African Cradle: A Home for My Passions

I remember when I first stepped into African Cradle's office. At the time it was on El Camino Way in Palo Alto, and I had stopped by to visit Amber Stime. The first time I had met Amber was at Ethiopian Heritage Camp, and I had sensed something special right away. At the time I first stopped by her Palo Alto office, not too long after her move from Modesto, I was finally getting to know her better. And when I stepped into her office, I remember thinking, "Wow, I'm home." There was no making sense out of my reaction -- there was no rational reason for me to have had that thought. It was just a feeling of safety and goodness and then a thought: "Wow, I'm home."

I quickly came to feel the friendship with Amber that I had originally sensed that I wanted. It became clear that we were on the same page. Very early on we started talking about racism -- having conversations that I had wanted to have my whole life, but I had never figured out how. Racism is such a pit. It is so hard to talk about. It felt so good to be having these conversations.

How long ago was that? Two or three years, maybe. Not so long ago. But as I continue exploring what feels like the uncharted territory of racism (although it seems like it should NOT feel like uncharted territory, it still does), I keep finding in Amber a willing partner.

Emotionally, I had a really rough fall and winter, and I ended up taking a leave of absence from my graduate program at Palo Alto University. The day after I finalized this decision to take a leave of absence, I crossed paths with Amber in front of Trader Joe's. I had been planning to go see her -- figured I could make good use of my year off from school through African Cradle. The timing was perfect. African Cradle was heading into a transition phase. I could be part of their transition.

For the sixteen years since Amber had founded African Cradle, she was focused on placing the most vulnerable of the world's children in permanent, loving homes. She was an adoption pioneer in Ethiopia. She has placed over 600 children. As she has watched these children grow, she has seen the pitfalls of transracial adoption. She has seen the need for a large increase in both pre- and post adoption services. As I stumble around trying to find answers for myself and my trans-racial family, my passion for both learning and communicating about these topics leads me to want to be a part of African Cradle's transition. I have found in African Cradle a home for my passions.

A transition like this is not easy. Adoption home studies have been paying the bills at African Cradle. Home studies take a huge amount of time. We need to be able to do without the income from home studies while we develop other sources of income. Three of us are volunteering our time to African Cradle as we try to build the organization, and Amber is taking a ridiculously small salary -- only enough to pay her rent. Nothing more. This is hard.

I envision us tackling racism with our full force as we help transracially adoptive parents learn to help their children develop strong racial identities. We have exciting plans and a strong belief that we can get there. To be successful, we need financial help from others who share our vision. You can help us make this important shift in direction. Would you please donate to African Cradle? It's easy to do using this link, and we are PayPal verified:

https://commerce8.pair.com/juliev/aci/donate.html

Here is more information about African Cradle:

http://www.africancradle.org/about.html

Thank you so much for your support!