By Analiz G. Schremmer

BEAUMONT, Texas — Sixteen foster children from Buckner Children’s Village ran through a crowd of volunteers May 13 yelling, “Move that Van” – Extreme Home Makeover, style.

They were returning to their home at Buckner Children’s Village after Keller Williams Realtors and community partners spent the day renovating the emergency shelter with the help of many community partners, a $20,000 endeavor.

Keller Williams Realty is an international organization, but for its company-wide day of service, the local franchise selected a very local goal. RED (Renew, Energize and Donate) Day is an annual Keller Williams Realty service initiative dedicated to improving local communities. On May 13, Keller Williams Realty market centers in the US and Canada closed their doors and the associates spent the day donating their time to renewing and energizing aspects of their local communities.

Buckner Children and Family Services was extremely pleased to have been selected as their charity of choice, said administrator Laura May.

“The emergency shelter is the first place a child goes when they are removed from a home due to abuse, neglect or abandonment,” she said. “So the gifts and the work done by more than 40 volunteers, does a lot to give the children a more cheerful environment.”

May said the emergency shelter houses up to 16 children between the ages of 5 and 17.

“It was truly like an extreme home makeover. They came in one day and painted five children’s rooms, five bathrooms, and they accented walls in the living room and kitchen,” May said.

They also installed new kitchen appliances, including a double convection oven, and assembled an entertainment system with a big screen TV.

“It was great to watch the kids run into each of their rooms jumping up and down squealing with excitement of how bright and colorful their rooms were,” May said. “They each had two new outfits laid out on their bed and they showed off their new stuff to each other.

“It was such a sweet blessing for our staff and children to be uplifted by the generous spirit of giving. This home will be a cheerful, safe, welcoming place for so many children at a time of crisis.”

Leah Cleveland from Keller Williams Realty said that it was overwhelming to see the children’s faces as they walked through their rooms that evening.

“It was an honor to work with Buckner and have the ability to make such an impact on not only these beautiful children, but every child who walks through those doors from this day forward.”

The following sponsors helped make the day a success:

Allstate Insurance: Mike Roby
American Home Shield: Susan Miguez
Arc Angels Motorcycle Ministry
Call AHollier / Handyman
Chem-Dry
Chili’s – Beaumont
Cornerstone Media
Golden Triangle Title Services
Great American Cookie Company @ Parkdale Mall
Hadley’s Furniture
Home Masters Inspection Services
Hooks Title & Abstract Company
Lowe’s Home Improvement
M & D Supply
Manning’s Office Supply
Market Basket
McClelland, Samuel, Fehnel & Busch, L.L.P.
McCowen Paint
Mr. Sparky Electrical Services
National Property Inspection
Patriot Bank Mortgage
PODS
R&P Employer Solutions, Inc. &  RPR Group Payroll
Sherwin Williams
Stewart Title Company
Sutherlands
Target
The Mortgage Group
Triangle Blueprint
Tri-Supply
Wal-Mart
Wallpapers, Etc.
Wells Fargo Bank
Westin Mortgage: Calim Atkins & Ruby Martin
Video Monitoring
Zummo’s Meat Co.

A group of Russian orphans will make the trip of a lifetime as they travel across the world to stay with American host families this August.

The program, called Angels from Abroad , provides older children a chance to learn about American culture, share their Russian culture and experience living in a family. It also helps raise awareness about the need for adopting older children, said Irina Shytova, director of Dillon International’s Russia program, available through the licensed, non-profit agency’s affiliation with Buckner.

“With more than 750,000 estimated orphans in Russia, there is a tremendous need for adoptive families, especially families for older children. About 75 to 80 percent of the children available for adoption are 5 years old or older,” Shytova said, adding that older children in Russian orphanages face a bleak future if they are not adopted. At the age of 17, children are forced to leave the orphanage system and many fall into alcohol, drugs, prostitution and crime. It is estimated nearly 10 percent commit suicide within the first three years.

“We have the opportunity to change these children’s lives dramatically through adoption,” Shytova said. All children are between the ages of 6 and 12.

Host families are still needed for the program. Interested families can attend a free interest meeting March 2 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Dillon International Office/Buckner Children’s Home Campus in Dallas.

WHAT: Free Interest Meeting for Angels from Abroad Host Families

WHEN: March 2, 2010, 6 – 9 p.m.

