A Mother's Ethiopian Adoption Experience

It is so difficult. I want to tell you all so much. I think of all of you and miss you very much and I long to attempt to prepare you a little bit for Ethiopia - although there is probably no real preparation...

I barely remember now that some of you spoke of the crushing poverty, the children begging at the car window, the fact that you will never be the same after being there… I didn't really listen, I didn't really know... Now I understand why another adoptive parent said that people wanted to go home as quickly as possible. I wanted to go home so badly!!

The first time I rode in one of the blue taxi vans, I covered my face and wept. There are people EVERYWHERE and they are SO POOR - not a poor that you can conceive of here in this country. We saw babies alone in the median strip of a busy road, men lying in the median strip in the middle of the day, people picking through the dirt and rubble for little scraps of only God knows what, a naked man lying by the road with ribs revealed.

Have no doubt that your children need you, dear friends! People with good jobs live in houses that we would consider suitable only for storage sheds. They have almost nothing. I felt unexpectedly ashamed to be an American. I felt our shallowness as Christians here, our love of comfort, our idolatry!

And yet, the Ethiopian people were precious and wonderful! How could it be?! The beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ shown in the light of their beautiful smiling faces! I was hugged and kissed by my dear, dear friends Hannah and Kidist more than I have EVER been hugged and kissed in my whole life! I love them so much! I long to see them in Heaven, when this suffering will be over for them. In the meantime, they are faithful to their Lord, serving Him with joyful hearts! They work at the Baptist Guest House, which I heartily recommend for many reasons.

Dagne, the Program Director, is a precious man of God! He does his job very well. He is hard-working and diligent, yet extremely loving! The children love him. Our Ethiopian daughters call him “Dad” and smother him with kisses and hugs! It was a privilege and a blessing to be with him!!!

All of us now are blessed because the counselor for CWAE is doing a great job preparing the children and she loves them very much. We are so thankful for her!

Dagne's new assistant, Eyob, is wonderful! He rarely speaks a sentence without the truth of God pouring out of him! His smile lights up the place, wherever he is! Those dear, smiling faces greeted us at the airport. Words are not adequate to describe what that meant to us!!!

Our four Ethiopian daughters are loving and immediately seemed to bond with us, in many ways! I was in shock! I think it was good for them to see all the close and loving interaction we had with the people in Ethiopia. They have been absolute troopers! They help us all the time! They would not let us lift a finger in Ethiopia!!!! I am not kidding! They were great on the plane ride! I could not believe it!

Now, I am not saying they are perfect - just amazingly good under the circumstances - Dagne said we are particularly blessed with them! But we do have to occasionally discipline them… They are regular sinners!!

Thank you all for your prayers! Thank you for your kind words and e-mails!
 
Menylushal is so cute. She has come in from outside where the girls are helping Jorge build a brick border, and she is coloring beside me. I don't believe she had even seen a crayon before last Monday. She did not know what to do with it when I gave her one!!

All that said, this IS hard folks! This is love, this is the heart of God… laying down self. I am discovering it more each day...

More later,
Anna Morales

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