Esther Brewer, 10, right, and Jenny McKinnon, 7, dance to a Miley Cyrus song in Esther's room at her Powell Butte home Thursday. The Brewers adopted Esther from Uganda.

POWELL BUTTE — It’s been seven months since 10-year-old Esther Brewer moved from Uganda, where she was born, to her home in Powell Butte with her adoptive family.

When her parents, Charlie and Jenay Brewer, were preparing to adopt the little girl earlier this year, they had concerns. It would be a culture shock. Food would be easily accessible. Water would be safe to drink. Imagine getting used to the winter temperatures of Oregon’s High Desert.

“She acts like she’s an old hat at all of it,” Jenay Brewer said. “There might be a few problems, but you know what? It’s all just normal kid stuff.”

The Brewers should be used to that. They have seven children and Esther isn’t even the newest addition now that 6-week-old Maezie has arrived.

Their ranch home is loud with the sound of children’s laughter and little feet. They play, they wrestle and they jump around. Just normal kid stuff.

And Esther seems to take it all in stride. She’s not shy, but she answers questions plainly. She likes school, she likes living in rural Oregon and she even likes the weather.

“It’s good,” Esther said with a smile that seems it can’t go wider.

But what about all those things the Brewers heard would shock their adopted daughter? They were told not to take her to a grocery store because it might traumatize the girl whose culture of food was once far different from Americans.

“Yeah, I like Costco,” Esther said. Her mother laughs and says: “It’s like her favorite place.”

They tried to home school her for a while to slowly integrate her to her new surroundings.

“But she viewed it as a punishment,” Jenay said. “School is a very important thing to her so we let her go. She loves that too.”

An inspiring story

Esther’s full story is a bit of an odyssey when you consider she was only 9 when she came to America. She’d been abandoned in a poor nation and rescued by Redeemer House, an orphanage operated by former Prineville resident Kathy Vaughn.

When the Brewers went to Uganda last year to volunteer in the country, they fell in love with the little girl and began a lengthy legal process to adopt her.

But perhaps the biggest twist to Esther’s story is that it’s inspired others.

Mark and Casey McKinnon, also of Powell Butte, were so in awe of the Brewer’s journey that they adopted two children from Redeemer House in Uganda as well. Joann, 6, and 2-year-old Michael arrived at their new home two weeks ago.

“They’ve been amazing,” Casey McKinnon said. “Amazing is a word that’s used to describe the children of Uganda and it’s absolutely true. We always knew we wanted to adopt and when we saw what happened (with Esther) we knew.”

Brewer and McKinnon said they’ve spoken to others about their adoptions and know of three other families in Central Oregon who are likely to adopt from Redeemer House as well.

“We hope it just snowballs,” Jenay Brewer said. “This has just been incredible.”

And when asked what she thinks of other kids from Uganda, whom she grew up with, coming to the area, Esther still answers plainly.

“It’s good,” she said. And, somehow, the smile does go wider.