Passing the Torch–Adoption Training

Adoption Ministry is joining others in passing the adoption torch to Ethiopian Christian families. Traditionally, adopting outside of your family was taboo in Ethiopia. Even now adoption is equated with a lesser position within the family unit and Ethiopians cannot fathom cherishing an adopted child as they would a biological child. But the tide is changing! We have been speaking in churches and to individuals about God’s heart for adoption and challenging couples to take care of the orphans in their community.
 

Shashemene town is where YWAM has a sweet little orphanage with mommy nannies tenderly caring for throw-away babies brought to us by the police. One little miss has already been adopted by a family in Addis Ababa... 

  

but there are eight little sweethearts who need their very own families.


(How I wish I could show you these adorable little faces... but only after they are adopted!)

At the end of February, our orphanage director planned a two day seminar for Ethiopian couples interested in adoption. A knowledgeable and respected judge spoke about the legalities and procedures of adoption, and a representative for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs painted a picture of the unadorned realities and bleak future awaiting children without parents. Abandoned children are either raised in an institution or on the streets making them highly vulnerable to slave trade. She also gave compassionate insight as to why mothers abandon their children. A highlight was when a young man named Belay shared. He grew up as an orphan in Ethiopia and gave the attendees a snapshot of what life is like from an orphan’s perspective.
 

The second day featured an adoptive mom from Addis who has adopted two children. She underscored the need to claim adopted children as your own and how she and her husband integrated their two children into their extended family and normalized adoption. Abonesh, the wife of our country representative, taught on the Biblical perspective of adoption.
 

By the end of the conference, six families walked to the Mana Gammachuu orphanage and picked out the child they wanted to adopt! Those six couples are now in the homestudy process and we are hoping that within a month or two, six tiny people will be lovingly ensconced in a home where they will be loved forever.