Hello and welcome to the River Valley Cross-cultural Adoption Support Group. The Mission of the group...is in its name. Please view the latest article from the La Crosse Tribune. 

AAMAN was contacted by Kate and Jennifer following an article in the Winona Daily News, "Local activists inspired by King's message, encouraged by Obama's presidency" By KEVIN BEHR | kbehr@winonadailynews.com. The "local activists" are me and my wife. Kate and Jennifer were excited to learn of an African-American organization in town.

"Good Morning.

I found the website for your organization and found it very interesting. I am an adoptive mother of 2 African American boys ages 3 and 2.  My family is very interested in keeping my boys aware of their birth culture/heritage while they grow up.  We live in rural Arcadia which lacks diversity for the most part.  I have been looking for a church in the Winona area that we can join so the boys are able to meet other African American individuals that they can bond with on a regular basis.  I am wondering if you would be able to recommend a church for our family to visit.

Thank you in advance for your assistance".

"Hello Valjean,

I was excited to read about you in the Winona Daily News this morning. When I found your website I was even more excited!!

My husband and I are new to the Winona area and recently adopted our son, Gedion, (now 15 months old and from Ethiopia). I was wondering if you and your family would like to join us for dinner some night? We would love to learn more about your organization. Or if there is a meeting we could attend that would be nice too. I am interested in helping with the camp. It looks like it is off to a wonderful start, but could you use more help? I hope this email finds you well.

Praise God, for your good work.

Kate (and Eric & Gedion) Errthum"

The group was founded on February 21, 2009 and their first formal meeting was on March 14, 2009. At this March meeting the Chair, Kate Errthum and Co-chair, Jennifer Rotering was        selected from the three family members and the next meeting was scheduled for April 18, 2009.

It was a pleasure to meet Mr. and Mrs. Andy and Jennifer Rotering & sons  Jordan and Kaiden; Mr. and Mrs. Eric and Kate Errthum & son Gedion, and Mr. and Mrs. Erika  and Jesse Emerick and son Samuel. Below are they stories: AAMAN's Fundraiser-Please Help!

Eric and I suspected that becoming parents would be the most rewarding experience of our lives. Nothing felt as natural or necessary to us as becoming parents. We had an overflowing of love to pour on a child. We knew fairly early in our marriage that we would build our family through adoption and quickly learned about Ethiopian adoption. We fell in love with the country and the people immediately.

Once we decided we wanted to adopt a child from Ethiopia, we never looked back. We applied to our agency in June 2007 and were matched with the most beautiful 7 month old boy on May 27th 2008. Seeing Gedion's picture, we both cried tears of joy. We knew immediately that he was our son. We were able to meet him in Ethiopia and bring him home on September 6th and ever since have been amazed by the simple and extraordinary love that a child can bring to a family.

We can't imagine life without Gedion and are in awe of the responsibility that goes with parenthood. Part of our commitment to Gedion is to instill a sense of pride in his Ethiopian heritage. We want to give him all the opportunities to form a healthy identity. He may identify more with African-Americans than Ethiopians or maybe identify as a Winonan or a musician or nature lover, or all of the above. We want to give him the opportunity to form relationships with people who can bolster his identity and love him. We think that we will find that in the River Valley Cross-cultural Support Group. We would love to support your family and have  another friend with whom to share joys, sorrows, and concerns.

Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world and Africa's second-most populous nation.

Ethiopia is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast.

After years of suffering infertility, we decided the best way for us to enjoy parenting is through adoption.  We started our adoption journey in the fall of 2002 with a local Wisconsin agency.  We waited over 2 years to be matched in their domestic adoption program but we never did receive a referral.  At that point, we changed our focus to the Russian adoption program. After months and months of paperwork, we submitted our  dossier to Russia.  We soon found out that the agency we were working with had not been re-accredited with the Russian government and was not able to complete any adoptions.  At that point, we were told that we were unable to rejoin the domestic program due to low placements in the last few years.  It seemed that we were running into road block after road block in our adoption journey. 

We began searching for a new adoption agency and decided to focus on a national agency.  Within 2 weeks of submitting  information to an agency in October 2005, we received a call that we waited 3 years for.  There was an African American infant boy born in Miami, FL the day before and the birthmother decided that she wanted to place him with us.  We were thrilled that our dreams of a family were  finally coming true.  We were able to pick up our son, Jordan Andrew from the hospital 3 days later in an area that was severely damaged by Hurricane Wilma the day before we arrived. 

Even with being 6 weeks premature and a survivor of the Hurricane,  Jordan was completely healthy. We immediately began enjoying our newly formed family and did so for 15 months when we were completely surprised in January 2007 with another call. 

It was the adoption agency calling to tell us that Jordan's birth mother was pregnant and was even past her due date.  If we were interested , she wanted to place the baby with us too.  We did not even have to think twice about it.  We could imagine not having the 2 birth siblings stay together.  Kaiden Michael joined our family in late January 2007.  He also was completely healthy since birth.  Jordan and Jen's mom traveled to Florida with us to pick up the newest member of our family and it was a great bonding experience for all of us.  We send the birth mother a letter with pictures 3 times a year but we have never met her in person.

It has been a true blessing to have our boys in our lives.  We live in a very rural community and want to make sure that our boys grow up knowing their birth culture and have positive influences within that culture.  We are truly pleased that we were able to be a part of the development of the River Valley Cross Cultural Adoption Support Group and look forward to the great experiences that our family will take part in with this group for years to come.

When we made the decision to have children we knew from the start that we would be adopting. After a lengthy period of home studies, waiting, filling out paperwork and more waiting we received, on March 14th 2008, a referral letter with a photo of a tiny little 2 1/2 month-old boy with an earnest face -- he was our Samuel.

We made an amazing journey to Ethiopia at the end of July 2008 to meet him for the first time and bring him home with us. It now seems like he has been a part of our household always and it has been a joy to be able to watch him grow, learn and explore the world.

We hope to bring Samuel up in a diverse, supportive environment where he can feel proud and self-assured as an Ethiopian, as an African-American and as an adopted child. We hope that through the River Valley Cross-cultural Adoption Support Group we can find that kind of environment and be a part of it for other families like ours.

Erika, Samuel, and Jesse Emerick