Tag Archives: Ethiopian adoptees

“Lions Roaring” on Goodreads: 4.8 Stars Rating

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We are proud of our book, Lionss Roaring Far From Home: An Anthology by Ethiopian Adoptees” for many reasons. Its sales have greatly surpassed the majority of independently published books. On Amazon, it has a 4.8 Star rating. Revenue from sales goes to Ethiopian adoptees; we’ve contributed close to $2000 to GoFundMe and similar to help cover school costs, pay rent, pay medical bills, contribute to homeland travel, and more.

Cover art of Lions Roaring book. Ethiopian woman next to a roaring lion.

We also have a 4.8 Star rating on Goodreads, which is wonderful. We have 15 ratings and 3 reviews there.

Many thanks to everyone who has bought, read, shared, left stars, and supported our groundbreaking book.

Thank you as always also to Ethiopian artist Nahosenay Negussie for the brilliant cover art. We are so grateful to our Ethiopian community.

It’s an amazing book. Please share it with others!

How Can We Get Justice for Begidu Morris, the Ethiopian Adoptee Killed at 10 Years Old?

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My dear friend Ferehiwot Tsagaye, an Ethiopian adoptee, said this on a Facebook post:

This could’ve been me.

Begidu Morris was a 10-year-old Ethiopian adoptee—just like I once was. But instead of being protected, he was locked in a closet, starved, and abused until his little body couldn’t take it anymore.

And yet… his adoptive parents are still free.

I’ve been fighting for years to help adoptees reconnect with their roots, their families, and their identities—because stories like Begidu’s are not rare.

Too many of us were adopted into silence, pain, and racism, behind a smile and a church pew. We were told to be grateful while we were breaking inside.

As an adoptee and an advocate, I refuse to let his story be forgotten.

We will be the voice he was never given.

We will fight for the justice he never received.

We will demand accountability—for Hana, for Begidu, for all of us.

Enough is enough.

Beautifully said, Ferehiwot.

Many Ethiopian adoptees have spoken out for Begidu. I am hopeful that *all* of us in the adoption community will do so: adoptive parents, adoption agencies, adoption-related organizations.

I posted recently about Begidu, who died in March 2022, whose death was ruled a homicide, and whose case has not been brought to trial.

From A Life Discounted: the tragic story of Begidu Morris, “According to the DCF child fatality summary, Begidu Morris collapsed at home in Lee County, Florida, on March 17, 2022 and was transported to Golisano Children’s Hospital. He was diagnosed with subdural hematoma, hypothermia, cardiac arrest, acute respiratory failure, retinal hemorrhages, and metabolic acidosis….Three years after Begidu’s death, the police have made no arrests in the case.”

From the Child Fatality Report, March 2022: “The facts of the case were reviewed with the State’s Attorney’s office and ultimately, no action was taken as the perpetrator of the abuse could not be determined at that time.”

Yes, that’s right: The Child Fatality Report ruled Begidu’s death a homicide, and determined that either the adoptive mother or the teenage sibling was likely responsible. The State’s Attorney’s office then moved no further toward justice for Begidu.

So what should and can we do?

My hope is that other adoptive parents like me will feel called to find justice for an Ethiopian adoptee. When we adopted from Ethiopia, we made a connection with the country and the children, the families, the culture. While our priority is to our children; I believe that our compassion and energy should extend to other Ethiopian adoptees as well. Begidu was somebody else’s adopted child: adoptive parents who tortured the little boy, who died after 5 days in a hospital, perhaps alone.

He seemed to have no one speaking up for him when he died.

We can spread the word about this case, posting on Facebook or on blogs or in adoptive parent groups.

We can email the State’s Attorney in Florida who has jurisdiction for the case, who apparently decided there was nothing more that could be done for Begidu, despite the determination of horrific abuse and homicide. Her name is Amira Fox. She is the State’s Attorney for five Florida counties, including Lee County, where Begidu died. Her web site is here. Ms. Fox’s email is stateattorney@sao20.org.

