Small World Part II: Clear Fork's Ault finds peace in football after adoption from Ethiopia
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second part of a 3-part series.
BELLVILLE — About 10 years ago, Casey Ault couldn't shake a feeling she had in her heart.
There was a child out there, a son, who was already a part of her family. She didn't know who, she didn't know where, but he needed a loving and caring family and the Aults were the people to provide it.
It turns out, that kid is Clear Fork junior football player Sengo Ault.
A Small World Part I: Ontario's Bodpegn Miller thriving after adoption form Ethiopia
The Aults' Adoption Story
Unable to shake the feeling, Casey Ault went to work searching for her forever son. It started close by but quickly became a worldwide search. She signed up with an adoption agency in Michigan that handled international and domestic adoptions.
“God put it in our hearts that we had an older son,” Casey said. “That was the first step. We always knew we had an older son out there somewhere."
Casey received an email from other families using the same agency. It was a list of children who were in an Ethiopian orphanage, waiting for an extended period of time to be placed with a family. Not completely through all of the red tape just yet, Casey opened the email and came across a photo of a 6-year-old boy named Sengo.
She knew this was her son.
"We called right away and wanted to know more about him," Casey said. "There were a lot of families in the agency who knew him and how great of a kid he is. There were also other families who had applied to adopt Sengo, so we put our application in and waited."
The agency ultimately decided the Aults were a fit for Sengo. Casey and her daughter flew to Ethiopia to meet Sengo and his father. That was in October. In December, she returned to Ethiopia, and Sengo came home with her.
Ten years later, it's been a match made in heaven.
“It has been awesome so far,” Sengo said. “I have enjoyed everyone I have ever been around and my family is amazing. I love them so much. They are the best.”
Sengo Ault's Adoption Story
Sengo Ault was born in the war-torn Benishangul-Gumuz region of northwestern Ethiopia. The Gumuz inhabit western Ethiopia as well as the Fazogli region of Sudan and are around 200,000 individuals strong.
“I don’t even know if there are words to explain how different it is over there from here,” Sengo said. “Here, there are so many people and over there, it is just so hot. It is really, really hot. I feel like it is so much more calm here. I grew up in a lot of war and there is always something crazy going on. So I really love how relaxed life is here.”
There, Sengo had experienced many Western traditions, such as Christmas, even though it is a much different celebration. He went to church as a youth and still attends today.
“We celebrated Christmas by killing a cow, which is cool,” Sengo said with a laugh. “And we just had a big feast for Christmas. But we would go to church almost every day. We would dance and sing and here, we just kind of sit and listen.”
When he was six, he found himself in an Ethiopian orphanage. He had no idea where life would take him.
“It was really hard,” Sengo said. “I didn’t know English when I first came here so I didn’t even understand half of the things anyone was saying to me. I would just speak my own language and figure out how to get what I needed.”
But there was one advantage. The Aults already had another adopted son from Ethiopia: Pawie Ault, a 2023 Clear Fork graduate and the homecoming king as a senior.
Finding Football
When thinking of Ethiopia and athletics, it is hard to not let the mind wander to world-class distance runners. It definitely doesn't gravitate toward football.
Soccer was Sengo's first love. When he was adopted, the Aults lived in Bay Village near Cleveland, a soccer-crazed town with multiple state championships. Sengo and Pawie fit right in.
“Soccer is what we grew up with,” Sengo said. “I played for a team with my brother, who is two years older than me, and I played up because I was a little bit further along than kids my age here.”
They were naturals but, one day, Pawie approached Casey about playing football. One of his friend's dad was a football coach and was recruiting new players.
“I said, 'No way,' without hesitation," Casey said. "My girls played soccer, my son was a cross country runner and it was the first time I had even thought about football. I was against it at first just because of all of the terrible things you hear about the sport. But, we decided to let him try it and he had great coaches who taught him how to hit and be safe. So Pawie jumped into football and Sengo was right after and they never played soccer again.”
Pawie went on to be an All-State player for the Colts. Sengo is working his way into a starting spot at QB. He throws a great ball and has a nice touch. Not bad for a kid who wasn't allowed to play the position when he first started pee-wee football.
“I actually played football in fourth grade and it was something I had always wanted to try because I could always throw the ball far when we would mess around in the yard,” Sengo said. “My mom wanted me to try a new sport so football came into my life. I have been playing soccer since I was born and I loved it, but there is nothing like football.”
And Casey couldn't be happier.
“Sengo has always been that little quarterback,” Casey said. “But what was funny is when he was in elementary school football, he was too big to play quarterback so they made him play the line. So, the one year, he couldn’t play quarterback, we couldn’t score. So we literally won games by him kicking field goals because of his soccer background.
"But he has never looked back and just loves the game. He has great people looking after him and loving on them. It was a whole new game he had to learn.”
A Chance Encounter
He has learned it well, thanks in small part to someone he never expected to run into in his entire life.
Someone who shared a similar story. Someone who, when the Aults moved to Bellville from Bay before Sengo's sophomore year, was excited to have someone who could relate to exactly what he was going through and someone who he could lend an ear to in time of need.
That person is Ontario junior quarterback Bodpegn Miller.
jfurr@gannett.com
740-244-9934
X: @JakeFurr11
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Clear Fork's Sengo Ault was adopted from Ethiopia 10 years ago
