Last week the mission team the Ethiopia returned home. You can read more about their trip (and see more photos) at these posts on team member Joy McCarnan’s blog:

jiggety-jig (Sat, June 20)

Azwachu enna chawo! (Thu, June 18)

Monday and Tuesday in Ethiopia (Mon & Tue, June 15-16)

weekend in Ethiopia (Sat & Sun, June 13-14)

Orphans Refuge is the mission trip arm of Together for Adoption. The June 10-19 Orphans Refuge trip was organized in partnership with Carlina Hope (which is now the SC branch office of Nightlight Christian Adoptions.

Nightlight has partnered with Together for Adoption to send a mission team to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (June 10-19). Here’s what happened on day one:

Joy McCarnan reports:

This morning (of our first day in Ethiopia), we ate breakfast together (eggs with tomatoes and peppers, coffee, bread and jam) and then went to visit Children’s Home Ethiopia (CHE, which partners with the Memphis-based The Forsaken Children organization). CHE’s kids are street kids learning to transition into safer, more permanent homes–hopefully their own homes (with resources that would enable them to eat and attend school in spite of dire circumstances at home) or, if necessary and if possible, into foster care. The administrators here hope to begin a halfway house system with fostering house-parents. The staff is competent and innovative, very kind. The kids greeted us with songs and roses and hugs and kisses. They put on a series of skits to help us visualize what life is like for them on the streets. We ate lunch at CHE (injira, potatoes, onion-based ground ox stew sauce, cabbage and carrots) and then went to the courtyard for coffee, popcorn, and more hanging out with the kids. The good-byes were difficult, but we hope to return.

Pictures from day one:

Children’s Home Ethiopia exists to rescue Ethiopia’s children at risk, insuring they remain in, or return to a loving home by providing Christ-centered programs that meet their physical, emotional, developmental and spiritual needs.

The following is a guest post by Doug & Valarie Grindle, a couple that recently added a daughter to their family through embryo adoption. The Grindles are passionate about embryo adoption (as you’ll read), and they agreed to share their story here on our blog. (The Grindles’ homestudy was performed by the SC office of Nightlight Christian Adoptions.)

Introduction
This is written to share our story of struggling with infertility and ultimately our positive experience with Embryo Adoption, to offer hope to those also dealing with infertility, and to encourage couples to consider Embryo Adoption which gives the chance for a child to be born that otherwise would never be given the opportunity to live.

Background
My wife and I were married at the relatively late age of 40.  We immediately started trying to have a child but to no avail.  We tried for two to three years without success.  In retrospect, God was getting us ready for Embryo Adoption.

I was a person who really never would have considered adoption.  I didn’t want to raise someone else’s child for many reasons.  I didn’t want to have to be responsible for any of the environmental effects from a year or two of influence that another set of parents would have had on my child, and I really had doubts as to whether I could love a child that was not biologically mine. (more…)

Yesterday I wrote a short post about two recent Nightlight fundraisers, one of which was a 5k Run/Walk for Adoption Awareness. This morning Lisa, Assistant Director of the SC Nightlight office, passed something along to me about the 5k that I wanted to share with our readers (with the permission of the family, of course).

Our 5k had a competitive element, and the winner of our Under-19 category was Alina from North Carolina, a 13-year-old who came with her mother, Claire, to the event. Alina and her brother were adopted as infants through Nightlight’s Russia Adoption Program. Thank you, Alina, for helping us raise adoption awareness, and congratulations!

Here are a few photos sent by Alina’s mom (click for full image):

Two weeks ago we announced our Jabez Cut-a-thon fundraiser in Southern California. We’re excited to announce that the event was very successful: $2,000 was raised to help bring the children out from Taiwan for our 2009 Summer Tour!

Way back in April we posted about a 5k run/walk for adoption awareness, held in Greenville, SC. We were very pleased by the number and enthusiasm of participants, and it was such a success that we hope to make it an annual event. We had about 47 runners/walkers and 10 volunteers. Here are a few photos from the event:

Nightlight Christian Adoptions would like to thank our corporate sponsors:

• About Healing Hands: Therapeutic Massage and Skin Care
• FiggyWhigs: Fine Baked Goods
• Raymond Godwin, Attorney at Law
• Sweetbriar: Gifts and Décor

We would also like to thank our other contributors:

• CU-ICAR
• Bi-Lo
• Chick-fil-A
• Dick’s Sporting Goods
• Flat Rock Grille
• Outback Steakhouse
• Panera Bread
• Red Robin
• Steak ‘n Shake
• R. Brian Ponder (Attorney at Law)

Nightlight is pleased to announce that our first two families to adopt from Ethiopia are home!

Rocky and Suzanne Clark are the proud parents of Bryson (pictured below). Rocky traveled to Ethiopia for the adoption proceedings, and he and Bryson arrived home on May 24, 2009. (Before the adoption, Bryson was Bekhabil.) Bryson came home as a 14-month-old.

Tom and Paula Spears adopted 5-year-old twin girls, Candace and Sarah (Selam and Fikir), and they arrived home just four days ago on June 6. (Two photos below.)

The staff at Nightlight join with the Clarks and Spears in thanking God for His provision and for His guidance in seeing the adoption process through to a successful completion, bringing these beautiful children into their forever homes.

