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CHARLOTTE -- Carolina Panther fans love Muhsin Muhammad for his ability to stretch for those hard to catch passes. He and his wife Christa stretched in a different way to expand their family.
The Muhammads adopted 10-year-old Journey and 6-yearold Maddon from Ethiopia in December of 2007.
"In researching the country, seeing the beauty of the people, seeing the need for the children the high orphan rate we just felt compelled to go to Ethiopia, Muhsin said.
In the year and a half since the children arrived they’ve not only adjusted to the Muhammad’s four biological children but also to American culture. The first hurdle was learning to speak English.
"Six months into the adoption, I knew they had it because they stop arguing in Amharic and started arguing in English," Mushin said.
Christa remembers Journey’s reaction to the dishwasher. "When she first came home and she saw the dishwasher and she told us this several months later hey mom when you guys started putting dishes in there and then closed it I didn’t know where those dishes were going."
And because they witnessed such extreme poverty even family pets were something new.
"They were amazed at seeing dogs as pets," Christa said. "You know they can’t feed themselves let alone have a dog so that was totally amazing to them to have a dog."
The Muhammads talked about their experience Thursday night at a fundraiser for Weaving Families. The Matthews based group tries to help families through the adoption journey with counseling and education.
Muhsin and Christa believe their family has blended successfully because they as parents understood the need to be patient and realistic.
"People think these kids are going to run to you and say thank you for saving me thank you for taking me from this third world country but that’s their life that’s all they knew and to them maybe life wasn’t so bad," Christa said.
Muhsin adds, "They came into our home and we welcomed them with that love all of our children share, that same love our family is loving like that and it’s infectious."
