Rockwall Family Embraces God’s Plan through Adoption

By Jenny Pope
Buckner International

It all started with a single word, scrawled into the margins on Cyndi Krawietz’s Bible. Adoption? It was written with a question mark.

“I had written it there in January 2004,” she said. “It just seemed so impossible then. I thought there’s no way we could ever afford it.”

But now, when she looks at her three children – Bethany, 15; Kyle, 12, and Mintesinot, 10 – she couldn’t imagine life any other way. “Every once in a while I take a step back and look at our family and say, ‘Wow, we could have missed this.’”

The financial needs of being a single-income family raising two children and home schooling were enough for Cyndi and her husband Luke. But when they developed a passion for international mission work through their church, Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall, Texas, they always found a way to make it work.

“Each time we raised support and God would always provide. Who knows how, but somehow, we would always make whatever we were lacking,” she said.

After a year-and-a-half of traveling as a family to Ghana, twice, and China, Cyndi added it all up. “I had always had this number in mind that I thought it would cost to adopt, and when I looked back at all the mission trips we had taken, and the amount of money God had provided, I realized that it was the same amount [to adopt]. It confirmed it for me – God’s will done in God’s way will not lack God’s supply.”

Cyndi and Luke set out to adopt a baby girl from Africa. They felt connected to the continent, they said, and adopting a little girl was all they had ever seen. Bethany and Kyle were equally sold on it. “I don’t know why that’s what I thought, because our children are both grown and far from the diapers stage. But that’s what I’d always seen done, and it was non-threatening in a way.”

The family chose Buckner International as their agency, now affiliated with Dillon International based out of Tulsa, Okla., and began the home study process to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia. At the first meeting, they received a flyer of waiting older children living at the Buckner Baby Home in Addis Ababa. There were four older boys and Cyndi immediately felt drawn to pray for them.

“We committed to pray for them as a family every night,” she said. They also made color copies of the flyers and hung them all over church, sharing the boys’ stories wherever they went. But nobody seemed interested in adopting them.

A few months later, Cyndi was making the bed when she became overwhelmed with frustration. “We can understand as parents that ache to have a child, but what must it be like to be a child and ache to have a parent?” Cyndi thought.

“I started talking to the Lord about it, talking out loud, just asking, ‘Why won’t people adopt these older boys?’ And then it hit me. ‘Why won’t we?’”

That was the turning point, she said. Cyndi immediately went to her prayer journal and pulled out the flyer of the four boys, spreading it out on her bed. “I was just staring at the sheet, the one that had been in my prayer journal this whole time, thinking, ‘Is one of these boys our child?’”

The whole family starting seeing things in a new way and they all felt drawn to one boy on the page – Minte.
“I don’t want to over-emotionalize it, but there was a point when we felt more strongly drawn to Minte, and I think that’s because the Lord revealed to us that it’s possible he’s ours. Suddenly, it wasn’t just a child – it was our child.”

The Ethiopian adoption process is one of the quickest in terms of international adoption and can take as few as nine months to complete. For the Krawietz family, those nine months couldn’t pass fast enough. The entire family flew to Addis Ababa to meet Minte and attend their Embassy appointment, the final step in the process, on Sept. 9, 2008.

“We have some really great memories from that time together,” Luke said. “The kids were playing together from the start. With Bethany and Kyle, I knew how their hearts were shaped. I didn’t have any real concerns with them being able to adapt, or welcome, or bond with a new sibling.”

“There was communication between us that transcended language,” Cyndi added.

Now that they’ve been home for almost a year, the Krawietz family has adapted well and continue to grow closer as Minte learns more and more English and opens up daily about his life in Ethiopia – his family, traditions and the friends he left behind who are still waiting for their “forever family.”

“There are a lot of neat things about adopting an older child,” Luke said. “Sure, there are a lot of years that we didn’t get to be a part of. But little by little, he shares with us memories from earlier in his life. We’re kind of going forward with him, but going backwards as well. It’s all colliding.”

One of the first few days after Minte came home, he lost a tooth. He immediately ran outside to throw it up on the roof as his family watched, stunned. It’s an Ethiopian tradition to throw your tooth where the birds fly so they can carry it away. If a bird picks it up, it means a new, strong white tooth will grow in its place.

“I love that. If we hadn’t adopted an older child, we would never know things like that,” Cyndi said.

Minte’s Ethiopian heritage has become an inseparable part of their lives. They regularly cook Ethiopian cuisine (including Minte’s favorite, spicy spaghetti cooked with bere bere spice) and frequently visit some favorite traditional Ethiopian restaurants in the area. There are Ethiopian relics around the home and a smattering of note cards written in English and Amharic identifying new vocabulary words. Home schooling with his brother and sister has also allowed Minte to learn English at his own pace, Cyndi said.

“I love home,” Minte said, in perfect English.

Cyndi and Luke continue to pray for the boys living in the Buckner home, one of whom has already been adopted. The other two continue to wait.

“I think more people are called to adopt than they think,” Cyndi said. “Of all the people who think about adoption, a very small fraction actually do it. And an even smaller number adopt older children.

“I think, whatever it is you feel comfortable doing, take that next step. Go to a free interest meeting. Talk to someone who’s adopted. If it’s a baby girl, go for it. Whatever it is that will take you to that next step, go there. God won’t steer a parked car. But God will take you where you need to be.”

For more information about international adoption, upcoming interest meetings or about some of the waiting older children currently in need of a forever home, call 1-866-236-7823 or visit www.dillonadopt.com.

Buckner Adoption is now affiliated with Dillon International and offers domestic adoption options in Texas and international adoption from Russia, Ethiopia, China, Korea and India for families living in all 50 states.