Glimpes of Hope from AAI’s Layla House
On my second day visiting with my son during his time at Adoption Advocates International’s Layla House in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia I met a young boy who had taken his free time to visit with his baby sister. He skipped out on playing soccer to spend some time on the floor tickeling the cooing child. The next day, his friend, a boy that has been at Layla House for over two years (and still does not have a family) came out of curiosity to meet me. He wore a cross around his neck. After some small talk he began sharing with me little pieces of his heart. “I pray everyday that Jesus will find a family for me.”, he said. He continued by saying with a big smile that he hopes the family has a horse as it is his dream to become a real American cowboy. The two friends would visit me each afternoon. Someday they provided entertainment by doing tricks, splits, and rolling around the floor together with the energy and sillyness that makes boys such a joy to watch play. The day that I became ill and could not visit with my son these boys spent the afternoon consoling him, holding him, and attempting to put a smile on his face. When I felt better and returned one of them told me that he, “worked hard all day to take care of Mussie so that he would not be sad without his mommy.”
My son and I would spend our days walking around the Layla House. We would visit classrooms, watch kids play, and over time we began to make friends with the older waiting children. I am not exactly sure how it happened as there were handfuls of wonderful children there, but my spirit made a special connection with a ten year old girl. We started our little friendship with conversation on our first day meeting. By the time I left Layla House almost two months later this sweet child would take time everyday to braid my hair, sing for me, and share her journal entries with me. She has a younger sister that she adores. We sat one hot day in the shade of her room. My son Mussie played on the floor with other children. She was braiding my hair and laughing whole-heartidly when the beads that she was trying to put in would just fall right out. She began to sway and I could hear her singing gently, “God is with me. I will not be afraid. I will not fear for God is near…”. We talked more. We prayed together. She wrote in her journal that God is love and that His love would carry her through.
The day that I left Layla House to return to America with my son in tow was a very happy and joyous day. Yet as I sat in the office waiting for the staff to hand me his passport and visa tears began rolling down my cheeks. There was also great sadness in this day as I was leaving these children behind who had become so very dear to me. My little friends gave me gifts and they showered my son with trinkets. There were long embraces, letters were exchanged. I received two letters from the children that I had come to know well. They were messages of hope and faith.
The children of Layla House, just like the rest of the world’s orphans, are waiting with great anticipation for a family. I am so thankful that people have listened and responded to the needs of orphans by establishing places like Layla House for them to live, learn, and be cared for while they wait for a Dad and Mom to embrace them. This year as our family put up the Christmas decorations we took the letters and gifts from the children and placed them in plain view on our tree. I looked down at my son, who was just a month ago, one of the many beautiful faces that could be found there. I felt such gratitude and appreciation for AAI and Layla House. I felt the surge of hope in my spirit for the children there.
“God is with me. I will not be afraid. I will not fear for God is near.” She was right. She and her sister received a family the next day. “Katie, Katie, Katie,” she hollared, “its happened, we have a family! We have a family! God heard my prayers!” In the way that only girls can do best we jumped up and down together with glee over the news. As we jumped I could see around us the faces of a hundred other children that were waiting for this very moment to happen to them. For Christmas this year my family is on a mission to make this moment happen for these children. Photographer Emma Dodge Hansen has created a full color photo essay coffee table book of the children of Layla House. Please take a moment to look at the pictures, allow your heart to be touched, and consider how you can be used to help answer the prayers of children just like them this Christmas. Let’s makes “these” kids into “our” kids this Christmas giving them the sacred gift of permanence and belonging in a family.
Faces of Layla: A Journey Through Ethiopian Adoption
Photography by Emma Dodge Hanson
December 7th, 2007 at 11:32 am
My name is Deanne Broscious and our family has recently had a failed adoption through Zambia. I had in many children in my arms for a short time. We and other families returned without children after spending three weeks in country. It is doubtful that we will ever be able to adopt these children that we call our own. I started thinking about what God wanted me to learn from this situation but couldn’t figure it out. We lost a lot of money and it looked as if there was no hope for ever adopting again. Recently I began looking at adopting older children and children with special needs. My husband and I are both in the medical field with specialized training. It took me three times to finish reading this story through all my tears and even longer to try to verbalize it to my husband through my tears. After reading this article, I am sure that God’s intention for us is for not adopting a baby, but for an older child who really needs love and a family. Thank you for sharing your heart through this story and showing me God’s will for our family.