— A year ago, he was still sitting in an orphanage in Addis Ababa, one of five million Ethiopian orphans and vulnerable children. To be honest, sitting is probably the wrong word. For as the one-line description of Matiwos in his adoption portfolio read, "Lives to play, not to sit."
Before Addis Ababa, Matiwos was in another orphanage, this one among his Sidama people in the Southern Nations section nearer to Kenya. The level of malnutrition, disease and lack of clean drinking water there is not some story for a television infomercial. It is a reality. And for the waiting children of Ethiopia, especially the older boys, another reality is they are rarely adopted.
Yet here was Matiwos Rumley sitting the other day among his robust, loving family in a double-wing colonial in Hebron, fidgeting with my iPhone, laughing and trading words in sturdy English with his brother and sisters. Perhaps even more remarkably, Matiwos Rumley, 7, will be on a flight to Atlanta on Friday — cast on his right thumb — with his dad, Mark, and brother Luke to compete in the NFL Pass, Punt & Kick National Finals.
In October, Matiwos won the sectionals in Hebron and the state title of the 6-7 division in Berlin. He went to Gillette Stadium before the Patriots' game against the Bills on Nov. 11, beat the other New England state champs, and during a timeout in the second quarter, accepted his trophy from Andre Tippett in front of 68,756 fans.
Then Matiwos, the waiting child, waited. Only the top four from each age group of the 32 NFL team winners would advance to the national finals. When all the results were finally in, Matiwos had finished first among the qualifiers.
Not bad for a kid who had never picked up a football until a week before his first competition. Not bad for a kid who, when he arrived in Connecticut last Jan. 28, knew one word of English.
"Apple," Matiwos said, smiling.
Mark and Jodi Rumley already had four sports-crazy biological children when they decided on Christmas Day 2010 that less talk and more action would be needed for a fifth. So they reached out to Wide Horizons For Children, passed all the background checks and began to think about adopting a child who was 2 or 3 years old. Then they made their first visit to the Wide Horizons facility in West Hartford.
"We were waiting for an appointment when we picked up a photo book," Mark said. "The first picture we saw of any child was Matiwos. We looked at that face and said, 'What a wonderful smile!' On our way out, we said something about the boy and our case worker said, 'Oh, he's a waiting child, an older child, and that's where there is the greatest need.' Most people want to adopt an infant.
"We went home and started talking, 'If we're going into this for all the right reasons, to give someone the love and protection of a family, maybe we should rethink this.''
So they did. They picked the first child they saw, or maybe Matiwos' smile picked them.
"It was meant to be," Jodi said softly.
"Perhaps," Mark said, "reading our story will motivate some people and make the lives of the poorest a little easier."
Mark and Jodi went to Addis Ababa in November 2011 to meet Matiwos and gain court approval. They had to wait another few months for the U.S. embassy to clear the adoption. In January Mark returned with his two older daughters for a two-week visit. They visited the area of Matiwos' birth.
"It's a beautiful area, but the level of hunger and disease is so pervasive, resulting in innumerable deaths of adults, children and infants," Mark said. "It's overwhelming."
Before they left with Matiwos for the Addis Ababa airport, a coffee ceremony was held in celebration. The family cleared customs, and that's when Matiwos faced a great obstacle.
An escalator.
"He stopped, looked and went 'uh-uh,' " Mark said. "We couldn't find any stairs. Finally we convinced him the escalator was OK."
Mark bought bottled water for the kids. He gave one to Matiwos. He dropped it. Mark picked up the bottle.
"Matiwos dropped it again," Mark said.
He could speak Amharic and Sidamo languages, but he had no way of explaining in English he had never touched anything cold in his life.
"Even when he got home, he wouldn't drink anything out of the refrigerator for a time," Jodi said. "We had to leave it on the counter to get to room temperature."
Matiwos even had to learn how to come down the stairs.
"It was slippery," Matiwos said.
He would retain his given name. And about a month after his arrival, Mark and Jodi started Matiwos in the second grade at Gilead Hill Elementary for an hour or two a couple of days a week. One day his teacher called and said the class was watching a movie and Matiwos wanted to stay. This was a great sign. He's in the third grade now. Reading and spelling are still a challenge. He loves math and art.
Matiwos loves something else: soccer. He played basketball after baseball after he arrived. One of his real strengths is he can see something and copy it quickly. He saw the proper form for a shot or throw and didn't have to go through the process of correcting bad habits. Yet the real beauty of Pass, Punt & Kick for Matiwos is the kick component. The scores are tabulated for both distance and accuracy, and Matiwos' numbers for passing and punting are very good. His numbers for kicking have been so dominant the Rumleys hope it will help Matiwos overcome his latest obstacle.
"They didn't have TV or PlayStation at the orphanage," Mark said. "What they did from 7 in the morning until 8 at night was play soccer, two-on-two in an alley all day, every day, 12 hours a day in Crocs."
For goalie gloves, they used the inserts for Crocs.
The Rumley kids — Rebecca, 16, Hannah, 14, Luke, 12, Sarah, 9 — are all athletic, playing a slew of sports. The family, in fact, has had success in PP&K before. Sarah finished second at Gillette Stadium in her age group. But it wasn't until Matiwos put his foot into the ball that everyone went, wow! When the youngest kids went to kick in Foxborough, the officials all moved up several feet in anticipation of a measurement.
"It was funny, as soon as Matiwos kicked it, they all started running back," Mark said.
The family are all Yankees fans, but are divided among the Giants, Cowboys, Packers and Patriots. Matiwos is a Patriots fan.
"The first time I see [the NFL] on television I say, 'Oh, my God! What is that sport?' " he said. "Then I see them tackle, I say, 'Whoo!' "
He didn't know English well enough or any of the rules to play this past year. How could he have learned any plays? Within a year, however, he's gobbling down bacon, egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches from Dunkin' Donuts. He loves video games. And in the true style of an American kid, he complained that the seats weren't close enough when Mark brought the entire family to Yankee Stadium for game.
"It seems like it happens almost overnight he went from not being able to communicate to much quicker than we expected," she said.
He knows football well enough to say, "I want to be a running back."
Yet as he plays different sports or practices for PP&K on the street on lines Mark painted to mark off yardage or as he is allowed to go to the other side of the gym while coach Steve Emt runs his RHAM varsity basketball practices, something has stood out. Matiwos absorbs pain almost silently. Mark coaches the Hebron kids in youth basketball and he didn't even hear a peep when Matiwos was injured Dec. 28.
"I didn't see it," he said. "Most kids are screaming. He doesn't say anything. After we get home he says, 'Dad, my hand hurts.' We iced it. I'm not thinking twice about it. He wakes up the next morning and it's really swollen."
Mark brought Matiwos to the Connecticut Children's Medical Center. His right thumb was broken. A large cast was applied.
"I'll just throw lefty," Matiwos said.
On Dec. 31, however, orthopedic surgeon Kevin Burton devised a special blue cast.
"It's the tiniest thing, isn't it," Jodi said.
We'll see, but Matiwos is thinking he might be able to compete righthanded Saturday. The winners will be introduced on national television during the Falcons' playoff game.
Matiwos? He remains amazingly unaffected by all of it. When he found out he'd made the nationals, his first reaction was, darn, he'd miss his soccer game at Oakwood.
"If I win," Matiwos said, "I want my dad to take me bowling."
The waiting child lives to play, not to sit.
