Page 8 2015 HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS MAGAZINE LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.COM NOVEMBER 25, 2015
Michael was still working on his Masters of
Business Administration degree.
The couple took those years asking God to steer
them to the right children, praying, searching and
preparing, before they found and brought home
their fourth and fifth children, their first adoption.
The Gowins have been part of, and worked through
the organization, Woven Together of Logan
County, which helps families with foster care and
adoption, as well as global orphan care.
In 2008 the family began traveling and bringing
home children from Ethiopia. They brought home
younger children at first. In 2011, they brought
home siblings, a 9-month old baby girl and her five
year old brother.
Suzanne began feeling burdened after a comment
from one of her children about the plight of older
children in orphanages. In Ethiopia, children
age-out of the orphanage at age 16 and are turned
out on to the streets to make their own way, most
without skills or an education. Their prospects of a
quality life are not good.
Thereby, the sixth child they would bring home
was a 15 year-old-boy with medical issues. He
walked with crutches due to the poor condition of
his bones. His blind father was trying to take care
of his medical issues while still caring for the boy’s
three younger siblings at home. The fifteen-year-
old agreed that being adopted was his only hope.
After arriving in the states, this now oldest child
was accepted at Shriner’s Hospital in St. Louis
and there his medical condition was diagnosed as
caused by nutritional deficiencies and a genetic
disorder, Osteogenesis imperfecta. Over the course
of a year he received bio-chemical therapy and
finally surgery for his legs.
While they were at the hospital for his surgery, the
Gowins would be faced with their biggest life-
changing decision yet. They learned that the father
of their last child had been forced to place the other
three siblings in the orphanage.
It is well-known in foster care and adoption that
whenever possible children from a family do best
if they are kept together.
The Gowins compassion for children who are
in the greatest need of love and care was now
challenged by this much bigger commitment of
their time and resources.
The questions raced through the couple’s minds:
Where would the finances come from to raise three
more children? How would they find the time to
care for so many children? Where would they fit
them all? It was a big leap of faith to go from a
family of six kids, to nine. How many vehicles fit
11 people?
The decision was made after careful examination
and lots of prayer, but the one thing that clinched
it was, because of God’s “tender mercy,” the kids
need to be in a family, together.
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