Far Horizons

Ethiopian adoptees thrive in area

Brattleboro Reformer, August 22, 2006

It's purely coincidence that two children who shared the same crib at an orphanage in Ethiopia now live 10 miles from each other in Vermont.

Yared, a playful, busy 3-year-old, was in and out of his house in Guilford Saturday, and the netted gate surrounding the trampoline in his backyard.

It's at his house where four families who adopted Ethiopian children got together for a cook-out this weekend, in honor of a visit by Dr. Tsegaye, director of Wide Horizons For Children adoption agency.

Nicknamed Horizon House, it's a place where children who qualify for international adoption live while they wait to be matched up with an American family. Every August, Tsegaye travels across the United States, visiting the children who stayed in his orphanage, and getting to know the parents that adopted them. This year, 240 children were adopted through his program, which was started three years ago, and is growing.

Yared was the first Ethiopian child to be placed with an American family.

He was matched up with Ellie and Gabriel Capy-Goldfarb in Guilford and Senait, the ninth child, was matched up with Jennifer Ramstetter and Brian McNeice in Halifax. The tow families visit each other often.

"It's good for them to know they're not the only black kids with white parents," said Capy-Goldfarb, Yared's father.

When Yared was 2 years old, he knew he was different, living in a predominantly white state.

"He was saying, 'when am I going to turn white'," Capy-Goldfarb said. His palms were white — he was waiting for the rest of him to change.

Racism hasn't been an issue, Capy-Goldfarb said, but he knows it's out there, and it's important for Yared, and other Ethiopian children , to know they're not alone.

Many of the families at the cook-out Saturday chose to adopt children from Ethiopia because the country and the culture is known for being very affectionate and devoted to its children, and in turn, the children are fun, loving and confident.

Capy-Goldfarb remembered being stopped by people in the street when he traveled to Ethiopia three years ago to pick up Yared.

"People were like, you're taking our treasure. You better take good care of him. They were sweet, but they were letting us know," he said.

The confidence, the sincerity and the affection was obvious Saturday.

Senait, a petite girl with tightly coiled hair, loved the trampoline, and spent most of the day on it. She ate her dinner on the trampoline. She practiced her dance moves. She asked strangers to join her, or at least watch, and was enthusiastic for any excuse to socialize. At one point Yared and another boy, Tamirat, bounced around with her, and the three put their heads together and smiled, posing for a picture.

"That's our experience of Ethiopia," Capy-Goldfarb said.

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