WHERE: Dillon International Office/Buckner Children’s Home Campus
5200 S. Buckner Blvd.
Dallas, Texas

RSVP: To attend, families can contact Sharon Hedrick at 214-319-3426 or email shedrick@buckner.org

Details available at www.angelsfromabroad.com

DALLAS – Last year in Texas, an estimated 12,750 children were left waiting for an adoptive family. These children were removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect and placed into the foster care system. After their parents’ rights were terminated, they needed a more permanent place to say. But there weren’t enough homes for all of them.

In fact, there were 1,368 children who aged out of the foster care system in 2008 having never been placed with a permanent family.

November is National Adoption Month and it is Buckner’s goal to help each and every child in the Texas find a loving family. That’s why Buckner is actively recruiting individuals and families to adopt children in need of a home.

“There is a huge need for families to step forward to care for children who have been abused, neglected or abandoned in this state,” said JoAnn Cole, director of Buckner campus ministries. “It is our priority to place children into loving families and to prevent them from facing an uncertain future.”

Learn more about the ways you can ‘Be a Family’ to a child in need through Buckner. Contact someone in your area today.

Buckner Foster Care and Adoption is part of Buckner Children and Family Services, a Christian organization that has been caring for children since 1879. With ministries throughout Texas, the United States and around the world, Buckner provides a strong, stable support system for foster and adoptive families.

“Jim said, ‘You know, I’d like to take up the idea of fostering,’” Linda recalled. “So we did it. We just really felt called to it.”

The couple’s three oldest children had already moved out, Jim said. “We’ve been very blessed with a nice, large house. We have everything we’ve ever wanted or needed. And it was just time to give back.”

The Kimberlys have fostered many children in their home, and each time the children were eventually reunited with their family.

“The hardest part of fostering is letting them go,” Linda said. “Because you fall in love with every single child to some extent. And some touch you so deeply that you feel like there’s been a death in the family. But you have to let them go; that’s just what you do.”

One time, after four of her foster children went back to live with their birth family, Linda said she stood in her closet and cried.

“I was heartbroken,” she said. “I prayed to God, saying, ‘Please send me some that I can keep.’ And two weeks later Ethan and Alisa showed up. And when God answers you that clearly, you better not say no!”

The Kimberlys fostered siblings Ethan, 6, and Alisa, 4, and are now in the process to adopt them through Buckner foster-to-adopt services. Both children come from families where alcohol, drugs and violence were prevalent.

“Ethan is challenged by his past,” Linda said. “When he came to live with us, he just had no sense of being a little boy – letting his guard down. After he had been with us for about six months, I started to see little bits and pieces of the child he was intended to be. It was absolutely the biggest blessing to be able to be there and see that.”

Alisa, too, was very detached when she arrived. “Now she would probably superglue herself to my hip,” Linda laughed. “I am her mommy. She knows this, and I like it too. They’re both such great kids.”

Their future is much brighter now that they are safe and secure in a family, Jim said.

To learn more about the ways you can be a family through Buckner foster care and adoption, visit www.beafamily.org or call Mark Hayes at 903-757-9383.

LUBBOCK, Texas — Barbara and Sean Smith have fostered more than 50 children, so people assume it’s because they can’t say no.

“Oh, we can say no,” Barbara clarified. “We just don’t want to miss out on the blessing.”

The Smiths said they like knowing that they’ve helped a child, seeing a child learn something new or grow closer to God. Helping children is their ministry; but it doesn’t come without sacrifices.

Sean talked about a girl whom they kept until she was almost 5. “She was adopted by another family. We have set up Skype to talk to her. Grieving is a real thing and everyone in the family goes through grieving. It isn’t just the parents. It’s also the children.”

The Smiths have adopted three of their foster children: Nancy, 13; Andrea, 11; and Chelsey, 9 and they have five adult children of their own.

“The girls love helping us care for the babies and they also have a hard time letting go,” Barbara said.

One of the hardest to let go was a boy who was with the Smiths from birth to age 9.

“He grew up with our children and he is their brother. We were set to adopt him when it was decided that he could go back to his birth mom. So it doesn’t always turn out picture perfect in the way you might want it.”

The Smiths have cared for many medically fragile children because Barbara, who used to work as an emergency medical technician, is equipped to care for them.

Two of these babies are in their home now: one with hydrocephalus, a condition caused by water buildup in the brain, and the other with liver and blood pressure complications.