Here’s a recent post from her Facebook page. I am glad to see she’s #AllAboutTheKids.

If you are in Florida, emailing and otherwise contacting Ms. Fox’s office is especially useful. That said, getting the word out that folks across the country are concerned about this is also important.

A brief email is fine. If anyone wants help drafting one, I am happy to help.

Emails can also be sent to Governor Ron DeSantis, and to other federal and state representatives.

Share this story with news outlets, in Florida, Ethiopia, and elsewhere: Addis Standard, CNN, 60 Minutes, New York Times, Washington Post, etc. Contact The News-Press, the newspaper for Lee County–Fort Meyers area where Begidu died, and ask why a search for “Begidu Morris” shows no results, yet “Amira Fox” yields many.

We can recognize the emotional labor of Ethiopian and other adoptees who speak out about the case, and the pain it causes for them. I am grateful to each of them.

Here are some of those, in addition to Ferehiwot, who have spoken out:

Hakima Alem posted this on TikTok.

Lidet O’Connor (host of Ethiopian Adoptees Unapologetically Unfiltered podcast) posted this on TikTok.

“Who Protects Ethiopian Children Adopted by Strangers? Begidu and the Failed Promise of Ethiopian Adoption” by Kassaye Berhanu (Substack)

Begidu Morris by Moses Farrow (Instagram)

Justice for Begidu from Adoptee_Diaries (Instagram)

If you speak out in any way asking for Justice for Begidu, please share that action with others. I’d especially like to hear about the actions of adoptive parents, adoption agencies, and adoption-related organizations.

This little child, abused and killed by his adoptive family, deserves justice, and must not be forgotten.

Why Aren’t the Adoptive Parents of Begidu Morris in Jail for His Tragic Death?

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They should be held accountable for this little boy’s death.

Ethiopian adoptee Begidu Morris died in 2022 at 10 years old. He weighed 44 pounds: the average 10 year old weighs around 65 pounds. He was covered with scars and burn marks. He had multiple physical traumas, and certainly unimaginable emotional injuries as well–conditions that no child should ever have to endure.

Consuela and Jack Morris, his adoptive parents, have never been charged, though Florida Child Protective Services found that “the parents either participated in the abuse that led to the child’s injuries and subsequent death, or they participated in concealing the horrific abuse and neglect that he suffered.”

In other words, no one has ever been held officially accountable for this little child’s horrific death. Whoever is guilty is living without punishment, free, without justice for their crimes.

@hakima_alem

Link to Child Fatality Report https:// livescutshort.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2024/04/2022-084517.pdf #justiceforbegidu #fyp #adoption #ethiopian_tik_tok #habeshatiktok #begidu #protectchildren #ethiopian_tik_tok🇪🇹🇪🇹🇪🇹🇪🇹

♬ original sound – Hakima Alem

From “A Life Discounted: the tragic story of Begidu Morris, “According to the DCF child fatality summary, Begidu Morris collapsed at home in Lee County, Florida, on March 17, 2022 and was transported to Golisano Children’s Hospital. He was diagnosed with subdural hematoma, hypothermia, cardiac arrest, acute respiratory failure, retinal hemorrhages, and metabolic acidosis.”

“The CPS investigation concluded that “[a]lthough it was not able to be determined with certainty who inflicted the injury/injuries that led to this child’s death, it can be concluded that the parents either participated in the abuse that led to the child’s injuries and subsequent death, or they participated in concealing the horrific abuse and neglect that he suffered.” It found the parents Jack and Consuelo Morris responsible for Begidu’s death and for “bizarre punishments,” internal injuries, physical injuries, medical neglect, ‘failure to thrive/malnutrition/dehydration,’ failure to protect, and inadequate supervision.”

