We are the Adventure Family. Both our boys, ages 10 and 8, are adopted. Roman is our youngest and first. We adopted him domestically through an open adoption process from a wonderful woman and family near Dixon, Illinois. We were at the hospital hours after he was born and he has been with us since. We continue a very good relationship with Roman's extended birth family and visit when we can.
Mabret is our oldest son. Yes, we adopted out of birth order. He was born in the southern region of Ethiopia, Sidamo, and came into our family at the age of four and a half. Bob, Roman (at age 2.10) and I traveled to the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, in December 2007 to complete the adoption process and bring Mabret home. On January 5, 2008 Mabret entered the United States and our forever family.
Our plan is to leave November 2, 2013 for a period of five months and visit both sons' birth families, explore, learn and volunteer.
We will begin in Africa. The plan has always been to go back to Africa so Mabret can explore his original culture and connect with his birth family. At the time of the adoption, Mabret had two surviving brothers, one sister, a grandmother, and uncle. Bob was able to briefly meet and spend a short time visiting with the entire village. Going back, we would love to spend more time and we will see what happens from there.
We do not know what we will find when we get there. Hopefully we can find Mabret's birth family and village. Luckily, Bob had enough forethought to keep the translator's name and phone number who was able (after some effort) to find the village in late 2007. We have made contact with him and with some luck he can do it again six years later.
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