I was not intending to adopt a child with HIV, but my daughter Helen came to me and she was HIV+. I was worried. Upon learning more, I became at peace with the medical piece. Then I was worried about family and friends' take. Upon learning and meeting Helen, they were not at all worried. In fact, since Helen's body is managing her HIV infection, she is medication free. Most of the time we all forget she is HIV+. Helen is an amazing child. She is actually healthier and misses less school than most of her classmates. We all love her and can't seem to fathom a time when she wasn't with us.
The Awakening: HIV/AIDS, Africa, and me
A beautiful video of the Bakers' adoption story can be found here.I can remember it so clearly. I was sitting is a little church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, waiting for the service to start. All around me, people were praying. Not the silent, head bowed pra...
My amazing daughter
I was not intending to adopt a child with HIV, but my daughter Helen came to me and she was HIV+. I was worried. Upon learning more, I became at peace with the medical piece. Then I was worried about family and friends' take. Upon learning and meetin...
Bringing Home Ermias
Ermias is our second adoption from Ethiopia. We knew when we adopted our first son from Ethiopia that we would be back to adopt again. God had touched our hearts in ways that we didn't even fully comprehend at the time.When we began researching adoption f...
Partners on our journey
When we went to pick up our daughter in Uganda, we found out during a routine medical exam that she was HIV positive. We weret totally unprepared for this news and literally didn't know where to turn. A friend in the States put us in touch with Project HO...
Following God in our adoption journey
We are a family formed entirely through adoption. Svetlana and Andy came home from Russia in 1998 and 2000 at 10 months old and 16 months old. Mel, 3.5 years old and suffering from mumps and malaria, came home in 2007, followed in 2009 by Biruk and Hanna,...
A safety net during our adoption
We are so impressed with the work of Project HOPEFUL! When we were considering adopting a child who was HIV+, we knew that the logistics would be difficult becasue we would have to linger in Ethiopia for multiple weeks in order to obtain an immigration wa...
Four daughters from Ukraine!
We were pretty happy with our lives, content with watching others do the Lord's work and sending a check to support this or that! But I always admired the faith of others that seemed to be just a little more in Love with Jesus than I. I remember many time...
Blessed
It was God's Word that inspired us to pursue adoption. James 1:27 says "Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles." Since God has shown us mercy in that "while were yet sinner...
Adopting a daughter with HIV
I first visited AHOPE, an orphanage for HIV+ children, in December of 2006 during a trip to adopt my son from a different orphanage. A few dozen children ran up to my mom, friends, and me, demanding pictures be taken and bubbles be blown. The children wer...
Ward Family Adoption
When adopting our daughter from Ethiopia, our I601 (immigration) waivers were lost by the Embassy. Project HOPEFUL stepped in and bridged the communication gap for us. We were fighting Ethiopia's "rainy season" communication and electricity disruptions th...
A Miracle Story
In March of 2008 we brought home our 4th adopted child from Ethiopia. She is a miracle story that still brings tears to us all. We met Beti (Bethlehem) in July 2007 while doing some ministry in orphanages in Ethiopia on a trip we made to bring home 3 sibl...
A Seed of Possibility
A year ago, if someone had told me that today I'd be anxiously waiting to go pick up my HIV+ daughter, I would have seriously questioned their sanity. Yet here I am, doing just that! To be honest, it never even crossed our minds to 'consider' adopting ...
Family United in Washington
We found our 2 precious children on a waiting child video. I never ever thought of adopting a children with HIV. As soon as I saw them I fell in love with them. Suddenly the label HIV had no meaning to me anymore. Prior to seeing my kids on the DVD, I was...
The Henderson Family Adoption
My husband and I adopted one of the first HIV+ children from Ethiopia back in 2006. At that time there was no support and no help for families adopting HIV+ children internationally, and the I601 waiver paperwork was taking 2 to 6 months to be completed. ...