“Three years after Begidu’s death, the police have made no arrests in the case. The DCF Investigation Summary states that CPS was involved in multiple meetings, including with the State Attorney’s Office (SAO) and that

“[u]ltimately no action was taken by the SAO as the perpetrator of abuse could not be determined based on the information that was available at the time of their staffing. There were two individuals (the mother and [the brother]) in the home capable of causing the head trauma to the child; the individual responsible for the abuse could not be determined.

As the Child Welfare Monitor article states, “The lack of charges is almost incredible. If they could not have charged anyone with the actual homicide, it is hard not to understand how the parents could not have been charged with multiple counts of child abuse, charges that surely exist in Florida as they do in other states. It is hard not to ask the question, as one child advocate (Dawn Post) put it, could this happen if Begidu were White? The State’s Attorney denied my request for the investigation records on the grounds that ‘there is still an active investigation.’ But it is hard to believe that the police are still seriously working on this case.”

Share his story: do not let Begidu be forgotten. #JusticeForBegidu

Here are other important sources of information:

“Who Protects Ethiopian Children Adopted by Strangers? Begidu and the Failed Promise of Ethiopian Adoption” by Kassaye Berhanu (Substack)

Begidu Morris by Moses Farrow (Instagram)

Justice for Begidu from Adoptee_Diaries (Instagram)

The “Preventable Death” of Ethiopian Adoptee Biruk Silvers

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May Biruk Silvers rest in peace and in power. May his family be comforted from heaven.

Accor5ding to a 2015 Chicago Tribune article, Biruk was adopted from Ethiopia when he was eight years old. Last month, on November 5, he died by suicide at a Utah teen treatment center. He was 17 years old.

I’ve written before about the deaths by suicide of adoptees. I don’t mean it to be exploitative or click-baiting. It’s a delicate dance. Talking about suicide is hard, and linking it with adoption is complex.

That said, Biruk’s adoptive parents, Joshua and Kathryn Silvers, have spoken out publicly about their son’s death because they believed that “medical malpractice and staff negligence led to Biruk’s preventable death” at the Discovery Ranch in Mapleton, Utah, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

In late November, the state restricted the license of Discovery Ranch, per the Salt Lake Tribune: “The Utah Department of Health and Human Services’ licensing office…said Discovery Ranch failed to follow state administrative rules because it did not protect and supervise a ‘client who had expressed suicidal ideation and intent.’ ”

The agency inspected Discovery Ranch on Nov. 6, one day after the teen, Biruk Silvers, who was living at the teen residential program, died there. Authorities reported Silvers died by suicide.

A conditional license, a DHHS spokesperson said, allows a care program to continue operation, as long as they adhere to the licensing division’s conditions.” The full Salt Lake Tribune article is here: “State agency restricts license of Utah County treatment center where teen died.”

Discovery Ranch still advertises itself as the “Top Teen Residential Center for Boys.”

Per the Tribune article, Discovery Ranch’s current conditional license requires them to do the following:

  • Comply to increased monitoring by the licensing division. Each inspection, the notice said, will cost Discovery Ranch $393.37.
  • Notify current clients — or their legal guardians and the state agencies that placed those clients in the facility — that Discovery Ranch has been placed on a conditional license. Discovery Ranch has five days to notify everyone.
  • Not accept any new clients while the conditional license is in effect.
  • Increase staff trainings, including sessions on suicide risk prevention. Discovery Ranch must provide proof of training within 15 days of the notice.
  • Submit a detailed plan that demonstrates all staff members can “ensure immediate and effective communication” when a client expresses suicidal ideation or intentions to self-harm.
  • Ensure staff compliance with all Utah Administrative Rules and statutes.

The bottom line is that “Discovery Ranch Academy ‘failed to protect’ Biruk Silvers.”

I hope that the legal decisions by the state of Utah brought a bit of solace to the Silvers family. I cannot imagine their grief.