For a while, Barbara was taking a weekly six-hour car drive to Dallas to take one of the babies for treatment. Now it’s only every two or three weeks. But Barbara said she’s never minded.

“It is a way of life for us,” she said. “One time, my husband was at work and I called him, because I didn’t want to make a decision without him. I said, there is this little girl with some medical issues and I was wondering how you’d feel about taking her in. And he said, ‘Of course. That’s what we do.’ And it is what we do.”

Sean said that he wants to be committed to touching the children’s lives.

“We make it our mission to be there for these kids, to teach them about God and take them to church. I want to believe that somehow they can take this with them.”

To learn more about becoming a foster parent in Lubbock, call 806-795-7151 or visit www.beafamily.org today.

Buckner International

SUDAN, Texas – When 10-month-old Samantha arrived in the Baker’s home, she was so weak she couldn’t sit up in her crib.

“She wouldn’t make a noise. She just laid there,” Crystal Baker remembered. “We’d walk in and it was so sad. She’d be laying in her little bed, her eyes never moved. I thought, ‘Why in the world will she not cry?’”

Sam’s older sister Ally, 5, told them. “She would never cry at home. She knew she’d be beat to death if she cried.”

Today, 2-year-old Ally is shy and reserved. She carefully watches new people of the corner of her eye, but eagerly joins her sister Journey when she offers her an apple. She smiles and cries, like a normal 2-year-old girl.

“You heard her, she cries all the time now!” Crystal laughed. “Now she will cry if she needs something, and that’s a good thing because she’s learned that she will be responded to.”

Little transformations mark the big ones in foster families, and no one knows this better than Crystal and Dexter Baker.

As newlyweds, the couple knew they wanted to build their family – the just didn’t know how. After giving birth to their oldest son Dex, now 13, they discovered they were unable to have any more children, though no one could diagnose why.

“We started looking into fostering and adopting and really felt like God was calling us in that direction,” Dexter said.

“It didn’t take us long to figure out why there wasn’t anything wrong with us,” Crystal said. “It was because God had different plans for our life. I am very thankful we were not able to conceive or we wouldn’t have realized the blessings that were out there for us.”

Six blessings, to be exact

The Bakers first fostered and adopted their daughter McKayla, 7, who arrived in their home at 18 months old. They call her their “Polynesian Princess.”

“My little sister McKayla, she’s always been with us,” 13-year-old Dex said.

“Then we got a baby after her and I just thought, we’re supposed to keep her. But then we lost her. That really really hurt; I didn’t ever want to do it again.”

Like most foster children, she was reunited with her birth family. But the Baker family felt the loss.

“I loved that baby. She was my little sister,” Dex said. “I was like, ‘God why did you take her away? We loved her.’ But I guess she just needed to go back and she needed to be with her real mom. And we couldn’t do anything about that.”

The next placement in their home, another baby girl, was also reunited with her father.

“He was a good guy and it was the right thing,” Crystal remembered. “She needed to go back home with him. But still, when it happened, it was hard. But we know that was the season God had for us to be with that child, and that is a blessing.”

The next four placements in their home were a little more permanent. Sisters Ally, 5, and Samantha, 2, and siblings Journey, 2, and Jake, 1, will all claim the Baker name soon enough.

“We are finishing our adoption of Journey and Jake at the end of this month,” Dexter said. “It doesn’t change a lot as far as their living situation, but it’s nice to know that somebody put an official stamp on it and said this is really forever … even though it’s felt like forever for a long time.”

Sisters Ally and Sam are still waiting for rights to be terminated before adoption proceedings can begin. The family expects to move forward later this year.

“We’ve been doing this for six and a half years, and it’s neat to have this part finalized,” Crystal said. “But it’s kind of sad, too.

“Probably, after these children grow up and it’s time for them to leave home, we’ll be fostering again. There are so many kids, but there’s only so much you can do. But we do know that this is something we want to do again.”

As the oldest brother, Dex said he plays an important role in his family of eight.

“I give the kids guidance in the real world where my parents can’t, and help them go through their experiences a little better,” he said.

Dex said he’s learned a lot about prayer and drawing near to God in tough times, and though he doesn’t picture himself as a foster parent one day, he knows this is God’s plan for his family.

