8-31: From Kate Padden about her summer volunteering with BCS Ethiopia
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 | This summer, I had the opportunity
to spend 2 ½ months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with Bethany Christian Services.
My time in Ethiopia was spent interning as a social services worker and
helping assist families when they arrived in Addis. The summer went by very quickly as each day was full with activities and work to complete, such as: |
| completing assessments
on waiting children, preparing schedules for traveling families, going
to court to finalize paperwork, going to the US Embassy, getting passport
pictures taken, blood work for the children and VISA paperwork to complete,
as well as many other opportunities. I learned a tremendous amount about
the entire adoption process, from the Ethiopian perspective and that was
very beneficial to my experience with BCS. It was such a joy to be able
to witness the entire process of a family arriving and meeting their children
for the first time! There were a lot of emotions filled with excitement
and anticipation in those moments. Each family that came to Addis brought
a beautiful story of how the Lord has brought them on this process and
I felt honored to share in that part of their lives. Our weeks were full,
as we traveled throughout the city and oriented the families with Bethany
in Ethiopia. It was a unique experience to be able to help guide families
in this process of finalizing their adoption and deal with many unforeseen
obstacles that a third world country may bring! Each family dealt
with these situations with such grace and flexibility, which made for great
adventures! For example, I learned to adjust to circumstances where you
cannot always depend on luxuries like having electricity everyday or eating
certain foods that won’t make you sick and traveling throughout the city
in the rainy season and getting acquainted with mud There are a lot
of “unknowns” in Ethiopia and each day taught me how to be flexible and
have grace in each situation.
Besides assisting the families while they were in-country, I also worked with the Bethany social workers in completing assessments and initial paperwork that needed to be completed on waiting children. Getting to know the children at each orphanage just sparked my heart with love for them, as I got to know their personalities and see their likes and dislikes. Those children became a part of my heart and my love for them grew each day. It was such a unique experience to pray for children to receive families and then see the fruit of that, with them getting matched! What an awesome opportunity to be able to tell a child that he/she was matched with a family and allow them to see the pictures of their family that is soon coming for them. It is hard to put into words… their joy was contagious and evident. There is a lot of work to be done in Ethiopia with Bethany Christian Services. There are many waiting children and the work is endless. I feel so honored to have been able to get to know the staff and see them labor for these children in Ethiopia. My heart continues to pray for the work going on there and for the staff as they work tirelessly to bring these children to families and provide for their needs. There is so much to say about the entire experience, but overall I am so grateful to have made many wonderful memories and cherished friendships that were formed there. The Lord is at work in Ethiopia and I feel privileged to have witnessed His provision and grace in the lives of these children. Please continue to pray for the children and staff in Ethiopia! Thank you for sharing in this journey with me. If you would like to here more or learn more about the work being done in Ethiopia, you can visit my blog at: www.katepadden.wordpress.com God Bless, Kate Padden | |
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