The first time Virginie Brouard held her daughter she was in love.

The tiny little baby in her arms, barely a few months old, was hardly able to lift her head but to the woman about to become her mother, she was already beyond precious.

Her name was Genat, which in this particular part of Ethiopia, among those who struggle to survive in the grip of famine, means heaven.

Ten years ago, Unicef identified Ethiopia as having one of the largest populations of orphans in the world.

An estimated 4.6 million children had lost either one or both of their parents, with 800,000 orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Virginie was among the millions who listened to the 1980s pop song released in an effort to save them.

Live Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? track kick-started an appeal that would raise around £8m to combat the famine that had swept across the country.

Even at that time, Virginie knew that she wanted to do more. Money could always be sent but she wanted to see with her own eyes what she could do to help.

Life took over, years passed and Virginie moved to Scotland from France and had two beautiful boys of her own.

She became a successful businesswoman, owning two restaurants and a wine bar in the heart of Edinburgh.

"I had my own children but still I wanted to adopt," she says.

"I was coming up for 40 and I worried maybe I was getting too old, but I wanted to help. I knew I could give a child a home."

She sent off the paperwork and started the adoption process. In the back of her mind, though, was Ethiopia.

While Virginie had been building a life for herself in Edinburgh, the African country was once again falling into crisis.

There were critical food and water shortages, and infant mortality rates were rising.

Amid it all, in limbo with the adoption process, Virginie decided to fly out to help the children she had heard sung about all those years before.

On the day she got her flight tickets, she also got word from the adoption agency in Scotland. She had been accepted.

"I was filled with joy," she says. "I flew out and joined a congregation of nuns called the Daughters of Charity who were helping to run a feeding programme for 600 children."

Virginie had already set up the restaurant La P'tite Folie in Edinburgh, so she rolled up her sleeves.

Feeding people was something she knew how to do well.

"I spent two weeks with the sisters, right where the famine had been, in the north," she says.

"It is a hard country but a beautiful one."

Without her quite expecting it to, Ethiopia crept in and stole Virginie's heart.

Realising what she could offer the children around her, she decided to use her own restaurant to try to help raise sponsorship to care for them.

It costs £70 a year for one child to receive a decent meal a day. With full funding, the programme she was raising funds for could feed 800 orphans.

"Once you start something like that you always go back," she says. And Virginie has - not just once, but several times a year.

"One day it will be my home, I think," she says.

Especially now, as one of Ethiopia's own children found her way into Virginie's care - little Genat, the baby girl with chocolate brown eyes.

After a visit to a local orphanage, something she describes as "one of the hardest things I've ever done", Virginie met the children being cared for there.

"Some of them were so unwell," she says. "It was hard to see them."

Moved to help, she knew that for one child at least, she could perhaps give them a safe place to call home.

International adoption in Africa has often sparked controversy. The practice has its critics, especially since not all African countries have the infrastructure in place to ensure every adoption is ethical.

Questions have been raised again, particularly in light of pop star Madonna's recent adoption of two children from Malawi.

Ever complicated, the potential moral complications of international adoption are real,but so too are the very many cases where inter-country adoption is a sound decision, especially considering the dire circumstances many children face in poverty-stricken areas.

The African Child Policy Forum supports family preservation over adoption as a long term solution.

In the short term, for young children whose lives are at risk, there are those who defend the decision to offer them a place in a safe family home.

For one little girl out in Ethiopia, who had been abandoned on the steps of a church, a safe family home was just what she needed.

Virginie applied to adopt a baby from an orphanage in the country she had committed herself to helping.

"You don't choose your children," says Virginie. "I sent them my file - I was up through the night making sure they got it.

"Weeks later they called to say that they had good news. There was a baby girl, left with them, who needed a family.

"I jumped on a plane. I hadn't met her yet but I knew she was my daughter."

When she arrived at the orphanage, a tiny baby girl was placed in her arms.

"The first year she arrived she was tiny, so tiny," says Virginie.

"In my arms she was just so small. She was anaemic when I got her, she could hardly hold her head. She was this tiny, soft little thing in my arms."

The family rented a flat nearby so they could visit daily and begin the bonding and adoption process.

A stressful time, the procedure took nearly two months to complete.

"I brought milk for her, everything to get her bigger," says Virginie.

"She began to smile, to recognise me. The transition back to Scotland was very smooth for her."

For all people considering adoption, says Virginie, strength is key.

"Just go for it," she says. "The beginning might be daunting. You really have to be tough. There are children needing a family, a lot in the UK, but it is difficult.

"They might do things to put you off but it's just so they can see how strong you are to see if you are the right person for that child."

Little Genat is now a bubbly young girl of five who has started school and is "very bouncy".

She does gymnastics and drama.

"She is a wee Scottish girl," says Virginie.

Genat has also told everyone that when she grows up, she wants to be a doctor.

Her mother harbours a hope that if she does choose this path, it will be Ethiopia that she returns to, treating and caring for the children who live there.

"I want her to be proud of where she comes from," says Virginie. "I'm taking her back there this summer for the first time."

Genat will accompany her mother on her trips back to her homeland as Virginie continues her pledge to volunteer and support the food project for the children.

"I can only do t hat thanks to the business, I give when I can," says Virginie.

"It's a beautiful country, filled with beautiful people."