Why Ethiopia?

Upon telling everyone about our decision to start our journey I've gotten a ton of questions which I love because it gives me the opportunity to explain and share our story. The most frequent question is "Why did yall choose Ethiopia?" so I thought I'd copy an email I sent to my aunt when she asked. Of course, there are a TON more reasons "why" that we've written about and those can be read by clicking on the "why" link on the left side bar under "What we write about". =)

We had always said we'd adopt from China because of our experience there but both spouses had to be 30 before starting the process. When we looked into it again back in Dec. the China wait is now 4-6 years to get a healthy baby! We couldn't believe how long the wait was now. They also changed their qualifications because they have realized how much they are adopting out and how skewed their popluation is for gender ratio. Many more boys than girls and it's affecting them greatly.

So we started researching elsewhere. I came across a TON of people who have adopted or are adopting from Ethiopia and found out that next to China, Ethiopia is the most common country to adopt from now! A huge reason is because the process is much more reasonable than other intrenational adoptions, the country welcomes American families to adopt and it's always a plus to have the government to be supportive because they could change anything at anytime in the process. The adoption environment seems to be very stable comparitively and you only had to travel once when you usually have to travel twice. Well, last month they did change the travel requirement to two times so that will probably deflect some of the people who were interested (sadly) but by the time we got that news, we were already in love and sold on the country. I've read over and over again how much you just love the people and country after you return and how many people go back numerous times. They have such content hearts over there and are so generous and kind.

Also, here are some ASTOUNDING statistics that just opened our eyes to the need for orphan care over there:

WHY ETHIOPIA?
~ One in ten children die before their first birthday
~ One in six children die before their fifth birthday
~ 44% of the population is under 15 years old
~ 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutritio
~ The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years old
~ 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
~ There are roughly 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia (the country is twice the size of Texas)
~ Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
~ Half of the children in Ethiopia will never attend school.
~ 88% will never attend secondary school
~ Coffee prices (Ethiopia's only major export) declined 40-60% from 1998-2002
~ Ethiopia's doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000
~ Severe drought struck country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)

Isn't that terrible? So with all that info and with God's help pointing us in that direction, we feel really called to adopt from Ethiopia. The day after I realized that we could adopt from Eth. (back in Jan.) I met a family at Claire's swim school who was just about to travel to get their little girl! I hadn't seen her since then and a few weeks ago her other little girl was put in Claire's swim class so now we see each other every week! She has been a great resource and will be a great friend. God totally put her in our life! God has obviously put adoption on our hearts from the very beginning of our family which I've found to be rare but even more rare, He has given both Neil and I the passion for different countries and cultures. For helping where there is need. For teaching our girl's that there is NO boundary on love. We both share that and most amazingly, we share it at the same time when a lot of couples have one ready and not the other.

We won't know who our little one is until we get a referral which won't be for another 6-7 months away. But God knows who He has for us! At the time of referral we will get as much information as they have about his medical history, health (they do extensive testing) and family background. There are so many reasons why there are so many orphans - parent's die (huge number of women die during childbirth), they can't afford to take care of a baby, they don't want the baby, etc. The bottom line is there are SO many and we must respond.
First of all, I have to admit that I kind of struggled with the decision because it was such a new idea in the first place. I mean, what did I know about Ethiopia? Or Africa for that matter? How was I going to raise a healthy, strong black man in today's society? I was scared and still have our fears. We are going into this knowing that we will have challenges and questions. But we just kept being pointed to Ethiopia and God really made it clear that this was HIS plan, not ours. We were to follow His lead and be obedient. We trust that He will give us exactly what we need when we need it.

So sweet

After our phone appointment with AGCI, Claire said "Did the nursery say yes?" It took us awhile to realize she meant to say "agency" and we laughed and said actually, we get to say yes to have them help bring baby brother home. She did a little cheer with her arms out of excitement and then a few minutes later she put her head on the table and said, "I'm so excited" and I asked her why and she said "Because I'm going to have a baby brother!!"

