Ethiopian child finds a place to call home

Posted: 5/04/07

Ethiopian child finds a place to call home

By Miranda Bradley

Children At Heart Foundation

Ask 8-year-old Israel about his family, he becomes quiet. Already shy, the boy looks down at his small hands, quietly refusing to respond. But ask him about Texas Baptist Children’s Home, and he has no trouble expressing his joy.

It’s a far cry from two years ago, when Israel arrived from Ethiopia—unable to speak English and unable to find a place to call home.

“The first time he arrived, I would ask him simple questions like, ‘What’s your favorite food?’ or ‘What’s your favorite color?’ He would just blink up at me,” said Kip Osborne, campus life supervisor at Texas Baptist Children’s Home. “He didn’t understand a word.”

Brought to the United States by his father when he was 6, Israel was in an awkward position. Unwanted by his stepmother, his new family considered him a burden.

With few other resources, his father tried to leave him at Texas Baptist Children’s Home. But since Israel was unable to communicate in English at all, officials at the home could not accept him. But six months later, he returned, able to speak English fluently.

“It was pretty remarkable,” Osborne said. “He came back able to speak very, very well.”

Israel finds it easy now to talk about most things. He likes salad and spelling. Ask him his favorite subject in school, and he replies, “Recess.”

But ask about his past—particularly his life in Ethiopia—and he offers little information.

“He won’t tell me much,” said Jennifer Burnum, house mother to Israel and seven other young boys. “I’ve tried to ask questions, but he just won’t talk about it.”

But Israel continues to make progress. Although he is a grade behind in school, he has developed his reading and spelling skills, and he hoped to write his mother in Ethiopia for Mother’s Day. He’s a typical 8-year-old, playing with his buddies and enjoying the blessings of his new life at Texas Baptist Children’s Home.

The campus life program at Texas Baptist Children’s Home—a part of Children at Heart Ministries— serves up to eight children in six residential cottages with a Christian house parent couple each.

“I call them situational orphans,” Osborne said. “These children all have families or guardians, but they don’t live with them, and sometimes don’t see them. In Israel’s case, even though he has a father nearby, because of his circumstance he might as well be an orphan.”

At Texas Baptist Children’s Home, children like Israel find a home, a place where they are wanted, Osborne said. In Israel’s case, he continues to become more outgoing and visibly happy—a start contrast to the child who arrived at the home two years ago.

“We give (children like Israel) a place to belong,” he said. “Here, they finally know there are people who want to care for them. Here, they know they are wanted.”