On our way to Awasa, we stopped at the Toukoul Gelan orphanage for the older kids. The orphanage Sophie is at is for kids under two. This one is for grade school age kids. The director gave us a tour. It was heartbreaking and encouraging at the same time. The kids obviously love the director, and he them. They were all running up to him and hugging him, and he was doing the same back. The nurses all seemed to love them as well. And yet, there are around 200 kids here, and at most 50 of them are adopted each year.
They've got a section just for HIV kids. They were adorable. The first little girl ran right up to Paige. She picked her up and hoisted her in the air, getting a good giggle. She then ran to me, and I got her way higher than Paige did. That got a huge giggle. As soon as the other kids saw that, they all mobbed me. I only got to toss up about five kids before their nurses shooed them all away and lined them up at they wall.
But those five kids and their huge smiles above my head... I could have stayed all day to throw them in the air.
See the cutie peeking out the window?
We asked the director what they needed most. He said shoes and clothes. We didn't bring either. What we did bring, they told us to bring to the orphanage we visit tomorrow, which apparently is even more in need.
I've got a hard time imagining "more in need" but I guess we see what that looks like tomorrow.
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2 comments:
older child adoption has really been on our hearts since coming home from Ethiopia and then doing additional investigation. i recently learned that of the 4.5 orphans in Ethiopia only 0.001% will ever be eligible for adoption. 90% of orphans are older than age 5 meaning very few are healthy infants. we had no idea that this was the case when we started our adoption journey. i'll never forget being at toukoul and learning that all of the babies would be adopted but that most of the older kids would not be. we heard that the older kids pray every night for parents but "parents only want the babies". so heart breaking. if we ever adopt again, it will be an older child or special needs.
Hello, My parents just adopted 3 kids who stayed at Gelan and they absolutely love the pictures and were telling us their friends and nannies names. They have been home for two months and keep on asking to see your pictures. Do you have any more pictures? If so can you post them or email them to me? Since our family was adopting we didn't get to meet any of the other kids as it might cause jealousy etc.. (that's what we were told at least) They have also stopped letting adoptive families tour so we loved the pictures of the inside. Our girls absolutely loved Gelan! They would have been moved to Gelan right around the time that you visited :)
-Allison
allirenae@gmail.com
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