Living out the faith; Local family gets a special Christmas present

Living out the faith
Local family gets a special Christmas present
By Debbie Lowe Staff writer

Abeba Faith Darling

People in the United States place children for adoption for a variety of reasons including finances, age, stability, emotional issues, or a desire to give their child opportunities they are currently unable to provide. In other parts of the world children become available for adoption for the same reasons but also because the parent is no longer available to raise the child due to disease, war, famine and death.
According to one Internet adoption source, about 200,000 children are adopted from all around the world every year. According to the U.S. Department of State, in fiscal year 2003, approximately 21,616 children were adopted through international adoption.
The decision to adopt for local resident Justin Darling and his family was based not on the parents' inability to produce biological children, because they already have three of their own. It was a decision made because of its ministry and the pull to follow their heart.
Justin said he was the first to start thinking and talking about international adoption with wife Melissa. She was hesitant to begin because of the approximate $20,000 price tag attached to the process. However, she soon became a convert of the idea and in April 2007 the couple, along with children Hannah, Elijah and Israel, began the adoption journey.

A Darling Christmas Justin Darling and wife Melissa along with daughter Hannah and sons Elijah and Israel received a special early Christmas present Dec. 17. Their adoptive daughter and sister, Abeba Faith, will arrive in January from Ethiopia. The family is very excited and looking forward to adding to the family through adoption. Comet photo by Debbie Lowe

The family knew they needed to raise significant funds to make the adoption happen. They decided to sell baked goods to raise money at that year's Carroll County Old Settlers Celebration, which was held in August. Little did they know, the daughter and sister they were to bring to her "forever home" was born at about the same time.
"We were really in fundraising mode at this point," Darling said.
Adoption funding came from foundation grants, fundraisers, gifts from family and friends and a special offering from their church family at the First Baptist Church in Delphi.
"God just dropped everything in our lap to make this happen," Melissa said.
Justin said they chose which country to adopt from first, and then chose an agency to lead them in their journey. The couple settled on the Gladney Adoption Agency, which owns three orphanages in Ethiopia. Darling said the family "knew they would adopt internationally" because it was the "best fit for us."
"When people ask why we didn't adopt from the United States or somewhere else, we say it was because our daughter was in Ethiopia," Darling said. "The Gladney Center for Adoption has been great. They are very easy to work with, very thorough and they answered any question we put to them."
The family was notified Oct. 6 their daughter/sister, Abeba, which means flower in the Ethiopian language, was available for adoption.
"We don't know what she was doing from the time she was born until August 2008, when she was found abandoned and roaming the streets in the capital city of Addis Ababa," Darling said.
The family was awarded custody Dec. 17 by an Ethiopian court. They will travel to Ethiopia to meet and bring her home in January.
Melissa said she is not worried about bringing Abeba Faith home, but she is concerned about leaving the other three children, who will stay with family and friends, while she and Justin travel.
"God has given me incredible peace about this," she said. "I am not afraid about her not fitting into the community."
Melissa said some of the orphanage staff are white, therefore Abeba "has seen other people with white skin." She said the three-foot, 18- month-old, 23-pound child has not developed a large vocabulary so learning the English language is not expected to be a problem when she comes home.
"We have prepared the other children by doing a lot of talking," Melissa continued. "We have gone through clothes for her together and we talked about how the family would look when she arrives."
Melissa said she has developed a huge heart for orphans since beginning the adoption journey.
"This experience has opened my eyes to the needs of children all over," she said. "My hope is there are so many great families in this community to give these kids a 'forever home'."
Eleven-year-old Hannah said she feels "really good about the adoption."
"I'm ready for a sister!" she said. "The first night she comes home will be hard to sleep. But I want to spend time with her and get comfortable with her."
"And (four-year-old and youngest Darling child) Israel is excited to be a big brother!" she added.
Nine-year-old Elijah said he was "really excited" about having a younger sister.
"The first thing I'm going to do is hold her!" he said.
Justin and Melissa have taken the three children to an Ethiopian restaurant in Indianapolis to introduce Abeba's native food to them.
"Ethiopian food is very good," Hannah reported. "They don't use utensils to eat with. They use a piece of sour thin bread and dip it in the food."
According to the Web site, Gladney opened its doors more than a century ago as one man's mission to find appropriate homes for children. Today, the Gladney Center for Adoption is an international leader in adoption services, placing more than 28,000 children in forever homes and assisting more than 37,000 birth mothers.
Darling said he started a Yahoo group for local families who have adopted from Ethiopia. He encouraged anyone who wanted information from locals about the process or who was looking for a support network to log onto Yahoo.com and put "ethadoptlaf" in the groups section.
"Our hope is that people will see we were able to step out on faith for adoption," Darling said. "The financial issues looked to be insurmountable to us, but it was doable."
"We were able to do it and others can too," he added.