There Is No Me Without You

As you know, I've been obsessively reading Ethiopian adoption blogs, and I'm also a member of the Ethiopian adoption Yahoo group. For months I've been reading about a book titled "There Is No Me Without You" by Melissa Fay Greene. I kept thinking "I really need to buy that book." Greene's a journalist who's written for the New Yorker, The NY Times and various other publications. She wrote this book after visiting Ethiopia and meeting a middle-class, middle aged Ethiopian woman, Heregewoin Teferra, who had lost her daugher to AIDS. The woman thought her life was over and no longer wanted to live without her daughter. But one day she was contacted by a local Catholic priest, who asked her if she would help take care of an child with AIDS who had been orphaned. She agreed. Everyone else was afraid of AIDS...but Heregewoin wasn't. She didn't care if she was infected, because she thought her life was over anyway. Soon more and more children were put into her care -- all orphans of the AIDS epidemic. She ended up with more than 40 children in her care. This book tells her story.

Well, two days ago I visited Melissa Fay Greene's website and found out she was going to be speaking at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Evanston! So David and I went. What a delightful, intelligent author. She was funny, humble, smart, and passionate. She told her story about how after writing the book, she and her husband adopted four of those orphans in Heregewoin's care (for a total of 9 kids -- 4 biological, one adopted from another country, and 4 from Ethiopia). David and I came away inspired. Even though Ethiopian adoptions are on the rise, it only solves the problem for .0007 percent of the Ethiopian orphans. Obviously other solutions besides adoption are needed for helping the millions of Ethiopian orphans. But David and I are excited about being part of the .0007 percent solution. At least there will be one less orphan begging on the streets of Addis Abbaba.

We continue to research agencies. I think I have it narrowed down to two: Wide Horizons for Children, and Childrens Hope International. Everyone tells me this is the most difficult part of the process. It is overhwelming. But we're just taking it one step at a time.

While we're on the topic of African orphans, I highly recommend the documentary "God Grew Tired of Us" about the journey of the Lost Boys from Sudan. Truly amazing, eye-opening, sad, but also inspiring.