(These families started their adoptions from Ethiopia under Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency and completed them after Carolina Hope had become the SC branch office of Nightlight Christian Adoptions. Our Ethiopia adoption program has progressed without significant changes during the transition, and we’re excited to continue offering hope to Ethiopian orphans and to adoptive couples.)

Sunday, June 7, have your hair cut and styled while raising money for Nightlight’s 15th Annual Summer Tour! (Jabez Salon is in Yorba Linda, CA.)

More details here.

Every year Nightlight brings children to Southern California from orphanages overseas. In past years we have brought children from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. This summer we will be bringing children from Taiwan. Excited boys and girls from 6-11 years of age will be joining us for two weeks in July.

Find out more details of this year’s tour — and how you can help — at Nightlight’s Summer Tour page.

As part 2 of their “Life: Imagine the Potential” series, CatholicVote.org has put out the following very nicely produced pro-adoption, pro-life spot:

Read the excellent resolution Russell Moore has submitted to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Resolution Committee: “On Adoption and Orphan Care: A Proposed Resolution.”

(HT: Dan)

As you probably noticed from the banner above, Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency has been acquired by Nightlight Chrisitian Adoptions of Califorinia. Our office is now the South Carolina branch office of Nightlight. We will continue to offer the same services to children and families.

We are slowly dismantlio our website as all the information becomes available at Nightlight’s beautiful new site. Our current plan is to keep the blog active, though the address will almost certainly change (but we’ll make it easy to find it).

Here the announcement that originally went out about the acquisition: (more…)

Yesterday, USA Today (online) ran an emotionally-stirring piece about a single mother of three teenagers who became pregnant and chose adoption for the child: “Struggling families look at adoption.”

Openness in adoption is a major theme in the article. The interplay between the financial crisis and an uptick in domestic adoptions (and abortions) is also addressed here. No one will be surprised that killing babies and giving them two-parent families are presented as approximately equally acceptable options.

The spring 2009 issue of Nightlight Christian Adoption’s quarterly newsletter, “Family Album,” is available for download here (PDF).

Adoption Learning Partners is offering their Lifebooks Course free of charge during the month of May (certificate of completion costs a fee).

You can now register for the upcoming Together for Adoption conference (more details here).

On Saturday, May 16, Carolina Hope is sponsoring a run/walk to increase adoption awareness and raise funds for our services to children and families. More details and the registration form can be found at the 5k Run/Walk page.

If you have a business or other location that would display our banner (see the image below; click for full-size), please contact our office.

On Tuesday, April 21 (7-9pm), Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency will hold its monthly Adoption Education workshop entitled “Introducing Domestic and International Adoption.” The workshop is free of charge and will be held at Carolina Hope’s office in Greenville, SC. More details at our Adoption Workshops page.

Note that this workshop was originally scheduled for April 14.

Serious.Life Magazine, which I’ve mentioned in a previous post, just published a new issue today. Our blog and services are included in this issue (thanks to the publisher’s generosity), and we encourage you to take a look at the articles in the latest issue.

The magazine is owned and published by a family who have seven kids, three adopted and one who has Leukemia (www.riggsfamilyblog.com). The magazine gives away a bunch of ads to charities and ministries. Besides great articles on interesting people, there is a lot about family, adoption, personal finance, spiritual life, humor … all sorts of “life” topics.

Again, the subscription is free, and I think you’ll enjoy the magazine, so take a minute to check it out and sign up to get future issues.  www.seriouslifemagazine.com

At the end of last week we had the very great joy of sending out the following message from Assistant Director Lisa Prather:

I am writing to let everyone know that our last Carolina Hope baby came home from Guatemala this week.  I’m so happy to be able to say that every child is home with their respective families.  Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Carolina Hope and for the children to come home.  Please continue to pray for the children and people of Guatemala. Now that adoptions have stopped, it is scary to think about what will happen to all the children left behind.  Below are quotes from a few families who most recently returned.

“This past trip was very poignant and sad for me. I am thankful she is at home.”

“He is such a sweet boy who loves his siblings and dogs, has learned new English and Spanish words and makes us smile a lot!  We are thrilled to have him home.”

“We are back from Guatemala, Little A is wonderful. Thanks for your prayers. I am very happy, tired right now, but happy.”

We do not know the future of Guatemala adoptions (if you know how to use Google to search for news, you have access to as much information as we do). Any major announcements will be posted to our Guatemala Adoptions page.

A few days ago the L.A. Times published an article entitled Thanking her for opening my eyes. The author, Corina Knoll, is ethnically Korean and was adopted as a child by a white family in the U.S.

In the article Knoll reflects on racism in America and how an Iowa school teacher made racism come alive to her white students in the 1960’s. I recommend the piece — but with reservations. For example, the author remarks that being stared at in an all-white town made her uncomfortable. Fair enough. But by itself, that’s not racism. (I’ve been in numerous villages in Cambodia, and everyone always stared at me. They weren’t racist. They just weren’t used to seeing a white face. I’ve had the same experience in big cities in China, so it’s not just a village thing. It’s a cognitive-perceptual thing.)

But my complaints aside, the author highlights some of the real challanges faced by non-whites in America, and anyone thinking about international or transethnic adoption should be pretty serious about what adult adoptees in transethnic families have to say about their experiences.