Rahwah

I've known the Slusarski family my whole life, and our families have been best friends for 18 years. We go on beach vacations together, cook-outs together, the boys spend the night, etc. etc! Ethan, Nick, and I go to the same school and Emma and Meghan go to the same school (they both used to go to our school). A lot of times, people have thought Meghan and I were cousins-and once sisters! It is almost like that! Heehee!

Adoption is one of the many things we are doing together.

We both started the Ethiopian process around the same time. They were considering adoption before, but my family had actually been looking at countries and such (you know the story) and when we started thinking about Ethiopia they started to take charge with their own adoption.

They have two kids, Meghan, who's turning 16 next month, and Ethan who is 13. Ethan is only a year older than me so when we were little we played a lot-then my brother came along and they are buddies and my dad, Ethan's dad (we just call him by his first name, Jim), Ethan and Nick do camping trips and stuff together. Meghan and I also have done lots of art projects and stuff like that together, because we both like that stuff but my sister not as much! But my sis and Emma were best friends when they were little and still friends today.

Everyone shares a room on beach vacations. We always rent beach houses, a lot of times from friends who own them. Ethan and Nick always share a room. Emma and Meghan do too. Me? I'm stuck in the middle, with no-one as my roommate. Which is why I need lots of books to bring and read at night when I have no one to whisper and giggle with. Haha, it's not that bad, but it stinks being stuck where I am! So when the Traci started talking about a girl they were thinking about adopting, Rahwah, who was 10 years old, I was soooo happy!!!! A friend my age! (ok, maybe 2 years younger, but Nick and Ethan are 3 years apart!) I couldn't wait. I really wanted them to adopt her. My mom showed me her picture:

(btw, I understand that it isn't legal to post pictures of a child online when they aren't legally adopted. But just wait!) :) :) :)

They decided to ADOPT RAHWAH!!!!!!! YAY!!!! It's official!!!!!! I'M. SO.EXCITED!!!!!!!! MY FRIEND! My first thought was sleepovers, hanging out and playing together, the BEACH TRIP! ACK! THANK YOU JESUS! She would be my buddy and almost-sister!

Her name will be Rahwah Shalom Slusarski. They are sending her a care package very soon! I want to maybe include something from me in there, like a picture I drew or a story or something. I can see many fun times ahead already!!!

A Little Ransom (goes a long way)

What do you associate the word "ransom" with? Many have pictures in their mind of people being held captive, only being letting go for a certain amount of money; ransom.

What is a "ransom"?

(a)the redemption of a prisoner, kidnapped person, etc., for a price.

(b)the price paid or demanded for such redemption.

(c) deliverance or rescue

These are all definitions from Dictionary.com.

Let's see how the Bible uses the word "ransom":

“‘No person devoted to destruction may be ransomed; they are to be put to death." Leviticus 27:29

"For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time." 1 Timothy 2:5-6

Look at the third definition, "deliverance, rescue".

A lot of people who adopt include "ransom" as a part of their adopted child's name, like as a middle name or such (it is pretty much a both-gender name) as it means "to be rescued".

When a young African child is in a orphanage, do they even know they are suffering? Well, of course they know the pain and hunger, but do they even know all that they've been deprived of? And I'm not talking TV, computer, cellphones, I'm talking education, enough food, clean water, a FAMILY, AND LOVE.

These children, orphaned and lost, don't know when they will eat their next meal. "Somedays, we get food, somedays, no food." And that's the way it works.

More than 90% percent of Africans are suffering from malnourishment and hunger.....

...and more that 800 million people go to bed hungry every night.

Hungry. None of us will ever come CLOSE to even EXPERIENCING what it feels like to be truly STARVING for your life. That's how it is in many places in Africa...sometimes you get fed, sometimes you don't, and when you don't, you fight to survive.

"Africa was poor, Africa is poor and Africa will continue to be poor if we are not ready to change Africa." - Cozay

Back to the Ransom part. For a while we were thinking of names for our children. One of them was Ransom. Just an idea thrown out there. Then after we decided to adopt older children, we decided to most likely keep their names. I've found that the original names the African children have are really good names..on an adoption blog I love to read, their three Ethiopian girls are named Meron, Hermela, and Rahel. I like all those names!

But the nickname of Ransom stuck. For my best friend and I anyway. Whenever we refer to a future child being a girl, we call her Ransom. That won't be her name, but what else am I to call me future little sissy? I got tired of saying "the future child if it's a girl" and "the future child if it's a boy" so we made nicknames for the kids, two names we had originally liked as names. For the girl, "Ransom" and the boy "Silas" (my mom still wants to name the boy Silas, LOL, she LOVES that name, I do too.). We even joked that our very close family friends who are also adopting but have already got their girl and the court date is on its way (Rahwah, here we come!) should name their boy (if they get one) Paul! LOL, get it?

