Adopting from Ethiopia
We had the opportunity to adopt two older children from
Ethiopia. We decided to adopt two older children when we visited the orphanage
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in April of 2006. At that time, we were picking up
our first Ethiopian adopted daughter who was 2 months old. We fell in love with
the country and the orphanage. It was put on our hearts to adopt two older children.
We finished the adoption of our first daughter from Ethiopia and then started
on the process to adopt two more. We decided to adopt from the same orphanage
and country again. The process went smoothly with the paperwork. The biggest
challenge was to come up with the money that we needed to afford this adoption.
Adding these two new children would make our family have six children. We knew
that we could not afford the payments if we were to charge the money. So with
prayer, we applied for a grant. We could not have financially completed the
adoption without the generous donation from A
Child Waits Foundation.
Since arriving home on Feb. 26, 2007, the children have
done very well. We are working on learning English at home. Fana, our daughter,
is very sweet and helpful. She has a wonderful smile. Getnet, our son, is very
cute and loves to investigate everything. Both children have brought joy and
happiness to our family. We would encourage anyone to adopt older children.
Thank you,
Don & Laurie Gottschalk