PAOLI — If someone had told Stori Sullivan a year ago that she and her husband Jamey would be going to Africa’s Democratic Republic of Congo to adopt two babies, she wouldn’t have believed it. But much can change in a year. The Sullivans are scheduled to leave Paoli next week for Africa. Twelve days later, they’ll bring 7-month-old Ian and 17-month-old Chad home, where they’ll meet their siblings, Livia Sullivan, 9, and Parker Sullivan, 7.

Ian and Chad have legally been the Sullivans’ since Aug. 26, but they haven’t yet seen them. It’s rare that adoptions take place in The Congo, an impoverished part of the world where little ones, often found homeless in the streets, live in crude orphanages and have dim hopes for surviving very long in a place where malnutrition and disease are pervasive. The two biological brothers were found near their mother, whom Stori speculates had died from malnutrition. The Sullivans, Stori said, “had talked about adoption for maybe close to a year, but we had never said anything to anyone else about it.” While Jamey has worked for the Raymond James, a financial services firm in Mitchell, Stori has been a stay-at-home mom. The family’s conversations about adopting actually began in earnest when Livia, having learned about the plight of children waiting for homes, pressed her parents to help a child by adopting. “She was very emotional about it,” Stori said. The Sullivans, aware that many children in the United States needed homes, had kept their focus on adopting locally. But then a series of events began unfolding and the focus shifted.

A man Jamey knew through his job began talking about his family’s experiences involving an adoption from The Congo. The Sullivans eventually went to the man’s home for a meal and then began Internet research on the course that family had taken. “Stori and I decided it was pretty clear we wanted to go that direction,” Jamey said. And, it became clear to them that that’s the way God wanted it to go, too. They became acquainted with the attorneys and social workers who would guide them through the process. They learned they had friends who knew some of the same people.

An unusual set of circumstances found the Sullivans visiting Ohio instead of going to Florida, where Jamey had originally been scheduled to go on business. While in Ohio, they ended up meeting the Methodist minister (referred to as Pastor Loma) from Africa, who, with his wife, later would become the foster parents caring for Ian and Chad until the Sullivans could go to pick up their new children. Reaching overseas Stori said, “At first, when he told me The Congo, I thought, ‘What?’ We had been thinking locally. Who has ever heard of anybody adopting from The Congo? … And, then I started researching the country, and 60 percent of the kids don’t live past the age of 5. … I know there are kids that need help here, but it doesn’t even compare to what’s going on there.” The man Jamey knew who’d already been through the process there told Jamey, “The reason we chose there over domestic was that, in the United States, generally speaking, physical needs are met. … We know emotional needs aren’t met,” Jamey explained. “But in the DRC, physical needs nor emotional needs are met. Nothing is met. Basic needs are not met.”

When the Sullivans go to Africa, they plan to pack as much into their bags as possible. But the bags will contain such items as cloth diapers, formula and baby clothes to be given to the orphanage where Ian and Chad had lived. “We decided that whatever we packed,” Jamey said, “will, with few exceptions, be left for them.” Paoli Mennonite Church (where the couple attend) and Paoli First Presbyterian Church have become involved in the effort to collect money and supplies needed by the orphanage. Paoli High School students Audrey Thill and Lacey Brinegar are spearheading a collection effort. Brinegar said, “We were at a convention this summer, and Jamey just started telling us about how the conditions are over there, and so we just decided we should try to do something to improve them.”

Taking an action that had dual purposes, the Sullivans have spent many evenings having only beans and rice for dinner. It allows them to save money that they can somehow use to further the cause of international adoptions or for the care of orphans. Beyond that, any conversations generated about the family’s evening meals help create hunger awareness. Stori wrote in an e-mail, “It also really makes us think daily how lucky we are to have rice and beans while so many have only empty tummies.”

Their mealtime prayer: A cup of rice, a cup of wheat, for every hungry child to eat. And more we ask you, Lord above, for every child, a home of love.

Times-Mail Staff Writer Roger Moon welcomes comments at 277-7253 or by e-mail at roger@tmnews.com

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: adoption, Congo, DRC, family

This entry was posted by Brian Wood on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 6:23 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.