The Graves Family - Great Adoption Adventure

Who knew that a family vacation to Montreal would mark the beginning of a new phase of our lives?  Sometime, prior to the trip, God separately planted the idea of adoption in each of our minds. Why us? Who knows?  We’re just plain old Bob and Lisa Graves from Dansville, NY. Life was good. Great jobs. Two wonderful children. But it happened. And, there we were. In Montreal. Relaxing. Unwinding. And somehow one of us got the courage to casually bring up the concept of adoption. We both agreed that it just couldn’t be a coincidence that we were both thinking along the same lines. That was it… the beginning of our Great Adoption Adventure.

When we returned home, we explored many adoption options and agencies.  We kept being drawn to CWA’s philosophy, “We believe that God is control of our agency and your adoption”. We knew our thoughts of adoption had to be a “God Thing”, so we took the leap, applied with CWA and got the adoption process rolling. As a family, we decided an infant girl would be just perfect. Things were moving forward, but the direction of our adoption changed based on a series of perfectly timed “coincidences”. We ended up switching countries and traveling oversees to meet three charming older children. While waiting for approval to bring these children home, we celebrated many ups, grumbled through the downs, and held on during the twists and turns. In the end, however, the adoption could not be completed due to the laws changing in that country and circumstances beyond CWA’s control.

So, there we were, 3 ½ years later, feeling frustrated, emotionally drained and grieving deeply for the children we had “lost”. At some level, though, we were feeling a sense of peace, as we believe God may have used our family to help re-unite the three children with their father. It didn’t make the pain go away, but we now realize our mighty God had other plans for the Graves family.

All along, our outstanding CWA Case Manager, Denise Hunter, was there to support us through the ups and the downs. She understood that we needed time to grieve. After some time had passed, however, Denise suggested that we explore other options, including CWA’s relatively new Ethiopian program. We looked at photos on the older child website, talked with Michelle Gardner about available children, watched a DVD, and reviewed some written information. Such beautiful, beautiful children! Within a few days, God clearly showed us the three captivating daughters he had picked out for our family.

So, in April 2006, the Ethiopian portion of our adoption journey took off at warp speed. In a period of 3 ½ months we switched programs, accepted the referrals, attended the "Investing in your Family" training program in Spokane, had our homestudy and USCIS approval revised, submitted our dossier, received approval from the Ethiopian courts, and flew to Ethiopia to bring home our three Ethiopian-born daughters. We traveled in July 2006, along with Joshua (13) and Sarah (9), to bring home Rahel (Rachel) – age 12, Helen (Ellen) – age 11 and Emebet (Emma) – age 9.  

Life couldn’t be better. The girls are simply delightful. God truly knew all along who would be perfectly matched with our family.  We all just seemed to “click” from the moment we met. Our children have been enjoying everything from backyard soccer, bike riding, hiking and swimming to shopping, VBS, playing cards, teasing, giggling and working on their English.  Our family, friends and community have already been truly blessed by our children’s infectious enthusiasm.

The people of Ethiopia have deeply touched our hearts. They are beautiful, kind and gracious. They are justifiably proud of their heritage and accomplishments. Our new daughters are absolutely gorgeous, well-mannered, demonstrative and respectful. They apparently experienced lots of love in Ethiopia. We were well prepared to handle the challenging issues that can be associated with adopting older children from Ethiopia. So far, the transition has gone so much better than we expected. We are looking forward to returning to Ethiopia in the future… to visit or possibly to adopt a child (children?) to even out the backyard soccer teams J. Only God knows the direction of the next adventure. We will remain open to His calling. “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord”, Psalm 127:3

Bob and Lisa Graves