A young Michigan couple, Erica and Zach Schaefer, began their adoption journey back in 2018 when they traveled to India to pick up their now 6-year-old daughter, Hebsi. They knew from the beginning that they wanted to adopt two children from India, so not too long after, their second daughter, Shravani, now 4 years old, was introduced to their family.

As Erica explained, “We were passionate that they grew up with someone that looked like them, that had some of similar backgrounds, and that we could celebrate that within our family and hopefully take away some piece of loneliness that might be there.”

The Schaefer’s had a soft spot for India after learning the country had more orphans than any other country in the world. There are an estimated 30 million orphans which is three times the amount of people that live in the state of Michigan.

In 2021, Erica founded a 501c3 nonprofit organization, One Less with the mission to end the global orphan crisis.

“The orphan crisis is huge, but we’re optimistic. If we work together, we believe it is possible to fight for One Less orphan one day at a time.”

https://onelessorphan.me/aboutus

Thank you to the Schaefer family for sharing your story with us.