PALOS PARK, Ill. (AP) — Paula Gottemoller’s heart broke the day she had to say goodbye to a frantic 7-year-old boy in the courtyard of a school in Tanzania.
“He came running out of his classroom and ran right up to me. He jumped in my arms and said, ‘I go home with you now,’ ” she recalled. “I almost died.”
She gave him a rosary, a prayer card and the cross necklace she was wearing.
“I vowed right then that Delphinius’ life and his story would make a difference, somehow,” Gottemoller said.
A year after she left East Africa, that promise rang true three times over. Though Delphinius still is in Tanzania, three other small children now have the run of Gottemoller’s Palos Park home.
In summer 2008, Gottemoller, along with her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Jennifer, now 16, spent a month caring for orphans in Tanzania through Children of Hope and Faith, an organization based in Champaign.
For months before their trip, the Gottemollers sponsored Delphinius and another child through the program. The trip would be an opportunity for them to meet those children. The family bonded almost immediately with Delphinius, to the point that the child was certain he had found a permanent family.
Paula Gottemoller said she would have adopted him in a minute if Tanzania would allow international adoption.
“I couldn’t adopt Delphinius, but I swore I would help other children in his name,” she said.
Paula, a former preschool and kindergarten teacher, and Paul, an engineer with Navistar, already had raised sons Ben, 27, and Andrew, 24. Their daughter Jennifer was off to high school.
Yet they couldn’t accept the notion that their child-raising days were over.
“We don’t want to live our lives for just pleasure. We want a purpose,” she said. “I’ve always had a soft spot for orphans. I’ve always wanted to help them.”
The couple considered foster care but were told that children already enrolled in the Chicago Public Schools system needed to stay in it, meaning they couldn’t be moved to Palos Park.
Twelve years ago, they had adopted then-4-year-old Jennifer from China with the help of the Family Resource Center adoption agency. China since has changed its international adoption policy, but the agency told them about a growing orphan problem in Ethiopia.
“There are 5 million orphans there and only 3,000 get adopted each year,” Paula said.
So the Gottemollers assembled the necessary paperwork.
On July 16, 2009, one year to the day after they bid a tearful goodbye to Delphinius, the Gottemollers got word that three siblings were available to them.
“We were overjoyed,” Paula said. “It was God’s way of saying that Delphinius’ life did make a difference.”
The next six months were a whirlwind of preparation.
“Paul was kind of worried about the money,” Paula said – the process cost $15,000 per child – but then they learned that in addition to a government tax credit, they also would receive a credit from Navistar to help offset the costs.
So at ages 57 and 53, respectively, Paul and Paula Gottemoller, along with Jennifer, traveled to Sodo, Ethiopia, last month to start a new chapter in their lives.
Everything was an adventure, Paula said, starting with the 31-hour flight back to the United States. On a stopover in Washington, D.C., the children ate their first American meal: chicken wings, French fries and chicken nuggets.
“You would have thought it was the best meal they ever had,” Paula said.
Doctor and dentist visits have helped confirm each child’s age, and the Gottemollers gave each a new name. Mark is 5, Katherine is 4, and Maria Elizabeth is 3.
The siblings love sledding, eating ice cream from Plush Horse in Palos Park and helping with chores, which they had to do in the orphanage.
“They love the washing machine,” Paula said.
“It gets kinda crazy sometimes,” Jennifer said. “But they’re pretty obedient.”
Though they’re quickly picking up English, Paul said they sometimes rely on their native Wolaita.
“They’re like the Three Musketeers. They talk among themselves, probably conspiring,” he said, chuckling.
“Are we crazy?” Paul said jokingly. “Well, I guess this confirms what our friends already knew.”
But once those friends heard about the Gottemollers’ new additions, they came through with donations of clothing, bicycles, toys and even meals.
“It’s definitely an adjustment,” Paula said. “But it’s a wonderful adjustment.
“What’s more important than helping children?”
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Information from: Southtown Star, http://www.southtownstar.com
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