{"id":214,"date":"2009-04-14T11:08:40","date_gmt":"2009-04-14T11:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2009\/04\/ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship.html"},"modified":"2009-04-14T11:08:40","modified_gmt":"2009-04-14T11:08:40","slug":"ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2009\/04\/ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship.html","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopian Orphans Face Life of Hardship"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Times Online:<\/p>\n

The Ethiopian peasant farmer and his wife shuffled painfully into the orphanage. They were in the last stages of Aids and had only weeks to live. However, they were happy. They had heard the Franciscan nuns had found a home for their three children and had come to say farewell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so happy, they are going to stay together,\u201d the father, Solomon, whispered as he embraced a middle-aged Mormon couple from Salt Lake City, Utah. \u201cNow, I can die peacefully. They will go to school in America and have a future. It is good they leave here.\u201d As they embraced their two daughters, aged 8 and 6, for the last time the tears ran freely. Their four-year-old son did not appreciate the significance of the moment and ran off to play with friends.<\/p>\n

Sister Luthgarder, a seasoned veteran of such heart-rending adoptions, explained: \u201cIt is sad, but it is so rare they are kept together and so I am happy.\u201d Only a week previously a brother and sister were separated: one going to Norway, the other to Canada. \u201cThe new parents said they would take them to see each other every year, but inevitably they will grow apart,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Only a fraction of Ethiopia\u2019s burgeoning population of orphaned children, now put at five million, find their way to Kidane Meheret Children\u2019s Home. Even fewer leave and they are certainly the lucky ones.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Ethiopian peasant farmer and his wife shuffled painfully into the orphanage. They were in the last stages of Aids and had only weeks to live. However, they were happy. They had heard the Franciscan nuns had found a home for their three children and had come to say farewell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so happy, they are going to stay together,\u201d the father, Solomon, whispered as he embraced a middle-aged Mormon couple from Salt Lake City, Utah. \u201cNow, I can die peacefully. They will go to school in America and have a future. It is good they leave here.\u201d As they embraced their two daughters, aged 8 and 6, for the last time the tears ran freely. Their four-year-old son did not appreciate the significance of the moment and ran off to play with friends.<\/p>\n

Sister Luthgarder, a seasoned veteran of such heart-rending adoptions, explained: \u201cIt is sad, but it is so rare they are kept together and so I am happy.\u201d Only a week previously a brother and sister were separated: one going to Norway, the other to Canada. \u201cThe new parents said they would take them to see each other every year, but inevitably they will grow apart,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Only a fraction of Ethiopia\u2019s burgeoning population of orphaned children, now put at five million, find their way to Kidane Meheret Children\u2019s Home. Even fewer leave and they are certainly the lucky ones.<\/p>\n

Read the rest of the article here.<\/a> <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Times Online: The Ethiopian peasant farmer and his wife shuffled painfully into the orphanage. They were in the last stages of Aids and had only weeks to live. However, they were happy. They had heard the Franciscan nuns had found a home for their three children and had come to say farewell. \u201cI am so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa"],"yoast_head":"\nEthiopian Orphans Face Life of Hardship - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2009\/04\/ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ethiopian Orphans Face Life of Hardship - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Times Online: The Ethiopian peasant farmer and his wife shuffled painfully into the orphanage. They were in the last stages of Aids and had only weeks to live. However, they were happy. They had heard the Franciscan nuns had found a home for their three children and had come to say farewell. \u201cI am so…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2009\/04\/ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-14T11:08:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ethiopian Orphans Face Life of Hardship - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2009\/04\/ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ethiopian Orphans Face Life of Hardship - Red Letters","og_description":"Times Online: The Ethiopian peasant farmer and his wife shuffled painfully into the orphanage. They were in the last stages of Aids and had only weeks to live. However, they were happy. They had heard the Franciscan nuns had found a home for their three children and had come to say farewell. \u201cI am so…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2009\/04\/ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2009-04-14T11:08:40+00:00","author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2009\/04\/ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2009\/04\/ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship.html","name":"Ethiopian Orphans Face Life of Hardship - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-04-14T11:08:40+00:00","dateModified":"2009-04-14T11:08:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2009\/04\/ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2009\/04\/ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2009\/04\/ethiopian-orphans-face-life-of-hardship.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ethiopian Orphans Face Life of Hardship"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}