“When I saw how terrible of a life these kids must have had before they came to live with us, I thought, ‘You know, life isn’t all about me and what I want to do.’ These kids need a home and they deserve to be in a home as much as I do. It doesn’t matter if I was born here, if this is what God wants my parents to do and this is where God wants these kids to come, they can come here.”

Making the choice

When Crystal and Dexter went to their first PRIDE training class, they were warned about the struggles of children placed in their home. Many come from difficult pasts of abuse and neglect and can act out in their new foster family, she explained.

“The very first class we did, I walked out during the break. We left and I cried the whole way home,” she said. “I was scared. I wanted that perfect child when in reality, even if you have your own child, there’s not guarantee that they will be perfect. Once we started meeting other foster parents, a lot of those fears were gone.”

Crystal and Dexter both stressed the importance of choosing a good agency when looking into fostering or adopting.

“Buckner has been great to work with,” Dexter said. “We talk with a lot of other families and some of the problems or things they go through, either we don’t have those problems or we have such great support that when things do come up, it wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“They care specifically about the children God has for your home,” Crystal said. “And that makes a big difference. And I know I could pick up the phone right now and call any of our caseworkers and they would be here tonight.

“We trust them because in a way, they built our family. Them and God.”

Dexter said if God is leading you to foster, “do it. No matter how hard it seems. It’s the hardest, most challenging most rewarding thing you can do with your life. It’s really worth your time and effort.”

To learn more about becoming a foster parent in Lubbock, call 806-795-7151 or visit www.beafamily.org today.

“Because we haven’t been blessed with our own kids yet, we see it as God’s way of asking us to do this now,” December said.

The couple is fostering a pair of brothers ages 5 and7 who were physically abused before coming into their home, they said. But only two or three weeks into their stay with the Barcofts, they asked, ‘Is it OK if we call you Mom and Dad?’

“The most touching thing is the looks on their faces,” Tim said. “Knowing they are happy and don’t have any worries. When they first got here, the oldest one acted very grown up and now he can just play.

Last year in Potter County, there were 2,892 reported cases of child abuse or neglect. Seventy-seven of the children in those cases were removed from their homes.
About 276 children live in foster homes in Potter County. (TDFPS 2008 Databook)
Tim and December are part of the solution in these children’s lives because they choose to open their home and hearts to help, said foster care supervisor Sean Burrell.

“We are all responsible for our children,” Burrell said. “But families like Tim and December are going above and beyond to make a difference in this community. They are offering a family, a place to belong, to these children.”
December said that one of the boys recently thanked them for letting them be part of their family.

“It is a change for us because you learn to put their needs in front of your own,” she said. “Putting them first and just seeing them running up to you and giving them a home. But I love it. It is wonderful.

“We went through training in December where they taught us to deal with discipline, learning CPR and learning to get down to the child’s level and be open to learning from them and so it helped prepare us for the change.”

One of the top priorities for the Barcrofts is offering the boys a Christian home where they can learn about God and take some early steps in their relationship with Jesus, they said.

The couple makes it a point to pray together and attend church as a family. They play Christian music at home and display crosses and other reminders of their faith.

“One time, we were worshiping at church and I looked over to see one of our foster children raising his hands to God worshiping,” he said. “At night we see them say their prayers and the older one will go for 15 minutes if we let him… that’s how I knew we are doing something right.”

Be a Family

Information Meeting and PRIDE training

Call Sean Burrell at 806-559-2223 or email sburrell@buckner.org for more information.

WILLOW PARK, TEXAS—It’s a love story with some tears at the beginning. Overjoyed at the birth of their son, Carter, two years earlier, Mike and Libby Skaggs, members of Hulen Street Baptist in Fort Worth, eagerly planned to expand their family. But their dream was sidetracked by devastating news: “We learned we would not be able to have any more children biologically. That was a season of grieving for us,” Mike recalled.

God’s plan for the couple soon became apparent. “We had always thought we would adopt some day, and when we couldn’t have another child by birth, it seemed clear what we were meant to do. God very clearly was telling us to adopt,” Libby said.

That decision required research. “We looked at a lot of agencies. Our living room floor was covered with adoption agency packets,” Libby recalled. She learned about Dillon International from a volunteer with the agency’s area representative program who shared her positive adoption story and the joy her son from Korea had brought her family. “Next, we attended a pre-adoption workshop, and were very impressed with the caring staff. We walked away knowing Dillon was the agency for us.”

