An Adoption Story

One of the former lead singers for my quartet has been in the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia for nearly the last year.  They finally picked her up today in Addis Ababa and she'll soon be home in the Dallas suburbs with her new big sister and twin big brothers.  It's been a bumpy road for Eric and Laura (they had to make a previous trip to Ethiopia in March), but it's all worked out.

However, upon arrival this time there was a very unexpected turn.  I took this from their travel blog:

Our first stop was to see Kate! We headed straight to Toukoul orphanage. We showed up without an appointment (there should have been one, but there wasn’t…don’t get me started on that…) and they graciously agreed to let us have a visit. No problem! We waited about 20 minutes which was no big deal. I could see into an open window in her building and there was a nurse doing someones’ hair. I could only see the very top of this child’s head, but I knew it was Kate. The nurse lifted her up and I saw her face. It was Kate! In light brown and teal. Could recognize her anywhere. About 10 minutes later they brought out a baby. But it wasn’t Kate. I didn’t even hesitate or question myself; I knew that was not Kate! They were puzzled but took the child away, and then talked amongst themselves, and then asked me again for Kate’s name. I supplied that, along with her ID number and a reminder that we didn’t have an appointment so we weren’t on that list they kept poring over. Okay, no problem, they said. Soon enough, her nurse (I have a photo of she and Kate from our last trip which I was able to show to her) brought out Kate who was wearing light brown and teal, of course! And her hair had just been done up!

Kate was a little reserved for about, oh, 45 seconds. She warmed up to me first and then to Eric about 5 minutes later. She’s just not used to men, but who can resist the charms of Eric Baesel?!? Not this Daddy’s Girl! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit noticing how much she’s grown. She looks just about identical as the last time we saw her 3 months ago, only she now has a bit more hair, babbles a little, and is more active. She likes to bounce in your lap and is a great crawler. She barely walks when holding on to your hand, so I believe we’ll have a full-fledged walker very soon after we get home. After playing and cuddling, we begrudgingly gave her back to a nurse about 2 hours later. ...

The orphanage was gracious enough to let us come back for a second visit (again, unscheduled, because apparently there is no one scheduling for us, so we’re just working directly with the orphanage and it’s working out quite well) this afternoon. Kate had already had her afternoon nap so was ready for more playing and cuddling. And we did just that….lots of it! During this visit, the office administrator came to us and said there was a problem; she needed our help. Apparently, the parents of the child of the baby that was mistakenly brought to us this morning were here and they didn’t think that was their baby either. They thought that our Kate was their baby. And that’s because, get ready for this, the nurse mistakenly introduced them to Kate as their baby on their last 2 visits (they are here for their first trip). They spent several hours with Kate, took hundreds of pictures and videos and sent them back home to loved ones and everything. Gasp! So you can imagine their chagrin when they come for their third and final visit and the child brought to them is not the same one they had been visiting with. Double gasp! We immediately took Kate with us to speak to them, at the request of the orphanage. I guess they wanted us to prove that she was really our baby. Cringe and double cringe. The mother was now holding their correct baby (has the same African name as Kate and they live in the same room), the one they had tried to give to us earlier. She turned and could not look at us. I spoke with the father who was visibly shaken and heartbroken and he told me their story. It was very, very awkward and we kept running into them around the grounds for the next hour only to have them turn away from us, but mostly from Kate. We felt so terrible for this family who fell in love with Kate only to find out she wasn’t their baby. We are thankful that God had orchestrated our arrival for this exact day so that it was discovered before they left for home, but oh my…terrible, terrible.

Yikes. What a story.  Can you imagine what that must be like for the other couple?

I feel terribly sorry for that other family, but I'm glad Kate ended up with the correct new family. She's a cutie and you can see pictures and read the story of today's finalization of the adoption here.