Staci and I are very happy to announce that we will
soon be welcoming a 4th child into our family. His name is Sofani and I met him while I was on
a mission trip in December in Ethiopia.
It was no accident that the two of us met and Staci, the kids and I
couldn’t be more excited about the addition to our family.
Pastor Mark Ellcessor, Todd Austin and I landed in
Mikelle, Ethiopia on the second leg of our mission trip in early December
’11. We were supposed to be staying in
the Axum hotel in Mikelle; however, we were bumped from the hotel while the
government used it for meetings. The
plans had changed and Gabe, our contact person while in Ethiopia, was taking us
from the airport to the guest house where we were now supposed to be staying
when we were involved in a car accident.
Gabe’s SUV was totaled and we relied on the help from some of Gabe’s
friends to drive us to the guest house.
We were dropped off only to learn that the arrangements were not
correct. We didn’t have reservations and
our contact, Gabe (the only one of us that spoke the local language), was
dealing with the police at the scene of the car accident. We were stuck. No room in the Inn.
It was then we met Atsad. She ran the guest house and insisted that we
go with her to her home. She drove us
with all of our belongings to her home. We
were greeted with incredible hospitality.
I met three children upon arriving.
One was a young girl about Avery’s age.
Another was a boy that appeared to be Jackson’s age and the youngest was
a boy that was around Anna’s age. I felt
right at home and began playing with the oldest boy. In spite of the language barrier we instantly
clicked and I felt a strong connection to this child. On the second day of our stay I learned that
only two of the children were Atsad’s. I learned that the oldest boy, Sofani,
had lost both of his parents when he was very young. He had also lost his grandmother a couple of
years ago who was his caretaker after his parents passed away. Sofani is a cousin of Atsad’s and hangs
around their house when he’s able. My
heart was broken.
I bonded with this child and the rest of the family
that so graciously took us in while we were in Mikelle. Atsad’s husband, Girmay, who was in another
part of the country while we were staying in his home, called home one night
and I spoke with him and thanked him for the hospitality that his family extended
me and my stranded friends. I got Girmay’s
email address before we left the country to return to the U.S.
We arrived in Indiana and the first week back was
tough. I was no fun to be around. I was irritable and clearly there was
something wrong. I had a growing burden
on my heart for Sofani. After about a
week of prayer and discussions with Staci, I fired off an email that will
forever change the course of our lives.
I asked Girmay to approach Sofani about becoming part of our
family. We heard back the next day. Sofani was excited and so were we! Staci and I knew nothing at the time about
the international adoption process but we knew this was God’s plan for our
family.
We began corresponding with Girmay from that point
forward while learning as much as we could about the adoption process. Last week, we completed our home study and
sent a packet of information to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration
Services) yesterday. Once we get back
our approval from immigration, we’ll be submitting our dossier to the Ethiopian
government and making arrangements to fly to Ethiopia for a court date this
summer. If all goes as planned, we’ll be
making another trip to Ethiopia later this year to bring Sofani home.
God has had his hand in this entire process. First, he got me to read a book called “The
Hole in our Gospel.” This book turned my
perspective on the injustices in this world upside down. Next, God had me agreeing to take a week off
of work to go to Ethiopia with Mark and Todd on a mission to teach on
leadership at bible colleges and deliver Amharic bibles to students in the
seminary. He took me deep into the
interior of Ethiopia to see a level of poverty that is unimaginable. I knew this trip would change me, but I
thought I would come back ready to drill wells, build housing or work further
with World Vision. I did not expect that
I would come home wanting to adopt our fourth child.
Our family has experienced tremendous joy since this
process began. We have peace knowing
that this very complicated process will continue to go smoothly and Sofani will
soon be with us. We hope you will all
share in our excitement. We can’t wait for you to meet him.
