In April of 2008, Addis Wolde was diagnosed with cancer. She is a beautiful girl from Ethiopia who came to the United States in October of 2004. She attended the boarding school where Joel and I worked. For 2 summers she and her brother lived with us, quickly becoming part of our family. When they were able to live with their mom, we were happy for them but missed them more than we would have imagined. For weeks, I would get out six plates for the kids or 8 of something when it involved our whole family.
On April 16th, a friend and I were at Children's Hospital in St. Paul waiting with Addis's family for the outcome of a 3 1/2 hour surgery. When the surgeon came in, he explained to us that she had cancer and that the cancer had spread. Addis was hospitalized for 2 weeks and then for one week periods every month to receive chemo. Lots of things ended: my memory of what we did for school, my ability to cook, my ability to parallel park, my ability to balance my checkbook and my ability to write a blog.
During the first part of May, I was putting away a stack of laundry. I prayed to ask God what He wanted me to do with this experience. What I expected was that I was to volunteer at Children's Hospital. What I heard instead was, "You adopt."
And so now I blog again, because of Addis, who is cancer free at this point, and because, God willing, I will be flying to Addis Ababa this year to pick up a baby girl. My internal plate-counter will be so happy.
