Ethiopian-American family: Wellsville couple talk raising 12 kids
The Wellsville home of the Newman family was alive with activity Monday night as the kids played a game of Reverse Charades, boy vs. girl.
But the bond of this family with 12 children — this “Ethiopian-American” family, as their mother, Cherish, likes to call it — is anything but one group against the other.
“It became the new normal,” said husband and father Kelly, an entrepreneur and real estate investor, of life since the Newmans first started adopting in 2009.
Now the Newman family is talking about their heartfelt dedication for their family and giving back. A Morrell Family Charities-sponsored concert featuring Nashville Tribute Band is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday in the Ellen Eccles Theatre, 43 S. Main Street, Logan.
Proceeds from the show will go to three groups: Bring Love In, Kids Hope Ethiopia and Tikuret orphanage in Ethiopia. The orphanage is receiving the funds through a partnership with ARISE! International.
Levi Benkert, co-founder of the non-profit Bring Love In, based in Ethiopia, said Morrell helped Bring Love In get off the ground and knows the Newman family. Bring Love In takes Ethiopian kids from government orphanages and fixes them up with members of the community to make “forever families.”
“For us, it’s all about raising future leaders and making a difference in the country as a whole, providing families for kids who have none,” Benkert said. “We can’t say enough about what a difference a family makes in a child’s life and we do whatever we can in Ethiopia to provide for as many of them as we can. We’re thankful there are so many people willing to come together for this cause and we’re excited about what we can do together.”
The Newmans’ adopted children are: Gabe, age 11; Tayiba, 17; Sultan, 16; Gideon, 12; Mariama, 15; Chaltu, 20; Dibabe, 21; and Faith, 9.
The Newmans’ biological children are: Eva, 8; Harmony 13; Daniel, 12; Caleb, 16.
Morrell Family Charities and adoption beginnings
The starting point for the Newmans’ adoptions came from the founding in 2006 of Morrell Family Charities, founded by Cherish’s father, businessman Paul Morrell, owner of Al Morrell development. Morrell is traveling on business and was not available for an interview.
The foundation’s work started with building orphanages in South America, Kelly said; then Paul Morrell went to Ethiopia to open a farming business, which was next door to an orphanage. Morrell started to adopt some children there, but couldn’t take them all; so the Newmans considered considered adopting Ethiopian children.
Kelly said he and Cherish had been thinking for a long time to increase their family size and wanted to adopt.
“The opportunity was there, and we wanted to help,” Kelly explained. “Everything was set in place, and we felt good about it.”
Cherish said going to the orphanage and seeing her future children was love at first sight.
“I just felt strongly these are my babies, and I need to find a way to get them home,” she said.
The Newmans adopted seven kids in 2009; their last, Mariama, 15, came home with them to Wellsville in 2014.
“I think we’re complete as a family,” Kelly said. “Things are just really good now. We thought it would be a challenge, but it really hasn’t.”
Kelly, not surprisingly, recommends families adopt, but if they do, take more than one child.
“It actually works better — I know seven or eight is a lot — but even if you have two, it’s a better experience because they have somebody from their culture that they can buddy up with,” Kelly said.
Kelly and Cherish have worked hard to fuse together the typical American life of their four biological children with their eight adopted Ethiopian children’s culture, cooking Ethiopian food, listening to music and wearing native clothing.
Factor in the kids’ schooling and extracurricular activities, and it’s a house that almost never sleeps.
“We’re very busy, and there’s lots to do, but it doesn’t seem so overwhelming and out of control all of the time,” Kelly said.
From Ethiopia to America
The Newmans’ adopted kids had never been on a plane before the adoption, and they didn’t know English.
“I felt kind of scared; it’s far away, and I had never been on an airplane before,” said Tayiba. “I never thought a house was different.”
Gideon added, “We thought we were going to live by the ocean.”
Then there was the culture shock that is coming to America. Within the first few months they experienced their first Halloween; they were also fascinated by escalators and credit cards.
“The girls were scared to death” of escalators, Cherish said, and they were asking questions like, “Why we celebrate death,” in Halloween.
“They called credit and debit cards ‘magic cards,’” Kelly said, noting that their adopted kids got the sense that in America, everything is provided for you.
School was tough for some of the adopted children at first.
“Coming to America was hard for me; in Ethiopia no one cares, doesn’t matter if you fail (in school),” Sultan said. “Here, you have to go to school every morning.”
Now the Newmans’ adopted children are energetic about school and life and involve themselves in plenty of extracurricular activities.
“I’m thankful,” said Gabe, one of the Newmans’ adopted children.
Cherish notes there’s been a lot of support from the community since they adopted.
“They say it takes a village to raise a child — that’s very true,” she said. “So many people have come to us with love and kindness; it’s been very good.”