Finding A Family Joining African Orphans With Loving Families In The U.S. Is Cheryl Shotts’ Dream—And Reality

On the other side of the world, in a country plagued with poverty, drought and civil uprisings, an 8-yearold Ethiopian boy waits for an American woman to come back for him. As a toddler, Esubalew Tirunehe was stolen by ruffians to be a street beggar, and when he grew older and brought in less money, the outlaws stabbed the child in the eyes, blinding him to make him more marketable.

Cheryl Shotts, who runs an Indianapolis-based adoption agency, “fell in love” with the blind child when she was on a mission to Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda, and she promised to find him a family.

“I would sit in a little rickety chair and talk to him by a translator and hold his hand, and he’s just full of personality and just the sweetest little guy,” Shotts said. “I used to tell him that I loved him, and he would tell me that he loved me and always had a big smile for me. And when I had to say goodbye when I was leaving Ethiopia, I made him a promise that someday, some way, somehow, I was going to find a family and I was coming back for him. I’ve got to keep that promise.”

Shotts said that finding a family for Esubalew is her top priority and that she might end up adopting him.

“I’ve got my eyes on four (children in Africa),” she said. “I probably won’t (adopt them) because if I keep bringing more kids home, how am I going to go to Africa?”

Shotts and her husband, Charlie, have run Americans for African Adoptions since 1986, working with the nations of Mali, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sierra Leone and Uganda to place children with U.S. families. The agency has placed more than 90 orphans with families across the U.S. and Canada. Charlie and Cheryl Shotts have two adopted children, Mohammed, a freshman at Georgetown University in Washington, and 9-year-old Kelemework.

“I’m committed, and Mohammed is the reason. Mohammed is the sole reason why there is an Americans for African Adoptions,” Shotts said of her 22-year-old son.

Her experiences with Africa began when she watched “60 Minutes” on Aug. 11, 1985, with a report by Diane Sawyer on famine in the West African nation of Mali. The cameras panned a scene in a region south of the Sahara Desert known as Sahel. The broadcast showed starved cattle and desert tribespeople searching for roots and nuts to eat. Shotts watched as Sawyer, for 18 seconds, interviewed a sick, hungry boy about 12 years old at a Red Cross emergency food station.

He told Sawyer that he slept on the ground and was hungry all the time. “Many children, they are dead.”

His words haunted Shotts, who had raised three children and was living a comfortable life with her husband in a modest subdivision in Indiana. For three days, she said, she agonized over the child, wondering if he had eaten that day or whether he was still alive. Then she set out to find the child.

With the help of Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the Shottses learned that Mohammed lived in Gao, a city in Mali listed in travel brochures as second only to Timbuktu as the most difficult city on earth to reach. Charlie Shotts took the couple’s life savings, borrowed $7,000 from a friend and set out for Mali. He returned with Mohammed a month later.

After that, the Shottses learned that Mohammed’s best friend, Nimit, needed a home, and 13 families called to inquire about adopting him. “I thought, ‘Gee, maybe we can help some more kids.’ And it changed my life totally,” Cheryl Shotts said.

She carved out some office space in her four-bedroom house, decorating the work area with wall maps of Africa and later some artifacts. Her staff consists of a social worker and a secretary in Indiana and nine people overseas. In addition, Shotts works with American Airlines employees who volunteer their time escorting children to the United States.

Shotts said she is often asked why American families should adopt African children when there are orphans in this country.

“If you haven’t looked into the American child-welfare system,” she replies, “you really don’t have any idea of what’s going on. … It is a disastrous situation.”

She said many children in the system are black or biracial, while many families that want to adopt are white. State agencies strongly discourage such biracial adoptions, she said.

“The insanity of that is that it is in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. You have states violating federal law, and they are getting away with it. … They will let those children rot in the child-welfare system,” Shotts said. She said the families who come to her agency generally fall into two types. Some, she said, “have tried hard to adopt domestically” but are ineligible or low on the priority list for a variety of reasons - they are single or have too many children already. “The other kind are people who listen to PBS, frequently teachers with a serious interest in the world who want to know more and be involved more. These families usually have natural children and want to adopt children who have little chance of being adopted.”

Shotts said adoptions through her agency take six to 18 months and cost about $5,000 plus the child’s air fare and escort expenses for a total of about $6,000, depending on the country of origin and destination.

Donna Cohen and Claude Armstrong, of Albuquerque, are among the white families that have adopted through Americans for African Adoptions. Eighteen months ago, the couple adopted Yared, an Ethiopian boy who is now almost 3. Cohen said she made a point of enrolling Yared in a preschool that has African-American children and she plans to take him back to Ethiopia for a visit when he’s older.

“I really think these things are meant to be,” Cohen said. “Isn’t it kind of a miracle that this little kid was waiting for a family and we wanted a child and we got together?”

MEMO: Americans for African Adoptions needs adoptive parents for hundreds of children. The agency also needs donations and sponsors for children in Africa. For more information, call (317) 271-4567, or write 8910 Timberwood Drive, Indianapolis, Ind. 46234.