As he leaves the residence, he walks past the kitchen, where a cook is stirring huge pots over a wood-burning stove.

There are plans and a budget, he says, to remodel many of these buildings. Seha is proud of the work they do here and the government wants to do much more. During the day, the girls go to the closest public school and some of them, he says, will go on to college.

The wooden floors are splintering and some of the doors don't work. Seha walks from the library to one of the residences. 'We have the capacity, because this institution is under government,' Seha says. Welay Seha, the director, says they can take 200 more. The orphanage, which is funded and run by the Ethiopian government, is a collection of brick buildings nestled between towering pine trees. The sprawling compound of the Kechene Children's Home is up in the hills of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. 'Even if we are poor, it's better to be with our society' or they are in Dubai or they're in Nicaragua, or they are anywhere, a family is a family.' 'I want to believe that Ethiopia finds a way to support their kids and keep their kids in-country, but also becomes open to the fact that a family is a family,' Niki said. They say they want Girma and his 6-year-old sister to learn about their Ethiopian heritage. To adopt Girma, for example, they went through multiple rounds of home visits and background checks. The Huelsmans' older child, Isabela Kalkidan, was also adopted from Ethiopia. Lawmakers worried that Ethiopian children taken abroad could suffer identity crises and psychological problems, in addition to physical abuse. The parliament said Ethiopia should take care of its own children. The Two-Way Ethiopian Lawmakers Vote To Ban Foreign Adoptions and Ethiopia made adoption requirements more stringent and the number of Ethiopian children adopted by Americans plummeted from 2,511 in 2010 to 133 in 2016, according to the State Department. The ban was in part triggered by high-profile cases of abuse, including one in 2011 where an adopted Ethiopian child in Seattle died of hypothermia after she was left outside in the cold.Īt the time, Ethiopia was second only to China as the most popular country for adoptions by Americans. But this couple may be among the last Americans to adopt a child from Ethiopia.īack in January, the country's parliament banned foreign adoptions, citing concerns about the safety of Ethiopian children. As they describe it, the process was complicated and at times, heart-wrenching - five years of fits and starts. The couple had flown from Morrow, Ohio, to Ethiopia to finish adopting Girma in January. The couple may be among the last Americans to adopt a child from Ethiopia. The Huelsman family - Brad and Niki with 3-year-old Girma and 6-year-old Isabela Kalkidan - arrived back in Ohio from Ethiopia in January.

Hearts of iron 4 ethiopia