International Adoption {Ethiopia}

Our worship pastor, Korban and his wife, Tonya adopted a little girl from Ethiopia.  Here are some questions he answered for me.  

How long did your adoption process take from start to finish? 17 months

Why did you choose adoption? Ultimately, we chose to adopt because God designed the church to care for orphans.  I grew up with 3 biological siblings and 1 adopted sister from Korea.  God grafted her into our home in a miraculous way and we see her as a vital and irreplaceable part of our family.  When I got the chance to have my own family, I always wanted adoption to be a part of it too.

Why did you choose international adoption and why Ethiopia?  We chose international because of how difficult some countries make it on orphans.  Many of them cannot be cared for into adulthood simply because there is no available means to sustain their health, nourishment, and education.  We selected Ethiopia for those reasons and because their restrictions and timetables were the best match for our family’s stage of life.   

What adoption agency did you go through and how did you decide? We chose Holt International.  A friend of ours who had worked many years helping couples adopt highly recommended Holt.  They also had an affiliate agency in our hometown that could do our home study.  This was a huge plus for us since we were caring for two other young girls during our home study.

How old was your adopted child when you brought him/her home? She had just turned two.

Tell us about your child’s name.  Tanash is the name she was given at birth.

What is one thing you want to tell people about adoption?  If we all just adopted one...what a different world this would be.

Korban, Tonya, Tanash, Myah and Vivi