Founded in 1972, Dillon International is a licensed, non-profit international adoption agency, headquartered in Tulsa, Okla., that has placed more than 5,600 children with U.S. families. This year, Dillon joined the Buckner family through an affiliation that makes it possible to provide adoption and humanitarian aid services to children living in the United States, Russia and Ethiopia, as well as Dillon’s established programs in South Korea, China, India, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, and Vietnam.

“Once we decided to move forward with plans to adopt, it became a season of hope and excitement for us,” Mike said, adding that the adoption process was also a rollercoaster ride of emotions. “Some people compare the wait of an international adoption to a pregnancy. But the emotions are very different because with a pregnancy, you have that child with you all the time. We had no idea what was going on with our little girl or little boy on the other side of the world. Our case manager fielded some very anxious questions from us as we waited.”

God’s involvement in their adoption process was demonstrated in some amazing, and amusing, ways, Libby remembered. “After we completed our adoption application, I wrote in my prayer journal that I could not stand to wait for the referral of a child longer than six months, or I’d just go insane. It was six months to the day when we received the call about Abby.”

Her first response to her daughter’s referral photo was laughter. “She had such chubby cheeks,” Libby said. “You immediately feel that across-the-ocean bond.”

Fifteen weeks later, Mike and Libby travelled to Korea to meet 7-month-old Abby at Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS), Dillon International’s sister agency in Seoul where she had been cared for since birth. During their time in Korea, the couple experienced the world that had nurtured their daughter by rocking and feeding babies at the ESWS babies’ home. They also met with ESWS Founder Dr. Kim, Duk Whang, who prayed for their daughter before she departed for America to begin a new life with her forever family.

Abby’s homecoming was a special time for her big brother, too. “I remember going to the airport to meet her. They were the last ones to come off the plane. Tons of people were there, and we had a big ‘welcome’ banner,” recalled Carter, who was 5 years old at the time his baby sister came home from Korea. “I gave her a stuffed piglet. It was really cool.”

Although there were some adjustments for Carter as he learned to share the limelight with his baby sister—an instant celebrity in the family’s small town—it was immediately clear that Abby was the child God meant for their family, Libby said.

Thrilled with Abby’s adoption, adding a little brother to their growing crew seemed like a natural step, so the Skaggs began the process to adopt their youngest son. Mike, a Christian school principal, and Libby, a nurse, indicated they were open to adopting a child with medical needs. Thus, they waited only three months for their son’s referral. “He has some medical and developmental special needs, some known prior to coming home and some that were diagnosed later,” Libby said. “Dillon is a wonderful addition to our family. He has a great sense of humor and is the most affectionate child. Watching him blossom is a joy to us.”

“We named him Dillon because we loved the name, and Dillon International had become such a big part of our lives,” Mike added.

The active family of five recently decided it was time to grow again, and entered the process to adopt another son from Korea through Dillon International’s Waiting Child program. Twenty-two month old Hudson arrived home in September. “He is the perfect fit for our family. We are so glad we stepped out in faith and pursued his adoption,” said Libby.

The Skaggs are committed to ways to celebrate the miracle of adoption in their lives. Libby, once inspired by a Dillon volunteer’s adoption story, has become an area representative herself. For the past five years, she has shared her adoption story by representing Dillon International at adoption conferences in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, hosting parties for adoptive families and organizing a prayer group for waiting adoptive mothers. She also holds information meetings to educate prospective parents about the international adoption process.

The couple is passionate about honoring Abby and Dillon’s Korean heritage. “When we adopted Abby and Dillon, we became a Korean-American family. We embrace their heritage and celebrate it with Korean art, Korean food, and participation in Dillon International’s heritage activities,” Libby said.

Dillon International offers heritage camps and weekends for adoptees and their families to learn more about the culture of their birth country, workshops to educate adoptive parents on questions and concerns they may encounter as their children grow, and birthland tours to provide adoptees with firsthand experience of the country where they were born. “I love the Dillon International philosophy that adoption is a lifelong journey that requires education and support,” Libby said.

The family—with Carter now 13, Abby, 8, and Dillon, 6—attends the agency’s Korean Heritage Camp in Tulsa at least every other summer. “It helps us stay in touch with Korean culture and our kids have friends from around the country as a result of the camp,” Mike said.

