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Family day, Gotcha Day, Famiversary, and I’m sure there are as many more names as there are adoptive families for this all important day to celebrate. I prefer Family day. This is the day we physically became a family. 3 years ago on this very morning we arrived at the Kidane Mehret Childrens home in Addis Ababa Ethiopia and met our newly adopted children – Abate and Fantu. It was a small room where we had to wait while Fantu and Abate having just returned from a medical appointment at the Embassy went to change clothes and look their best to meet us. We were four very nervous people about to embark upon an unknown journey that would lead two kids halfway around the world with two strangers. They would be going to live in a place that was only really known to them through American movies and shows. We would now have two pre-teen kids with a radically different culture, language and tragic history living with us, adapting to a life in a new family, in a new land, new schools and new friends. They were leaving everything they had known and loved, everything that was familiar and comforting. They were not even given a choice. That is something that sounds terrifying to an adult, much a less a child. I try to imagine it. I’ve moved across continents before, left all that was familiar, I was alone. It was supposed to be for 3-6 months but I met Alan, I found love, I stayed, but it was a choice I made. Alan also made the choice to leave his home he came with me from Ireland to Texas.


So, what have Abate and Fantu found here in Texas. They have two parents that love them immensely. They have the security of a family, a home, and food to eat. They have many friends and are both very popular at school. They have the opportunity to play sports, for Fantu to sing, the freedom to pursue their interests. They have a family, even though it can be a bit of a strange one at times. They have discovered the American culture and have totally immersed themselves in it (but they still love all things Ethiopian). While they are slowly losing their native Amharic they still have their lovely Ethiopian accents.

Alan and I knew that adopting would change our lives drastically. We weren’t sure how, as it was full of unknowns. All we really knew was we were going to be the parents of Abate a boy somewhere between 10-12 years of age (he was 12) and Fantu a girl between the age of 9 and 11 (she was 10). We had very little background history only knowing that they had lost both parents at a very young age. They were from the Gambella region in southwestern Ethiopia but were of Amharic decent. We didn’t know we would be getting two super talented kids that were both very bright, happy, funny and outgoing. We also got two kids that grew up way too quickly. My two little kids that weren’t even shoulder high to me 3 years ago have caught up to me and are now surpassing me in height. They became teenagers it seems overnight. They also brought the usual teen angst, moods and other troubles that any parent of teens will know all too well. There is one thing I know now that I was never sure about before is that we have found their love. They tell me, they show me. I feel it.

We have traveled a journey that made us a family, bound by love, life and time.