Photo: Sophie Altman meets her brother-to-be 3-month-old Eli in Ethiopia in 2011.
Happy son, medical missions, children’s book
When Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in January 2010, Lisa Altman suggested her family consider adopting an orphan. Lisa and her husband, Dr. Jerald Altman, and their teenage daughters, Sophie and Emma, all agreed.
But when they were told that authorities were still trying to reunite parents and children separated by the disaster, the Altmans looked to other countries. Learning that Ethiopia was open to foreign adoptions, the family began the application process, which included home study and background checks. By the end of the year their adoption application was approved in Ethiopia.
Jerry, an otolaryngologist, and older daughter Sophie made plans to go to Ethiopia in June 2011 to teach the doctors how to perform newborn hearing screenings. It was the first of what would become annual medical missions to the African nation.
Just before the two left for that first mission, the family received a referral with information about an infant available for adoption. Jerry and Sophie drove four hours from the community where they were volunteering to the orphanage in Awassa, Ethiopia, on June 26 and met 3-month-old Eli.
Court dates, paperwork snafus and various other issues dragged on for nearly a year, but on May 31, 2012, the adoption decree was signed and the Altmans applied for Eli’s visa. On July 4 of that year, Jerry, Lisa, Sophie and Emma went to the orphanage to pick up their new son and brother.
Following the advice of social workers and adoption literature, the family “cocooned” for about three months – keeping Eli at home and keeping visitors at bay – to enable the boy to bond with his new family.
“Follow what the adoption agency and social workers tell you,” Jerry advises prospective adoptive families. “They have the experience and they are right.”
By that November Eli was also welcomed into the Jewish family with a conversion service at Congregation Beth Israel and a private ceremony at the mikvah. Eli, now 4, attends the CBI preschool.
Jerry wholeheartedly recommends adoption. “The process is stressful, but now that it is behind me, I never would have done anything differently.”
Having a toddler in their 40s was also a challenge, but equally rewarding. Jerry, 48, and Lisa, 47, found there is a big difference from having a toddler in your 20s. Jerry, who was in his residency when the girls were young, has been able to be much more engaged playing with Eli. He says he still has the energy to roll around and play with him. “It keeps you younger, active,” he says. “I like going to his soccer games and meeting other parents.”
This summer Sophie, now 21, and Emma, now 18, joined their father on his latest medical mission to Ethiopia. Both girls went to Israel on a Birthright trip and then joined Jerry in Ethiopia.
Last year Jerry joined a group of doctors from New York who went to Mek’ele, Ethiopia, to do ENT surgeries and train doctors. But this year he coordinated his own trip through the Ethiopia Worldwide Orphans Foundation and took hearing aids to help children.
“It’s so dramatic,” he says. After fitting a 13-year-old who had not been able to hear with a hearing aid, he says, “Her smile was enormous.”
Jerry and his daughters also met Dr. Rick Hodes, who serves as medical director of Ethiopia for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The Jewish-American doctor has lived in Ethiopia aiding children with heart and spinal problems for more than two decades. The Altmans joined Hodes and the many children he has adopted for Shabbat dinner.
While the Altman family has been enriched by the addition of Eli, and Ethiopian children have had their hearing improved or restored by the annual medical missions, American children can reap the rewards of the experience, too.
While reading the cautionary nursery rhyme Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed to his young son, Jerry realized an engaging children’s book might show the young patients in his practice another danger.
“There were no children’s books dealing with the subject of sticking small objects in noses and ears, and kids do this all the time,” Jerry says. He teamed up with Richard Jacobson, who is also Jewish, to write Don’t Stick Sticks Up Your Nose! Don’t Stuff Stuff in Your Ears! The colorful pictures and funny rhymes teach ear and nose safety to kids aged 2 to 6. This year the duo re-released the book with a few modifications to target a Jewish audience. The book is available at www.amazon.com and www.dontstickdontstuff.com.
“It will help young readers learn to appreciate and respect the intended functions of their God-given bodies,” according to Jerry.
