“The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
In late September of 2006 I left my office on my lunch hour. Food, however, was not foremost on my mind. My wife and mother happened to be halfway around the world. My plan was to find a secluded area to park and try my luck catching them in their apartment for the evening. Yerevan, Armenia is nine time zones ahead. I dialed the number they left on my voice mail.
I got through. These two important women in my life traveled to Yerevan to accomplish the first legal step of Sophie’s adoption process. The municipality entered into their books the intention of Douglas and Christiane Potts to adopt this beautiful little girl. Born June 1, 2006 in Yerevan. The child lived at a state-funded orphanage in Yerevan called Nork.
Armenia does not require an adoptive parent’s presence for this step – at least in 2006. But Christiane and I saw this as a wonderful opportunity. Moreso than this legal step the true impetus for the trip was for Christiane to meet the child we hoped would soon be our daughter. I stayed at home to save vacation time for the next major step in the journey. My mother pleasantly surprised us by offering to travel with Christiane. We knew the trip would be bitter sweet. What an opportunity to meet this child now. But how difficult to leave her behind when the week was over.
I talked with Christiane on the phone that afternoon, and heard my mother in the background. I listened to explanations of the crazy traffic; the loud noise emanating from outdoor bars that kept them up at night; and they told me about the boy.
The boy was another baby at the same orphanage as Sophie. He suffered from a host of deformities, and possible, unknown at this stage of development, mental disabilities. My Mom for the most part let Christiane bond as much as feasible with Sophie that week, while she concentrated most of her efforts occupying this little boy.
It was not the case that the women who worked there ignored him because of his disabilities. They simply had too many babies to take care of with their limited resources.
Listening to this led me to feel as if someone kicked me in the stomach. I could not shake the notion this poor boy would spend his life in an institution. I daydreamed the rest of the afternoon at work. I could not shake it. From this vantage point it was not a far leap to begin envisioning both able and disabled orphans alike wasting away in institutionalized care.
But what could I do? I have a History degree. I more or less fell into the purchasing world in the marketplace. I know nothing about kids let alone orphans. And governments seem to be pretty particular regarding who they like working with these kids. So for some time the thoughts and the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach came and went with no cooresponding action.
Again at work one afternoon the thoughts came back. It had been a slow day, so I took advantage of the silent phone and empty inbox and surfed the Internet. Mindlessly searching. I really did not know where I wanted to go or find. I came across a Foundation that offered no-interest loans for adoptions. Another Foundation offered grants. One, maybe the most famous, Dave Thomas Foundation, offered grants to Foster parents adopting their charges. I began to wonder if Christiane and I could create a non-profit that would help prospective adoptive parents with the enormous costs they faced.
Sophie’s Foundation was born. In my mind at least. It would take another three years and a world-wide economic crisis to bring it out of the abstract and into the light of day. I certainly did not mean to hold off for the “Great Recession.” No one writes such an atmosphere into their business plans.
It has led others to comment to us both directly and indirectly, “you’re naive.” It saddens me so many cannot seem to get passed simple bean counting or the “bottom line.” Will it be an uphill climb to make this a success? Certainly. Would it have been easier to establish a non-profit in a time of plenty? Of course. For better or worse I finally decided to take Emerson’s comment appearing at the top of this blog as advice instead of just a mere descriptor upon humanity. With Christiane’s able skills and many others’ time and talents Sophie’s Foundation has become a reality. To date we have funded a web site for an orphanage in Uganda; helped an established charity to Armenian orphanages harness the Internet’s technology; and just recently awarded a financial grant to a young couple adopting their first child. All of this within our first five months of existence!
Since this makes us naive we are shooting for downright crazy next year. Wanna join the fun?
