My BIL and SIL, David & Erica (George’s brother and brother’s wife), are adopting a little boy from Ethiopia and will be traveling from Arizona to Ethiopia in the next few weeks to go pick him up. His name is Silas and he’s three years old. Travel to Ethiopia is expensive, so one of their friends has made a beautiful hand-made quilt and is selling it on eBay with all the proceeds going toward David, Erica, and Silas’s plane tickets.
Here’s Silas and here’s the quilt (and yes, they made him his own quilt to keep as well). Is he adorable or what??? The quilt is based on the Ethiopian flag with a little inset of the African continent there on the right side.
Silas will be joining my two nieces and my nephew, who are all thrilled to have a new little brother (especially my nephew). I sat down (with my computer) and interviewed (via IM) my SIL Erica about adoption, Silas, and the general process yesterday so you can get to know them a bit more. We both decided that doing interviews is kind of fun!
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Rachel: You have three children between the ages of five and ten. What made you decide to adopt a fourth?
Erica: Adoption has always been close to my heart. I babysat for a family that adopted three of their four children, I have a passion for orphans, but wasn’t sure if adoption would ever be an option after three kids. It was actually my husband who sent me an email saying he felt the Lord calling us to adopt.
Rachel: How did you decide on Ethiopia?
love with Ethiopia and we both knew that is where our son was.
Rachel: How long did the adoption process take?
Erica: Start to finish 10 months.
Rachel: What adoption service did you use, why did you choose it, and would you recommend them?
Erica: We used Children’s Hope International. They are a Christian agency, non-profit, licensed, accredited, hague complient, and have an amazing Arizona social worker. We would absolutely recommend them.
Rachel: Silas Esubalew David Shubin is a mouthful. What is the significance of the name?
Erica: LOL! Yes it is. We debated for months on the “perfect” name. When we saw his sweet face we just knew he was Silas. The bibilical meaning for Silas is “defender”, I had to dig for that but we love it. Not wanting to take his given Ethiopian name, we knew Esubalew would have to be in there. It means “And the Lord said” which is completely perfect for us and meant so much, it was as if the Lord used his name to let us know he was just for us.
Ethiopian tradition gives the father’s first name as the second name for each child which also serves as their surname or last name. My husband David is Russian and this is also Russian tradition but serves as the middle name. Wanting Silas to have his adoptive father’s name was important to us and our other kids have two middle names as well.
Rachel: You are now officially Silas’s parents according to both the U.S. and
Ethiopian governments, right?
Erica: No and Yes. We are his legal parents in Ethiopia. We have an Embassy appointment on February 7th to get his visa to bring him home to the US. We actually have to re-adopt him here in the states before he will be a US citizen. His adoption is recognized as legal and final in the US but he won’t be a citizen until we readopt him.
Rachel: When can you go pick him up?
Erica: We leave February 3rd and will see him for the first time on February 5 {they just found out when their Embassy appointment is and they were unable to purchase tickets until that information came in}.
Rachel: How much do you need to raise for airline tickets?
Erica: We are about a $1,500 short on our airfare.
Rachel: Is there anything else you’d like people to know about Silas, your family, adoption, or ummm, the universe at large?
Erica: LOL! Thank you for your support. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel and all the best to those out there that are also in the process of adopting.
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Please take a moment to check out the quilt auction here: *To Ethiopia With Love *Flag* Rag Quilt *ADOPTION*RQQ and good luck, David & Erica! Blessings to you and your family. I can’t wait to meet my new little nephew!
Rachel
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