How Mintesenot Came to Our Little Family

The transition from Mintesenot being my brother to becoming my son happened rather suddenly in April of 2009. As I explain the circumstances surrounding it to friends the best way I've found to describe it is to say that it's "a God thing". It was definitely not in Ryan's nor my plans,(as many good things that have come into my life have not been,) but Heavenly Father knew that Mintesenot needed us and that we needed him.

Soon after bringing Mintesenot home I sent the following letter to a friend in explanation of how Mintesenot came into our lives.

"As for how we ended up with a little boy this week let me first say that it came as a huge surprise to us to become parents this soon, and so suddenly.

My parents adopted four children from Ethiopia last August, and one of the main reasons we felt we needed to move here,(to Utah), from Oregon was to help them with the children.

Three of the kids adjusted to life, the language, and what was expected of them very quickly but the second to youngest (Mintesenot) did not.

He constantly compared himself to the other three, fought often with the other kids,(the other three are siblings and have a strong connection), struggled with the structure of day to day life, and acted out constantly. It was a night mare, he was miserable and so was everyone else in the family.

Finally my parents came to the conclusion that it just wasn't good for anyone for things to continue as they were. A friend of my Mom's who'd also adopted from Africa asked if she could take him for awhile to see if he would fit with her family.

They took him for three months and then decided things just wouldn't work for them, they didn't have the time, energy, desire, structure, and resources to keep him long term. While he lived with them he was able to relax, come out of his shell, and blossom into a sweet lovable child in many ways.

Last Wednesday,(April 22, 2009), my Dad told me the family Mintesenot had been with was no longer able to keep him. As he told me of the situation I had the strongest impression that we needed to take him for a couple of days. As I thought about taking him for a couple of days the thought came to my mind that we needed to keep him long term.

At first I ignored the thought thinking it was it was just a crazy idea, but the more I considered it the stronger my feelings became. That night as I told Ry what I was thinking he began crying and confirmed that he two felt we needed to take him in.

The next Monday we went to pick up our little boy. It's crazy how quickly it happened, and crazier how incredibly right it feels. I'm able to stay home with Mintesenot, and am enjoying the challenge. It surprisingly feels as though he has always been our little boy.

Though we miss some of our independence, and spontaneity overall we feel incredibly blessed to have such a sweet little boy in our lives."

The impression my parents had when preparing to adopt Mintesenot that they needed to adopt him, but weren't sure they'd be the ones to help him now makes sense. They were supposed to be the ones to bring us our little boy, though they obviously didn't know it at the time and neither did we.