Over the past couple of weeks I conducted an email interview with Alby Zander about their recent experience adopting two boys from Liberia. Alby has been married to Lori for 12 years, at Parkview for 9 years, and have 5 great kids- Zach 8, Matti 7, Leeya 5, Samson 4, Benji 2). Lorri mostly grew up in Kansas where her dad was a pastor and Alby grew up in Colombia, South America where his mom and dad were missionaries. They met at North Park College in Chicago and have lived in Chicago and the western suburbs. Lorri is a CPA and worked as one until last summer when she started a home business with her friend. Alby is a high school health teacher and coach at Glenbard West high school.

You recently adopted two children from Liberia. Could you give us the background of what led to the decision to adopt two children from overseas?

We had looked into the possibility before and have always thought about it. Adoption has been a part of all of our lives in different ways–Lorri had an adopted brother growing up and our very good friends adopted two kids, and they are our kids best friends. All that to say, adoption has always been an open discussion in our family.

What were some of the more difficult things you had to work through before you were ready to commit to adopting?

Adoption has many unique challenges that we needed to be ready to deal with so the biggest obstacle in the past had been dealing with the reality of what a decision like this might mean. The biggest realities included the financial commitment and the emotional commitment. For example, Lorri’s adopted brother lived a very difficult life due to experiences he had before he was adopted and this could very well be the case for any child we adopted. However, we got to a point a couple of years ago where we felt God laying it on our hearts to consider it and constantly bringing the idea in to our thoughts. The best part of the whole process has been that God has confirmed his plan in unbelievable ways throughout and has really given us everything we have needed throughout the process.

Why did you decide to adopt from Liberia? Isn’t that a pretty turbulent country?

As we started the process we looked into domestic VS. international and really felt led to adopt from a country with great needs. A friend told us about Liberia and once we looked into this country we learned several key things:
1. The needs were great. The 14 year civil war destroyed the infrastructure of a beautiful country and left unbelievable poverty and many children without families.
2. Liberia has long valued its relationship with the United States and many Liberians truly value the opportunities in the United States. The country primarily speaks English and has strong Christian presence. We saw these as keys to being able to establish long term partnerships in Liberia that hopefully our kids and other Liberians will benefit from.

Part 2 on Wednesday