Share with friends and family with the heart and capacity to adopt.

These amazing girls may never get the forever families they were promised. The dream of a home has sustained them for so long, and now that hope is fading. Please help.


This winter, I volunteered with Adoption Advocates International in Ethiopia. I worked with the children at Layla House. I was there to teach and mentor them, but in the end I feel they taught me. They taught me about inner strength, faith, perseverance, and the great capacity of love. Now, it breaks my heart to think that some of them may be forced out of Layla and back onto the streets of Addis. Ethiopian government has changed their adoption policy and capped off the age limit for adoption agencies. These girls have been deemed "too old," but they are only 14 and 15....freshman in high school....hardly adults.

Please share this with all your family, friends and networks. Someone is bound to know someone who wants to expand their family and can reach out to these great children. For more information contact Linda or Gay at Adoption Advocates International - (360)452 - 4777.

LOOKING FOR EXPERIENCED FAMILIES WITH UP TO DATE HOMESTUDIES

For the first time since Layla House Ethiopia opened its doors, children who were promised families may not get them. These four girls, at 14 and 15 years of age, are about to "age out" of the orphanage because of changes in the laws. For more information call Adoption Advocates International at (360) 452 -- 4777 and ask to speak to Linda or Gay. Please pass this e-mail on to anyone who might have an open heart and room in their home.

Mescrem A. (not her real name) is 15. She is active and outgoing and loves playing soccer and ping pong. She wants to remember always her original family as well as the country she came from and hopes one day to find a husband who is a 'good man'. While Mescrem admits she sometimes has a short temper, she also says that, "when there is love, there is everything."

Konjit A. (not her real name) is 14. She would like to become a dentist. She is very neat and organized and describes herself as reserved. One day, she hopes to return to Layla House and adopt a child from there. Her best memory is of getting to see her mother after three months to say good bye before she died. Konjit means 'Promise' in the language of Ethiopia.

Freyewat and Konjit T. (not their real names) are sisters ages 15 and 14. While Konjit loves to sing and wants to record her own album of love songs some day, Freyewat is more interested in playing soccer and other sports. Freyewat remembers many funny stories of their original family like hiding porridge under the bed and her father trying to test to see if they had eaten sugar. Konjit's fondest memory, however, is a year she spent at her brother's house being cared for after an illness. Both of these girls are popular in the compound at Layla and both are interested in returning some day to build homes for the homeless in Ethiopia.