The camps also offer the family an experience that is hard to duplicate elsewhere. “There is not a lot of ethnic diversity in our small suburb. At camp, all the families are like ours. We’re the ‘normal’ family instead of the ‘different’ family,” Libby explained.

As the Skaggs continue to travel their adoption journey, they do so with joy and a sense of gratitude. “Adoption was God’s plan for our family, not a consolation prize,” Libby emphasized. “It is a privilege; not a second choice at all.”

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.”

Minte plays his favorite card game, Uno, with his dad Luke. The Kraweitz family, from Rockwall, Texas, adopted 10-year-old Mintesinot through Buckner International adoption, now affiliated with Dillon International in Tulsa, Okla.

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.”

Minte greets another adopted little girl, whom he used to live with at the Buckner Baby Home in Addis Ababa, upon his arrival at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. (photo courtesy of Cyndi Kraweitz)

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 Krawietz family adopted Minte from Ethioipia in September 2009. “Every once in a while I take a step back and look at our family and say, ‘Wow, we could have missed this,’” Cyndi said.

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.

Cyndi shares an Ethiopian recipe with her son. The family cooks Ethiopian food regularly in their home, including Minte's favorite dish of "spicy spaghetti" with bere bere sauce.

“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.

BEAUMONT, Texas – Monica Garrett always dreamed of being a foster group home parent.

“When I accepted this job, I accepted a calling. I know this is what I was called to do. I know this is what I was supposed to do,” she said.

“It is amazing to be able to give a child a home and make them feel loved and secure. I want the kids to feel that they are a part of me.”

Monica and her husband Avery have been foster parents for the past 10 years. But in July, they left their home in Browndell, Texas to be foster group parents for a group of up to 12 children ages 11-15 at Buckner Children’s Village in Beaumont, Texas.

“The hardest thing about doing this was leaving my home, but I love the opportunity to instill some basics of life,” Avery said. “Before getting involved in fostering, I didn’t really know there were so many kids who need a helping hand. If you aren’t involved you just don’t know. And now I’m glad to be a part of the solution.”

Buckner Children’s Village recently shifted its model of care from a residential group care setting to a foster home setting, which helps provide more stability in a child’s life. Instead of rotating shift workers in by the hour, a foster group home is like a family home – two parents and lots of siblings.

Monica said that one of the most rewarding things she experienced as a foster parent was watching a child with special needs learn to clean after himself and wash his own clothes.

“I had a foster child who came by my house once to see me and she said ‘I want you to know that I will always love you and that I will never forget what you’ve done,’” she said.

“That’s what it’s all about. If I can touch only one child and make a difference with him, I know I’ve done my job.”

Sometimes making a difference can be a simple thing, too, she added.

“We try to take the kids out sometimes and give them good memories to keep. There was one kid who had never been to the movies. Another one had never been skating,” she said.

Avery said that there are a few moments he will never forget.

“One time we were at Burger King and I heard someone say, ‘Dad, Dad.’ I thought it was some kid calling his father,” he remembered. “And then I realized it was one of my foster kids talking to me. It was a moment that made it all worth it.”

Before becoming group home parents, Ruby and John Perrault raised two daughters, some grand children, a niece and a nephew. They’d also been foster parents for a while; so living with a crowd of kids was nothing unusual.

“Right now we have eight girls and it can grow up to 12,” said Ruby Perrault, who became a foster group mom after a conversation with Buckner foster home development supervisor Samela Macon.

“I told Samela that I always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, so she asked if I wanted to be a house parent,” Ruby recalled.

For Ruby, the only hard thing about being a group home parent at Children’s Village was leaving her house. Other than that, she said they love it. Their 16-year-old daughter loves it, to.

“She has taken up leadership with the other girls and sets the example,” Ruby said.

And John, whom the children call Mr. Lee, said he spends a lot of time working. But when he’s home, he makes it a point to spend some time with the teens.

“I am the only father figure a lot of them have,” he said, adding that they try to do activities with them when they can. For example, they try to take them out individually on their birthdays.

Ruby said that one girl told them that she’d never had a father and mother before.

“So having us take her out somewhere on her birthday meant a lot to her,” she said. “We are like family to them. I tell my girls, ‘When you grow up and leave, I want you to know that you can come back and see us. We want you to be a part of our family forever.’

“After these kids move on, I want them to remember that we loved God, that we encouraged them to get an education and I want them to take away what they learned about being clean and organized. All of those things that will help them build better lives.”