Teen treatment centers are controversial. In 2021, the American Bar Association issued “Five Facts About the Troubled Teen Industry.” Maybe you’ve seen the Netflix documentaries such as “The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping;” “Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare;” “Teen Torture Inc.” Teen treatment centers are wildly expensive, and can range from $500 to $2000 a day in some cases. Like the prison system, the teen treatment centers can be quite profitable for the companies that own them. In June 2024, U.S. Senate report found that “Residential treatment centers put profit ahead of children’s safety.”

Many teens struggle. Adopted teens have additional struggles due to having been relinquished, having been separated from their mothers and culture, having experienced adversity prior to adoption—that adversity (including violence, neglect, medical conditions) is often the reason children are in need of adoption, or of safe, functioning families in any case. The American Academy of Pediatricians published a report stating that adopted teens are four times more likely to attempt suicide than non-adopted teens. According to Adoption Competent Mental Health Services for Transracial Adoptees, “adult adoptees, who are overrepresented in counseling and more likely than the national average to struggle with suicidality and complete suicide, commonly seek therapy for adoption related issues that involve depression, anxiety, and self-esteem issues.”

Academic and scientific research has substantiated all this, yet we are still far from the number of adoption-competent therapists that are needed. We are far, as a society, from acknowledging the complexity of adoption, wanting only to see it through a Hallmark Special lens.

What to do? Listen to adoptees, both their lived experience and their professional expertise. Learn about suicide prevention. Share adoption-related research with counselors, therapists, doctors, pastors. For example, share the Adoptee Consciousness Model, as well as the Adoptee-Therapist Directory..

My heart aches at the loss of Biruk Silvers, for his friends and families in the U.S. and in Ethiopia.

Additional Resources:

Research on Adoptees and Suicide by JaeRan Kim, PhD. Blog: Harlow’s Monkey

Coping With Loss From Adoptee Suicide by Lina Vanegas, MSW. Lina’s IG

From United Suicide Survivors International (USSI). I was honored to host this discussion, which is the most-watched USSI webinar:. “Adoption and Suicide Prevention: Adult Adoptees Speak Out

A New Adoptee-Therapist, Specializing in Adoption, Eating Disorders, and More

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I’ve known Aselefech Evans since 1994, when she arrived for adoption in the United States from Ethiopia. She and her twin sister are my beloved daughters. Through the years, I have seen Aselefech grow and work hard, always staying true to herself, her family (around the globe), her heritage, her empathy, and her compassion.

She is now available as a therapist, and I have no doubts she will bring insights, understanding, and resources to those with whom she works.

She “leans on somatics (body-based therapy), meditation, and ancestral exploration while drawing from Cognitive Behavioral therapy and Mindfulness…tools which have transformed her own healing and sense of belonging.”

She is in the process of setting up her private practice, which is exciting. Meanwhile, she is currently available to see clients through Alluvial Counseling, taking major insurances.

Aselefech works with youth 16+ and adults. She has a particular interest and expertise supporting people impacted by family separation, adoption, immigration, eating disorders, racial trauma, grief, workplace burnout, anxiety, and depression, and those impacted by oppression such as racism, ableism, sexism, classism, queerphobia, and fatphobia. 

Aselefech received her Bachelor’s in Sociology with a focus in Black Studies from Bowie State, a Historically Black College in Bowie, MD. In 2022, she completed her MSW with an emphasis in Integrative Health and Mental Health from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

She can be booked through Psychology Today and Alluvial Counseling.

I am, of course, very proud of Aselefech. Beyond my personal perspective, having an empathetic, Black, immigrant, adoptee, woman, insightful, knowledgable therapist in the community is wonderful beyond words.

Visiting Hana Williams’ grave, and reflecting on her isolation

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Ethiopian adoptee Hana Williams (named Hana Alemu by her Ethiopian family) is buried in Union Cemetery in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. Her adoptive parents were sentenced in 2015 to decades in jail for Hana’s death and for the abuse of another Ethiopian adoptee.