Melts my heart to hear Claire talk about him and how excited she is. Daily she says, "I want to name our baby brother _______" and she tells me a new name! Here are some of her ideas: Zack, Brian, Jack
We're going to wait to hear his given name to see if we can modify it or not. If not, we will choose a meaningful name for him and probably keep his given name as his middle name! We want his given name to continue to be part of who he is. Neil and I weren't very good at discussing boy names so we'll see how that goes!

It's official!

Well, we had our phone appointment with AGCI and it went great! We were highly impressed with the time she took with us to answer our questions and how thourough she was with her information. The great news is that we can be only on a boy wait list and they are now Hague accredited!! These were the only two things that gave us pause so now that those are cleared up, we're in! We have decided to adopt using AGCI so the process begins. Neil has to get a doctor's documentation about his Melanoma so that Ethiopia doesn't reject us with the word "cancer". She said it shouldn't be a problem as long as we have dr. documentation on record. Then it's filling out a financial worksheet and doing our phone orientation before we officially sign the contract. WOW - this is really happening! I will tell you that we are so excited but so nervous! We are trusting that God's hand will be with us all the way and give us exactly what we need at exactly the right time. He has always been faithful so there is no reason to doubt Him now. This is going to be a huge leap of faith and I look forward to how He will be working through us and everyone else who will be on this journey with our family.

Neil told his parent's last night and I had talked to my parent's on Friday. We'd tried to tell everyone we could but I was bursting at the seams to announce to our church family and friends so last night I was up sending email after email! I asked for specific prayers for our baby boy who is probably already concieved and for his birth mother. To be with her and baby brother's health. To be with her as she is probably having to make the hardest decision of her life to give up her child. I couldn't even imagine. Our joy is someone's heartache...

A Big Week

Well, it's been an eventful two weeks with our decision to get started =) So exciting! We were busy telling family and friends before we announce it on a wider scale to the blog and facebook world. But today was really big as we did our first submission to an agency. We filled out the pre-app for AGCI tonight and I just hit the send button! Wow - this is really happening! We have a phone appointment Monday with a AGCI consultant to go over the pre-app and get any of our questions answered. No fee and no obligation. I really love this agency and for so many reasons. Our only hesitation at all is having to be on the boy and girl wait list when we really want to bring a baby boy home. We'll see how it goes on Monday!!

Swim lessons

At the beginning of January, I met a family who was just about to leave for Ethiopia to pick up their daughter while at the Love to Swim School. I wrote about it in my first God-incidences post =) It was just the perfect timing for me to hear her story and start following her blog.

Well, I ran into her again last Tuesday after not seeing her once at Love to Swim and guess what? Her middle little girl, Indigo, is now in Claire's class! How cool is that? It was kid of weird to tell someone "Yes, I've been stalking...I mean, reading your blog since Jan. so I know everything that has happened to you!" Kind of like meeting a celebrity even though I know Rachel would laugh if I told her that! Little Evie is about to be 1 year old and I can't wait to meet her tomorrow at swim lessons. She wasn't there last week so of course I had to ask if she would be coming next week. Looking forward to seeing those dark eyes and chubby cheeks in person.

I was able to ask her a lot of questions again and looking forward to telling her that we will probably be starting our paper pregnancy sooner than later. I also want to get her advice and knowledge on the whole adoption credit/refund thing.

I love to see God working everything out in His own perfect timing! I pray that we are obedient and list whole-heartedly.

Children's HopeChest

SO excited to become part of this awesome organization!

Your financial commitment of $34/month provides for the most basic needs of children in the community. HopeChest will assist in providing food, water, access to basic medical care, education and discipleship. While $34 cannot meet all the needs of a child suffering through extreme poverty, it does provide significant help.


In our community-to-community model, all funds are "pooled" together so that if one child does not have a sponsor, they will still have these needs met. Your contribution of $34 a month will go towards providing food, clothing, and access to medical care, as well education and discipleship.

Tax refund!

Just read this on a blog I follow:
http://www.asformyhousehold.blogspot.com/2010/03/adoption-tax-credit.html

It used to be a tax credit so the fact that it's now a refund it amazing. This makes us feel a little more of an urgency because it might change at the end of 2011. Wow - another thing to pray for... Praise God for this blessing to those who are adopting right now!