Eight years ago, Sophia Fauveau and her husband, Mark, adopted Azalea Mitike Hadiya Williams, a baby girl from Ethiopia. As a newborn, Azalea was sick and dying. Her father found a hospital and placed her up for adoption, leading to her arrival in America. <\/p>\n
[brid video=”226112″ player=”12272″ title=”Azalea and Mitiku”]
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\nLast year, Sophie sent photos of Azalea — now healthy and thriving — to Azalea’s birth father. He replied with a video. There was a message in it that left Sophie and Azalea shocked. They even had to rewind the video over and over again to make sure what they heard was correct. <\/p>\n
“Then the story unfolded and there was more and more information,” Sophia recalled.<\/p>\n
It turns out that Azalea has a twin brother, though she and her adoptive family never knew it. They started planning shortly after, lining up translators, transportation and the proper vaccines. A year later they touched down in the remote Ethiopian village where Azalea’s birth father and brother lived. <\/p>\n
While there, Sophie noticed Azalea’s twin brother, Mitiku, may have had some of the same hearing and medical issues that Azalea had when she was younger.<\/p>\n
When Sophie and Azalea returned to Portland, they knew they had to help Mitiku. They setup a Go Fund Me page to raise money for Mitku’s medical costs. Then they took it a step further. […] CONTINUE READING<\/a><\/p>\n