, but I
would also add that within the orphans need, some are at greater risk than
others. For example, the risk involved with institutionalization compared to
the risk of foster care and so on. We both asked these questions and in our
exploration we began to realize that the risk associated with children being in
an orphanage gave cause for a great need. In our discernment, we chose to adopt
internationally due to no foster care system being implemented internationally
and children being institutionalized. We had chosen our adoption agency, which
is Lifeline, and we began looking at the countries that Lifeline had relationships
with to choose where we would pursue
our child. We then took those countries and spread them out on the table and asked
ourselves, how are we suppose to choose where our child will be adopted from
due to the need being so great in them all? As we pleaded to the Father to
reveal to us where he would have us pursue, we began to look at all the
countries with no heart strings attached. We examined the requirements that
each country had given to adopting families by the orphan’s country of origin. Requirements
such as how much equity we had, the age of orphans available, how old the
adopting parents had to be and how many in-country trips were needed to be
taken. Whitney and I went through each country examining its requirements and
comparing it to what we could handle with our lives. In the end, two countries remained
left on our table with no hearts string attached; Taiwan and Ethiopia. Now, it
was time for us to examine our hearts as to where we wanted to go and why?
We both believe and see the
importance of family being connected to a local church. In our church, we had a
brother whose parents operate an orphanage in Uganda, Africa, called Restoration
Gateway. We’ve heard their stories and have seen the pictures of the orphan’s
faces. In our hearts, Whitney and I would long to visit them in their
affliction. Our church would care for them through prayer and finances. Also in
our church, we have a brother from South Sudan, Africa, who has come to Troy
for school. He is very dear to us and is known to my son as Uncle Bull. There
have been many good conversations over hot meals at the dinner table where we have
heard of his family, their church, village, and country. He loves them all and
can’t wait to return to them. We have seen their faces in pictures and long to
embrace them one day with a hug as we are connected to them through our brother’s
stories. We have prayed for them in their hardships and joys and they have prayed
for us through ours. We have heard of orphanages and have seen pictures of
orphans in South Sudan and Uganda. Again, in our hearts, Whitney and I long to
care for them in their suffering. As we saw the country Taiwan and Ethiopia lying
on our table as possible countries, we knew where our hearts wanted to go. We can
say with joy that our pursuit has lead us to the continent of Africa, the
country of Ethiopia, the city of Addis Ababa, where we hope, with confidence,
that our child will be found.
“Why Ethiopia ?” leads us to a number of
questions as mentioned earlier. When those questions are asked, we begin to see
a small glimpse of the enormous orphan crisis worldwide that has it’s roots in
sin. Our hearts then become heavy, but we are not left without hope. For Christ,
who visited us in our own affliction; has given us our assured hope that sin
and all it produces will be eradicated. Until that time, the church is called
to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction. For this serves as a
testimony of the reality that has come and will come in Christ. Through
Christ, the story that has gone wrong will be made right.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and
undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and
to keep one self unstained from
the world.
