planomateo
Member
Great read
I'm glad someone (D.C. Reeves with TideSports.com) did a full article on his story.
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CALHOUN, Ga. | Three near-strangers anxiously waited in Warsaw Chopin Airport for a flight and a new life together.
They knew only where the first would land.
Andrej Dembrowski, a 13-year-old Polish orphan, was on the way to a new home with parents he met just two months prior. Home had been a combination of four orphanages in Stargard Szczecinski, Poland, a dreary town near the German border in one of the nation's poorest provinces. Dembrowski and six siblings - four brothers, two sisters - all lived in an orphanage at some point. A generation before, their father did too.
He had a new name, Adam, to symbolize the fresh start. The judges in a stuffy Polish family court, powdered wigs and all, chuckled when the boy said he picked Adam because it was short and easy to spell.
His last name was Griffith because of Tom and Michelle Griffith, two math teachers from Calhoun, Ga., ready for their next chapter. They fell in love with Andrej through a feature on an adoption agency's website, a last-ditch effort to do the impossible - find a teenage Polish orphan a home. The Griffiths, who had no children, made two trips to Poland spanning a month and ditched their plan to adopt a toddler even when they realized the only pure truth in the ad was Andrej's innocent face.
"I don't know what it was," Michelle said. "Just looking at him."
All the while, Adam, toting all his possessions in one small carry-on bag, wasn't sure he wanted any of this. He gave up everything familiar, as dire as it was, to improve his future. He didn't speak English, though the ad said he did, and he already felt how tough communication would be. Tom and Michelle didn't speak Polish.
"He may have known 'hello,' that's it," Tom said.
The Griffiths worked to adopt Andrej for more than a year, but the moment it finally happened was still immense. They never owned passports until this process began. Now they returned responsible for a teenager who would be inevitably lost in his new world.
"You could feel a little bit of anxiety from him, worried about language, worried about food, worried about everything," Tom said. "Being that far away from anything he's ever known, but it kind of hit us the same way. Now it's about to get very different for him.
"We were all a little nervous."
Through a rough childhood, a turbulent transition, a language barrier and the discovery of his unique talent, Adam Griffith's American dream is in full swing. Exactly eight years from the day he left Poland, Alabama's promising sophomore kicker takes the field against Ole Miss on Saturday.
"Coming from Poland and kicking for Alabama? I didn't see this coming," Adam said. "It's pretty crazy."
Continue reading here...
I'm glad someone (D.C. Reeves with TideSports.com) did a full article on his story.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
CALHOUN, Ga. | Three near-strangers anxiously waited in Warsaw Chopin Airport for a flight and a new life together.
They knew only where the first would land.
Andrej Dembrowski, a 13-year-old Polish orphan, was on the way to a new home with parents he met just two months prior. Home had been a combination of four orphanages in Stargard Szczecinski, Poland, a dreary town near the German border in one of the nation's poorest provinces. Dembrowski and six siblings - four brothers, two sisters - all lived in an orphanage at some point. A generation before, their father did too.
He had a new name, Adam, to symbolize the fresh start. The judges in a stuffy Polish family court, powdered wigs and all, chuckled when the boy said he picked Adam because it was short and easy to spell.
His last name was Griffith because of Tom and Michelle Griffith, two math teachers from Calhoun, Ga., ready for their next chapter. They fell in love with Andrej through a feature on an adoption agency's website, a last-ditch effort to do the impossible - find a teenage Polish orphan a home. The Griffiths, who had no children, made two trips to Poland spanning a month and ditched their plan to adopt a toddler even when they realized the only pure truth in the ad was Andrej's innocent face.
"I don't know what it was," Michelle said. "Just looking at him."
All the while, Adam, toting all his possessions in one small carry-on bag, wasn't sure he wanted any of this. He gave up everything familiar, as dire as it was, to improve his future. He didn't speak English, though the ad said he did, and he already felt how tough communication would be. Tom and Michelle didn't speak Polish.
"He may have known 'hello,' that's it," Tom said.
The Griffiths worked to adopt Andrej for more than a year, but the moment it finally happened was still immense. They never owned passports until this process began. Now they returned responsible for a teenager who would be inevitably lost in his new world.
"You could feel a little bit of anxiety from him, worried about language, worried about food, worried about everything," Tom said. "Being that far away from anything he's ever known, but it kind of hit us the same way. Now it's about to get very different for him.
"We were all a little nervous."
Through a rough childhood, a turbulent transition, a language barrier and the discovery of his unique talent, Adam Griffith's American dream is in full swing. Exactly eight years from the day he left Poland, Alabama's promising sophomore kicker takes the field against Ole Miss on Saturday.
"Coming from Poland and kicking for Alabama? I didn't see this coming," Adam said. "It's pretty crazy."
Continue reading here...
