Zoie's Story... you CAN make a difference today in a child's life!!

We met Zoie Senait for the first time on July 7, 2008 in Addis Ababa at the AWAA Transitional Home. We had been told by many staff and families that had traveled to Ethiopia before us that our daughter was VERY tiny. Nothing could have prepared our hearts for what we would see.


Our precious daughter was indeed tiny...
at 6 months old, she only weighed 8 pounds. All I could say when they placed her in my arms was...she's so tiny. Her head and legs and arms and tiny feet were the size of a newborn infant. I had brought a beautiful flower head band to give her, but it looked massive on her tiny head.

She had no strength or energy due to her health issues. We were so happy that day and in love with our sweet girl, but we knew we were facing dire circumstances. She had pneumonia, dehydration, a severe upper respiratory infection and fever. Her tummy was swollen, due to malnourishment, her tiny chest was sunken and her breathing fast and labored, even her head veins were bulging
All she could do was stare at us with her enormous beautiful eyes. She needed our help!! Our second night at the hotel with Zoie, we knew we were in trouble. She stopped breathing several times and in our panic and fear we made the difficult decision to take her to the hospital. The Hilton Hotel staff were incredible and they helped pile our family in a van in the middle of the night. The head nurse from the Transitional Home (our angel!) met up with us and we searched the night for a hospital and doctor who would help our tiny girl. We drove around the city for hours, but could not find any help and in desperation prayed to God for His protection. At 6AM, we finally made a connection with beautiful Dr. Sophie and she met us at her clinic. It was one of the most painful, challenging, uncertain nights of our journey. We started to unravel and doubt and fear what was going to happen next. Zoie Senait was fighting for her life!

We started feeding Zoie the same formula Tom Davis is donating to the AWAA TH. She ravishingly ate every 2 hours and we watched a miracle happen before our eyes. Within 24 hrs we could literally see our daughter healing. We started healing. We believed and trusted and rejoiced and celebrated our tiny miracle!

Zoie had been in the best care and showered with love at the Transitional Home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The staff and nannies are our heroes!! However,they are desperate to have baby formula that will help the children waiting for their families heal and grow and thrive. At the time, the staff did the very BEST they could with the nutritional resources they had. When we heard they came close many times to running out of formula, it broke our hearts.

Donating $30 for life-saving formula for babies in Ethiopia will make a huge difference in ways you may never understand. This formula would have made a major impact on our daughter's health. It's something simple we can all do, but it's changing the world one baby at a time. Simply love!!

Please DONATE today

The best is yet to come!!click photo to enlarge!!
(Fat Tuesday 09)

(the bow fits:)

Tom Davis' RIVITING new book trailer 'Scared'-donate today for Africa Formula Project!!

AWAA families...did you know *Tom Davis-website* is helping OUR Ethiopia Transitional Home? He is helping bring the best formula to our precious babies waiting!! Please take time to watch his amazing book trailer. Lets all make a difference & help provide formula...we can save a life.
Our Zoie was 6 months old & had dropped to only 8 pounds when we arrived in Ethiopia. She was so tiny & malnourished. I pray that the formula provided will help our babies in the TH thrive & grow very chubby:)

Book Trailer-take a few seconds to load!!
*Scared coming June 2009*

Scared - A Novel on the Edge of the World from Children's HopeChest on Vimeo.

A note from Tom:

URGENT NEED: Forumla Needed for Malnourished Babies in Ethiopia!! Famine and poverty are increasing the rates of malnourished infant babies in Ethiopia. Children's HopeChest has worked with the America World Adoption Agency (AWAA) on projects in Ethiopia and Russia over the past five years. This request came to us from their transition home where they are receiving severely malnourished babies into their care. This month, in honor of mother's day, I want to raise $12,500 to provide specialized baby formula to this transition home for these malnourished babies. (Please put "Ethiopia Formula" in the note section of the donate page.)

