By Daniel Hamon
"Doesn't anyone ever want to adopt an older child?" she asked one day as a Spanish agency rep loaded twin baby boys into his back seat. For these scenes were becoming unbearable, the older children feeling more unwanted with every glorious departure of a baby.
At the beginning, the older children had run to comb their hair and change their shirts when visitors came, hoping that a last-minute excellent impression would make a difference.
"No," said the agency rep. "People want babies. Sometimes toddlers, but mostly babies and, most of all, baby girls."
These are the words of Melissa Fay Greene as she tells the story of Haregewoin Teferra, a woman who worked tirelessly to save the children of Ethiopia.
In the adoption world, Haregewoin learned, even a three-year-old was an "older child," declined by most prospective parents as possibly too damaged or traumatized by early experiences.
"But won't someone adopt the older children?" Haregewoin sighed as a Canadian-agency person prepared to depart with a baby.
"Try the Americans."
"What? Really?"
"The Americans will adopt anyone."
"What does it mean?"
"There was a boy at the Mother Theresa Home who lost both his legs..."
"What?"
"I think he was herding his goats over train tracks and the train came and caught the boy. But the Americans are adopting him. They'll adopt school kids. They'll adopt kids with CP...
"Boys?"
"Yes, boys! They adopt boys, they adopt siblings."
"But big boys? School-age boys?"
"Yes, I'm telling you!"
Haregewoin was off like a shot. She sprinted to her house to start making phone calls to find the Americans.
Photo - ThereIsNoMeWithoutYou.com
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