Both had joined the Williams’ family in 2008, and Hana died in May 2011.

I attended almost every day of the trial back in 2015, and have blogged many times about Hana’s death.

Yesterday, on my way back from Anacortes to Seattle, I stopped to visit Hana’s gravesite, as I have done frequently over the years.

Hana’s adoptive family home in Sedro-Woolley, about 70 miles north of Seattle, was in a remote area not easily accessible by anyone other than those who live in the gated community.

She lived in so much isolation during her three short years in the United States: separated from Ethiopia, from the Ethiopian community in Washington, from the Ethiopian adoptee community here. The Williamses’ home was on acres of land, so the WIlliamses’ severn biological children plus the two Ethiopian adoptees had room to roam, though only with siblings.

Hana lived in a place surrounded by beautiful trees and blue skies, but soon after she was adopted, she was locked in a barn, locked in a shower room, locked ultimately in a closet, for hours and hours. She died from malnutrition and hypothermia in family’s back yard, having been sent outside as yet another punishment.

Now, in death, Hana has peace, or so some of us pray.

Her burial spot is isolated as well, which I find poignant at each visit. It took a long time for the family to get a marker for the grave, The site itself is distant even from any other graves.

Hana’s horrific death is probably the top reason that adoptions from Ethiopia ended in 2018.

I pray that we all hold Hana in our hearts. No child, no adoptee, should ever suffer what she went through.

An Ethiopian Adoptee is Raising Funds for His Ethiopian Cousin’s Vital Surgery: Please Help

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Reshid Huth is a young adult Ethiopian adoptee from Afar, adopted to the U.S.. Reshid has returned to Ethiopia several times since his adoption, including a recent solo trip, where he met a 4-year-old cousin, Hassen.

Hassen has a serious heart condition called Tetralogy of Fallot. He needs an urgent, complex surgery.

Reshid has made it his goal to help his little cousin get the life-saving surgery he needs. A hospital in Addis Ababa can perform the surgery

Now, Reshid is working to raise funds for Hassen’s life-saving heart surgery, and for the follow- up cleft palate surgery.

Every donation brings hope to Hassen and his family.

And, it helps Reshid meet his goal to help. I am absolutely inspired by Reshid and his efforts to help his little cousin and family.

Please donate to Reshid’s GoFundMe. Please share the GoFundMe link with others. Many thanks.

Personal note: I am the grandmother of a 4-year-old, and I can only imagine what Hassen’s family is going through. I am also friends with Meghan Walsh, Reshid’s adoptive mom. Meghan is the founder of Roots Ethiopia, and a strong proponent of family and of Ethiopia. I’ve “borrowed” some of the language here from a post by Meghan, and want to acknowledge that. Please help Hassen; he is surrounded by love and compassion, and needs this life-saving surgery.

Unapologetic Ethiopian Adoptees

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“Ethiopian Adoptees Unapologetically Unfiltered” is a podcast facilitated by Lidet O’Connor, an Ethiopian adoptee seeking to share the stories of a wide range of fellow adoptees.

Recently she interviewed two adoptees who are very special to me: Aselefech Evans and Kassaye Berhanu-MacDonald, my co-editors of the first anthology by Ethiopian adoptees, Lions Roaring Far From Home.

Kassaye is a dear friend, and Aselefech is one of my beloved daughters. One is in Canada, one in the U.S. Both are strong, smart, talented, wonderful people.

Both also are powerful writers and speakers on the subject of adoption. Their two-part interview discusses the anthology, as well as their perspectives on adoption, past, present, and future. They don’t hold back, and that is among the reasons I love them so. In keeping with the ethos of the podcast, they are unapologetically unfiltered..

