This is a blog post I, Amy, wrote before we had decided to adopt T. But while I was writing it, it was hitting me that maybe we were supposed to do more than write a post about it. :)

When we first started our paperwork for adoption in December of 2009, we said we’d adopt a child of either gender, under 2 years of age. We didn’t know much about adoption and, to be honest, adopting a younger child seemed ‘safer’. But a couple of weeks into the process, we decided that we didn’t ‘need’ a baby. We knew there were older kids out there who get put on waiting child lists because there aren’t enough people willing to adopt them. I know fear plays a big part in it because we had some of those same fears. There’s a lot of unknown with adoption and thinking of bringing home an older child brings even more unknown- more history you don’t know, more time exposed to the effects of poverty and lack of medical care, more firsts that you miss. I understand all of that, BUT there is another side of it. These children need a home- period. It’s not their fault that they were relinquished later in life. It’s not their fault that they are the age they are. They need a family to love them just as much as the babies and younger kids do.
We set out to bring one child home and assumed it would be a boy since boys tend to be the ones who wait. Well, one boy quickly turned into 2 boys who were brothers- ages 3 and 5. We had 2 biological boys at home who were 6 and 8.
The last 17 months have been wonderful. We were shocked at how well the boys transitioned into our family and into American culture. Our 4 boys are brothers, through and through. They love like brothers and fight like brothers. Lack of language was a fear we had before bringing them home, but that turned out to be not a problem. We just figured out how to communicate with bits of Amharic, signs, and gestures and they quickly picked up English. Their English is not the same as kids their own age yet, but it’s progressing much faster than my Amharic would have!! Abuzaid, who is now 6, started kindergarten a few weeks after he came home and has done so well in school. He’s in first grade now and is a great reader who loves school and loves to learn. Kalid, who is now 4, is in preschool and enjoys every minute of that! We get to talk with them about life in Ethiopia and help them remember and keep that family history.
Of course, it would be wonderful to have known them since they were babies- I’m sure they were adorable and I could guess about their personalities they would’ve had. But, they didn’t need a home when they were babies- they needed us when they were older. We love them immensely and couldn’t imagine our lives without them!