But anyway, I'm soooooooooooooo excited thinking about my little Ransom. I've always wanted a little sister. I mean, a boy, Oh my word, I would die over a boy, I love little boys, I couldn't tell you how much I would love a little Ethiopian boy. But something about a girl...that hair, picking out girl clothes, seeing her play with my American Girl dolls, oh, I just need a girl.

If we don't get a girl in my childhood I definitely need to adopt a girl.

But I can't wait that long!!!

Just the THOUGHT that your future sibling (or daughter or son, if you are a parent) could be alive somewhere, sick, starving...its too much for me.

I need my little Ransom!!!!

Tadiyass! (Hello!)

When I tell people about my family's adoption, I always am asked these three questions:

1. Will they be boys or girls?

2. How old will they be?

3. When will they get here?

And I have the same answer for each question asked: "I don't know". It's as simple as that. And, I too am frustrated with the fact that I know not anything about my future sibling or siblings-except for one thing. They, as according to plan now, will be 100% Ethiopian.

The reason I say "according to plan" is because things change all the time. If I would have started this blog a year and a half ago, I would have said we are soon to be adopting a Chinese baby girl. If I had started this blog 10 months ago, I would have said I would soon be the sister of an adopted foster child. Had I started this blog 6 months ago, I would have shared my excitement on my future Korean sister.

See what I mean? We went from China to Foster Care to Korea to Ethiopia to Ghana and back to Ethiopia again.

I remember the farthest back when I knew we were adopting. I'm gonna say I was...8 or 9 years old? My brother had his friend over and we were walking into Lowes. There was a big, striped snake that kept coming through our yard and we needed to keep them out. So, if I remember correctly, we were going into Lowes to get moth balls or whatever. And my mom was telling me about how she really loved the idea of adopting a little Chinese girl-I was...words like "ecstatic" doesn't explain.

I've always been the kid to jump the gun and get my hopes really high before something is even said to happen. That's what happened here. I was already thinking of names-my mom and I thought Eva Grace would be beautiful. Which lead me, the next birthday I had, I asked for and got an Asian American Girl Doll and named her Eva Grace.

I liked to tell people "We might get a little girl from China!" It seemed everyone who was adopting was adopting from China these days. I learned of the horrors girls went through there.

But we didn't stay at China. My family was not even eligible to adopt from anywhere in Asia, we found out later, for the weirdest reasons! We had too many kids in the family already. And, China was really expensive and we learned that it could take up to FOUR YEARS to get our little girl. I could not wait that long. Neither could anyone else in my family. But it wasn't just that that drove us away from China-God was closing its doors and opening new ones for us that we wouldn't ever have imagined at the time.

Some people think, does it really matter where you adopt from, as long as you are doing the good deed of adopting?

Adopting isn't a "deed", I don't think. Its not something to make you feel like, "Hey. I'm adopting orphan children. I'm such a good person." God has an EXACT plan for everyone, and or some people its to adopt the abused little girls of China, others its to save the starving people of Africa, and other people have different callings. But ours is adopting, and we are sure of it.

I don't want to make this first post too long, but I'll add a few more things.

My best friend asked me, "How do you KNOW God wants you to adopt from Ethiopia?"

It starts when we were planning on adopting from Korea but things changed and again we were lost, feeling the calling to adopt, but from where?

My parents, in January 2009, had taken a missions trip to Koboko, Uganda, which is also a country in Africa, right next to Kenya. I can't remember if this was before or after we felt the calling to adopt, but Africa changed my parents lives in unexplainable ways, even I noticed them. For one, boy, did they stop complaining! Heehee. I guess that's what happens when you meet dirty, orphaned, homeless children who walk miles a day just to get a handful of rice and if lucky, a sip of dirty water. You may expect the children to be sad, crying, depressed all the time. But no! Those children were truly amazing. They were cheerful, happy kids. A few were Christians and Christ sure did live through them. They were kind, super thankful, caring, and shared every little good thing they got. And wow, they are the most creative and smart kids out there when it comes to inventing games. Give a child a pile of trash and what do they make? Well, one boy had made a fire truck toy with real flashing lights out of a coffee can. They made kites out of trash bags and soccer balls out of old bits of cloth and string It's very, very sad, but also very, very amazing.

Like I said, Africa stayed a part of their lives and hearts forever. So when started to feel God calling us to adopt from Africa, they were ready. At first the thought was Uganda, I believe, but I remember that they were asking for signs from God to show them the way. I remember one that was definitely a sign from God.

It was a Wednesday morning that I didn't have school. My mom had a class to teach on Wednesday mornings (she is a leader in the Women's group at church, I'm proud of her :) ) and I got to come along and work in the preschool. As we were walking back to my car, we spotted a pretty blonde lady walking out, carrying the most ADORABLE little boy with the most beautiful chocolate-colored skin and curly brown hair. My mom had to rush over. After we had marveled at how adorable the boy was,the lady mentioned she had just adopted him, and my mom managed to ask, "Where is he from?" and the lady answered, "Ethiopia," I remember grinning myself and my mom was almost in tears. What happened then? The rest was history, which leads up to now, and me, anxiously waiting....