Why Ethiopia?

The best answer for me is "why not?", but for those who'd like more. Here are a dozen or so reasons. Keep in mind that stats are variable. My brother loves to say, "56.7% of statistics are made up"...and that percentage varies every time he says it. Hahaha.

• There are approximately 5 million orphans in Ethiopia, including 1 million AIDS orphans. There are more orphans in Ethiopia than people in Norway!
  
• 1 in 10 children die before their 1st birthday. 1 in 6 children die before their 5th birthday.
• 44% of the population is under 15 years old.
• The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years old.
  
• 50 million people are living in abject poverty. The average Ethiopian makes about $300/year [less than $1/day]. With many mouths to feed, some families are forced to relinquish their children for economic reasons. They simply cannot feed them.
• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition.
• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS [6th highest in the world]
• Ethiopia receives less aid, per capita, than any country in Africa
• 50% of Ethiopian children will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school.
• Coffee prices [Ethiopia's only major export] declined 40-60% from 1998-2002. Buy GOBENA COFFEE for great, authentic, fair trade, organic coffee!
• Ethiopia's doctor to child ratio is 1 to 24,000. There are 59 OB/GYNs and 1,000 midwives for a population of 77 million.
• Severe drought struck country from 2000-2002 [1st year = no crops, 2nd year = no seeds, 3rd year = no animals]

I love how Jesus spoke to his disciples about the role of the Holy Spirit after he left earth. What a powerful image of his heart for belonging to a family...

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18

Spread the word about Ethiopian adoption. It's critical and life-changing for so many. And it certainly changes the trajectory of a child's life. To our babies, we are coming. As fast as we can!!! There's no where we wouldn't go to bring you home. You have our hearts and we love you implicitly.

SOURCES:
The Boddies' blog
Melissa Faye Green's Web Site
Poverty in Ethiopia
A Walk to Beautiful

Expect Delays (some emotional)

This week I got an email from our CWA case manager about where we are on the wait list and what the process looks like from this point forward...

Where are we on the wait list? Still #3...we've been #3 for 4 months. There's a family who submitted their dossier in August, and then I've "met" the other couple "ahead" of us. They actually submitted their dossier for 2 kiddos on the same day we did - they are adopting 2 boys!

After we accept our referral, how long until we travel before our first trip?

Once we have a referral, it will probably be about 3 months before you travel for your court hearing [maybe a long guesstimate here]. BUT the courts recess in August and September, so we definitely wouldn’t be traveling to Ethiopia for our first trip in August/September; therefore the court recess will back things up a bit – at least it has in the past.

How long between the first trip and the second trip when we bring our babies home? Once we’ve traveled for your first trip, it will be about 6 to 8 weeks before we travel for the US Embassy date to bring them home.

2 Realities plus a Bonus:

1. God is the God of all time, so he is not bound by these time lines and can bring home our kiddos whenever he wants!
2. God still works within the time confines of this world he created. Therefore, the time lines our agency has given for our adoption are realistic, too.
   
3. Since the 2 trip policy has just been instituted [beginning Mother's Day...go figure], they don't really know what it will look like.

Prayer Request: Again, I ask because my spirit can hardly pray this way without wrapping my will around the request, but I'm asking you to pray that we get our first court date BEFORE the courts close in August. It's against what would be typical, but God can do it. If we do not get the court date before August, it looks highly unlikely that we'd get our babies before the end of this year. [That's a hard reality for me to swallow].

In spite of the delays and God's tying our hearts to Ethiopia, and while we only see things in black and white, God's working in Technicolor! Thank you for praying and walking with us through the ups and downs of our adoption. Much Love!

Biological or Unrelated Siblings?

I've been asked lots of questions recently about our preferences for our kiddos, meaning what we've asked for in a referral. Our God-sized, mail order, ideal scenario would be...

Biological Siblings
Boy under 3 years old
Girl under 1 year old

But we are open for a variety of other referrals (unrelated kids, reverse gender order, 2 girls).

The biggest risks associated with accepting unrelated siblings and the new 2 trip policy is the following [from our agency's web site]:

When a family accepts the referral of unrelated children, every effort will be made to have those cases be presented to the Federal Court at the same time. However, families should also be aware that there are potential risks factors involved that are beyond CWA’s control. Those factors may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• One child’s documents may not be ready for court as soon as the other, delaying the court hearing for an indefinite period of time for both children
• One child’s court case may be approved and the other postponed for an indefinite time
• A referral of one child could be lost

Should any of these occur, a family could be faced with the option of either making two trips to bring home their unrelated children – or be asked to bear the expense of foster care fees of $450 per month until both children can travel at the same time.

In the heavens, we aren't sure what God intends for our family, but we certainly are praying God would simplify our process by providing us with biological siblings. Would you pray with us on that?
"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met."

Matthew 6:30-33