HARTFIELD, Va. — Steve and Niki Gourley met in 2003 while serving as summer counselors at Camp Piankatank, a Baptist retreat center near the Chesapeake Bay. Steve grew up in Newport News, Va., and had attended Piankatank every summer since he was 9 years old. As a camper he says he knew that when he was older that he wanted to be a camp counselor.
Niki was from Florida; and after completing her first year of college, she wanted to spend the summer months working with children. Those weeks as counselors were the beginning of a friendship that would lead to marriage. And the camp where they met has now become their home, as the Gourleys returned to Piankatank Camp and Conference Center in 2006 to become its co-directors.
Steve and Nicki Gourley with their son, Yoseph.
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They talked about a family while they were dating, Niki says. She and Steve both knew they would want children and adoption was an option. When ready for their first child, Niki says they decided to first experience having a biological child. Elijah Robert Gourley was born on Oct. 19, 2008.
As time approached to expand their family, they began looking at adoption, Niki remembers. “And we really started praying about it,” she says. A 40-day period of prayer and fasting at their church became a time of searching Scripture and seeking God’s guidance for their family. Exploring what Scripture says about adoption and the value of children, Niki says it was clear God was leading them to adopt.
After comparing the options of domestic or overseas adoption, the Gourleys chose to work through Children’s Hope International, a non-denominational Christian adoption agency. “We wanted to meet a need in the world,” she notes. Of the countries from which they could adopt, they decided to give a home to a child from Ethiopia.
The east African nation, with a population of 76 million, has an estimated 5 million children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis or starvation, according to aid organizations. Mortality rates in Ethiopia are among the highest in the world. Reports indicate thousands of children in the country are born each year to families too destitute to feed or clothe them.
International adoption can be unpredictable; the process, time frames and procedures can change at any time, according to Niki. The process began as the agency did a home study and the couple spent 10 hours in classes on adoption and raising a child from another culture.
The Gourleys prepared a dossier for the Ethiopian Embassy. It took five months to get the paperwork together, according to Niki. This included three levels of criminal background checks and being fingerprinted twice, she remembers.
Seven months later the day arrived when Steve and Niki received a child referral with a photo of a baby boy named Yoseph, his background information and health records. They were excited to accept the referral and make their first trip to Ethiopia, she says.
It was July when she and Steve made that journey. They stayed at a guest house provided by the adoption agency along with two other couples in the process of adopting children. Their first days with Yoseph will always be special, Niki says.
The Gourleys returned to the United States and waited again, this time for the American Embassy to authorize a visa for Yoseph. “That was really the hardest time for us,” Niki says. “We had fallen in love with him and thought it would only be a short time.” After four months, the papers finally arrived in November and Steve and Niki were able to return to Ethiopia to bring their child home to meet his new family and big brother.
While they wish to keep the circumstances of Yoseph’s birth and need for adoption private, Niki confides they were able to meet his birth mother. In her honor the couple chose to keep their son’s birth name. Yoseph means “God has given me much.”
Yoseph had a minor medical need which has been surgically corrected. He was born with a tongue tie, a condition where the tongue is connected to the bottom of the mouth. Had he remained in Ethiopia, Yoseph may not have been able to have had the surgery which can affect eating and speech, Niki explains. But she reports that Yoseph is now doing well and his brother, Elijah, is proudly showing him off to friends and relatives.
Woman’s Missionary Union of the Mid-Tidwater Baptist Association gave her a baby shower, Niki says. The association also collected baby items for the AHOPE orphanage, a facility in Ethiopia for children with HIV. When Steve and Niki went to bring Yoseph home, they also carried two very heavy suitcases of items and monetary donations to the orphanage.
More than any other people, the people of God know the wonder and joy of being adopted (Ephesians 1:4-6). While it was a long experience and not without its challenges, Niki reflects, they’d love to be able to adopt again in the future.
Barbara Francis ([email protected]) is a staff writer for the Religious Herald.