Chi Ekwenye is "the Mother Theresa of Nigeria." Those were the actual words of the Dean of the UGA School of Social Work. I met Chi while she was working on her PhD from the University of Georgia. After her graduation, she returned to Nigeria to launch Right Steps, a human rescue mission focused on providing relief services for orphaned children and homeless women. She manages a residential facility called Susana Homes that receives children from birth to teens, rescuing them from a situation of being orphaned, destitute, or some state of being homeless. There are more than 50 children that currently live at Susana Homes. Even though she considers all of them her children, Chi has personally adopted three of them: Yana Sue, Hana, and Bobby. This is a picture of her three.
During a recent visit to the states, Chi brought gifts for our children. She wanted our three children to be connected to her three children through their outfits.
Chi is one of those people who comes into your life and causes your life to never be the same again. God used Chi to turn my heart toward Africa. Most likely, if I had never met Chi, I would not be preparing to meet William. I thank God for Chi. I have recently thought about how I would answer William if he ever asked me a question about why we chose to adopt him from Africa. I know what my response will be. I will just tell him it's Chi's fault.
Here is a video from the Pepperdine Lectureships of Chi receiving recognition for her work in Nigeria.
A team from the Southside Church of Christ in Lexington, Kentucky will be traveling to Susana Homes in October 2010 to build a new boy's dorm. The construction of this two story concrete block building will cost approximately $55,000 US dollars. As of February 2010, we have raised approximately $35,000. If you would like to donate to this effort, you can make a check out to the Southside Church of Christ and write Project SHOD in the memo line. Send it to the Southside Church of Christ, Project SHOD, 1533 Nicholasville Road, Lexington, KY, 40503.
This is the Amharic name of our new son. Dagem William Coffman. Dagem is his given name (it is pronounced dag-M, emphasis on the letter M). William's nannies loved to get his attention by repeating daggie-daggie-daggie, it was very sweet. We had the opportunity to meet his birthmother (wow, more on that later) and she told us that she named him Dagem simply becasue she just really liked the name. William is my first name and is the name we will call him (I really like "Lil' Will" but Karen prefers "William").
This was one of Karen's favorite pictures from our first day with him in Ethiopia. Both he and Karen really liked the hat. He is a precious little boy. Even though he was sick with a cold most of the time we were there, he was still very content and happy.
This is a picture from our first meeting with him on Monday, February 15. Karen has already learned that the way to his heart is through his stomach. He loves to eat! He will fit right into the Coffman family.
This is a picture from my first interaction with him. He is very attentive and loves to be held. His first words were "da-da-da-da." Of course, he said these words when he reached for me, Karen, the nanny, his favorite toy, and my bowl of soup at lunch. These are pictures from our first day with William. We are happy to share them with you. We look forward to you meeting him in person.