There are some 15,000 Ethiopian adoptees in the U.S., and many thousands more in Canada, Australia, and Western Europe. I am proud of the Lions Roaring anthology for sharing some 32 voices of Ethiopian adoptees, in all the depth and breadth of their experiences. Lidet’s podcast shares adoptee voices in another genre, and the rest of us are better for it. May we continue to listen and learn.

Three Poet-Writers of the Ethiopian Global Diaspora—Lemn, Heran, and Kassaye

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There has recently been a convergence of words and wonders, of poets and power.

Our Lions Roaring Far from Home: An Anthology by Ethiopian Adoptees co-editor Kassaye Berhanu-MacDonald has an essay in the newly published book The Global Ethiopian Diaspora. Kassaye, raised in Canada, also has an essay in Lions Roaring.

Heran Tadesse, another Lions Roaring writer, is also a poet. Heran was raised in The Netherlands, and returned from that diasporic life decades ago to Ethiopia, where she is teaching yoga and raising a family.

Recently, Heran attended events at the British Council in Addis with the luminary writer-poet-playwright Lemn Sissay, OBE, another adoptee in the Ethiopian global diaspora, raised in England, who frequently returns to Ethiopia.

Lemn Sissay and Heran Tadesse, Addis Ababa,
May 2024.

Lemn did not write in Lions Roaring. He did write a lovely comment about it: “This book is all about connection, connection to story, connections to homes, to the many homes that one person can have, and connection between writers. Bravo for getting this book together and for getting these authors together. It’s important testimony.”

How compelling that these three have “converged” in Lions Roaring as well as in the diaspora.

Here is an excerpt from Lions Roaring by Kassaye. Her essay is titled “Hunger.”

“…For me, finding my family is more about my right to truth than about fulfilling my desire to be biologically connected to someone. I’m well aware that blood relations don’t guarantee harmonious, trusting, safe, or loving relationships. However, I believe we all have an inalienable right to know who we came from, whether or not we decide to pursue a relationship…I am part of a lost generation returning to Ethiopia with only bits of information about our families. Our Ethiopian parents, on the other hand, do not have the resources or information to track down or locate their lost children in the diaspora.”

Here is an excerpt from Lions Roaring by Heran. Her essay is titled “The Search for Home Within.”

“Layers of conditioning still to unravel have taught me to love my hair naturally, my dark chocolate skin, and embrace my past unconditionally. As Meshell Ndegeocello so aptly wrote, ‘My beauty cannot be measured by the standards of a colonized mind.’

…Living in Ethiopia and re-learning the language and culture were the next steps toward making me feel that I belong. Being in Ethiopia gives me the biggest challenge and the biggest gain. Neo-colonialism is also prevalent in Ethiopia, but the history, tradition, culture, spirituality, and pride are deeply rooted in the society, and heal me on a daily basis…”

Lemn Sissay haș written many books and poems on an astonishing range of subjects. In his powerful, poignant memoir, “My Name is Why,” he wrote

“Look what was sown by the stars/ At night across the fields /

I am not defined by scars / But by the incredible ability to heal.”

“I am not defined by darkness/ Confided the night.

Each dawn I am reminded/ I am defined by light.”

Cover art of Lions Roaring;
Original art by Nahosenay Negussie

The Global Ethiopian Diaspora: Important New Research, Including an Adoptee Voice

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Congratulations to the editors of and contributors to the valuable new book, “The Global Ethiopian Diaspora: Migrations, Connections, and Belongings.”

I am especially proud to share that Kassaye Berhanu-MacDonald, an Ethiopian-Canadian adoptee, has an essay included in the book. Too often, adoptees’ voices are not part of diasporic research and literature. Kassaye is also a co-editor of “Lions Roaring Far From Home: An Anthology by Ethiopian Adoptees.”

Gratitude to the wonderful Hewan Girma, Ph.D., and the other co-editors of The Global Ethiopian Diaspora, Shimelis B. Gulema, Ph.D., and Mulugeta Dinbabo, Ph.D.