The Wienke dozen
Tollef and Sheila Wienke open their hearts and home to welcome seven new additions to their family from Colombia and Ethiopia. With three biological children, the Wienkes transformed from a family of five into a family of 12 within a few years.
By Alyssa Malyon, Annelise Raisanen and Addie Stern | Reporters
‘Mom, you’re crazy,’ Ella Wienke, the firstborn daughter of Tollef and Sheila Wienke thought to herself, listening as her parents hatch another plan to adopt more children for the third time in the past four years.
“My mom is just a super empathetic person,” Wienke said. “[But] at this point, I started to tell [her] she was crazy. I was like, ‘You are insane, we are not having 10 kids at our house.’ ”
Her mom tuned out the children in the house as she began filling out the paperwork for their next adoption of four Colombian siblings.
“Obviously, God already knew the steps that we’d have to take before we’d be ready for the four [Colombians],” Sheila Weinke said. “And that meant having three [adopted children] first.”
After Sheila Wienke had her third biological child, she decided not to have any more children but felt a tug on her heartstrings to adopt. With two biological siblings, three adopted siblings from Ethiopia and four adopted siblings from Colombia, Ella Wienke is the oldest of 10. She was old enough to remember all of the adoptions, beginning with the first adoption of her brother Zone from Ethiopia in 2013.
The adoption process began when in 2011 when her parents came across an Ethiopian boy with Hepatitis C, who was considered to have “special needs” in Ethiopia — viewed as “undesirable” by the adoption agencies. Wienke’s parents felt called by God to bring this boy into their home. They adopted Zone despite the diagnosis and brought him home to Wisconsin. After testing in the United States, the results were negative, making Zone a healthy boy.
“There is no way we would have been able to get through those things if we didn’t have a rock solid faith.” –Ella Wienke, Bethel student
The next two sets of adoptions were a step of faith. The adoption agency reached out to see if the family would adopt two more Ethiopian children — Shambo and Kemal — in 2015. They agreed. Soon after that adoption, the agency reached out again, to see if they would adopt four siblings from Colombia — Paula, Daniel, Maria and Jhonatan.
“There is no way we would have been able to get through those things if we didn’t have a rock-solid faith,” Wienke said.
While the adoptions may have been an easy “Yes,” finding the money was not as simple. Her parents saved up for the first adoption, but after the agency reached out a second and third time, they needed to find other ways to make the money needed.
“The money was just there. There’s no other explanation for that other than God just providing in ways that we can’t even comprehend.” –Ella Wienke, Bethel student
They held fundraisers, garage sales and concerts. They sold clothes for nickels and pennies and somehow ended up with just enough money for each adoption.
“The money was just there,” Wienke said. “There’s no other explanation for that other than God just providing in ways that we can’t even comprehend.”
The Wienke’s first trip to Ethiopia to see Zone when Ella was 10 sparked a passion for travel inside of her. When the Wienke family traveled to Ethiopia for the second time to adopt Shambo and Kemal, they were able to stay at a family friend’s house, yet they were still shocked to see naked people on the side of the road, to get followed home by a group of curious kids and to be the only white family as far as the eyes could see. The trip they took to the orphanage in Colombia brought culture shock with how short her new siblings were.
“My family would not feel whole without one of my siblings. We’re all there for a reason. Every single one of us has our different quirks and personalities.” –Ella Wienke
Life became busier with a full house of siblings and a full calendar of events like track meets, soccer games and band concerts. It involved choices that meant each member of their family would sacrifice their own time and divide up their parents’ attention. The added members of their family meant sharing rooms and receiving little space to themselves. Those experiences caused each sibling to step into a larger role outside of themselves— one that will remain constant in their future roles as educators, musicians, athletes, brothers, sisters and parents of the own.
“My family would not feel whole without one of my siblings,” Wienke said. “We’re all there for a reason. Every single one of us has our different quirks and personalities.”