To kick this off, a friend of Children's HopeChest has offered a matching gift for the first $500 we receive toward this project.
DONATE TODAY HERE-link or on the "badge" provided to the right.

My Adoption Hero: part 1... Courage (Randi Shetley!!)

Our daughters took dance class together, so we started hanging out in the Starbucks upstairs sipping our grande skinny Caramel Macchiatos:) Little did I know the impact those coffee dates would have in my life. Over our first coffee, I asked her to tell me the story of her adoption from Ethiopia. With her drama background, the story she told me was mesmerizing… just like a movie. Her adoption journey left me feeling like I could accomplish anything. A lot like the movie Seabiscuit where you find yourself standing up in the movie theater cheering as the horses are battling down the home stretch. A story about not having a chance in the world to defeating every obstacle put before her. I was inspired by her story of courage and determination and perseverance and ultimately love. She is one of the first brave pioneers that adopted from Ethiopia, without the assistance of a staff or agency to help her.

My first adoption hero...who exemplifies courage, is Randi Shetley. She and her amazing husband, Shane received a referral for 2 sibling boys from Awassa, Ethiopia in 2001. Randi’s mom owned an adoption agency, but this was brand new territory for them. Americans had rarely had a successful experience adopting from Ethiopia. They waited 15 months to travel to Addis Ababa to bring the boys home, but tragically, they lost the boys to circumstances that were out of their control. The day they heard the news, they were shocked to hear they received another referral for a boy-4 and a girl-6

This time, Randi completed her new paperwork and updated her home study in record speed and 3 months later headed to Addis Ababa to officially complete the adoption procedure…ALONE!! The family that traveled right before her had spent 10 weeks in Ethiopia to bring their children home, so she knew she was heading into the unknown... the road less traveled, literally. Every morning she headed to court, but was turned away day after day due to the judge out fishing (for real!!) She hit every obstacle imaginable during her extended time in Ethiopia, but never gave up. Finally meeting the judge, he took one look at her completed authenticated dossier and threw it in his garbage can…yelling at her (and I quote) NO GOOD…START OVER!! She left his office completely discouraged, but not destroyed. She would pull out all the tools she had and start again. I always had a hard time believing this part of her story, but it was true. My adoption hero started over from scratch in a foreign country. For all of us that understand the incredible amount of paperwork that is involved…this was truly a heroic, action packed, massive undertaking. Randi never gave up. She trusted in God to help her through every single detail and He showered her with mighty miracles every step of the way. She was protected from the corruption at every level, but slowly… page-by-page, she completed a new dossier. She felt beat up, bruised and punished emotionally, but in the end, after spending over 3 weeks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, she WON the race and came home with her beautiful children!!!

I met Megin, her first week in America. My husband and I were helping out at Kindergarten indoor recess, due to the rainy day. I recognized her immediately as the precious girl recently adopted from Ethiopia, but had no idea her new mom was going to be my hero:) I smiled at her & she immediately came over and sat in my lap. I was in heaven. I signaled for Roger to come over and say hi. He smiled and reached out to pat her shoulder. All of a sudden, this quiet calm little darling let out a blood-curling scream & went into hysterics. Poor Rog waved his hands up in the air, so no one would think he was pinching the screaming child.
Beautiful, courageous, radiant, vivacious Megin is now 12 years old and is our adopted niece. She still teases Roger by screaming at the top of her lungs when she sees him!!!! LOL

My adoption hero started a ripple effect in our community. There are dozens of families that are adopting from Ethiopia, but I have had the rare opportunity to know one of the *pioneers* who helped pave the way to make these adoptions even possible. Thank you for being so brave and strong and passionate about the children of Ethiopia. Thank you for making a difference. Thank you for holding my hand through the crazy ups & downs, never doubting for a second that we would bring Zoie home.

Randi & Shane currently live in Kansas with their Awesome 5 children …2 biological and 3 gifts from Ethiopia!!!!
We love you!!!

*Please share YOUR adoption hero story*
I can't wait to share my Adoption Hero #2