we looked into the eyes...

As you know we are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia and it dawned on me, as I was reading a friend’s blog, that though I have filled out many forms and official notarized letters on why we are wanting to adopt from Ethiopia… I haven’t really explained it here.

Jonathan and I both have had a passion for adopting children since before we meet. Jonathan’s mom and sister are adopted and I had numerous foster sisters and brothers in our home as a child. Both of us have traveled extensively all around the world and looked into the eyes of children that have been abandoned, the fatherless, the impoverished, the hungry, the homeless, and the alone. Our hearts have ached as we have not been able to meet the needs of all of these children.

Through our non-profit humanitarian aid org, Global Partners, we help over 550 orphans in India and 30 orphans in Haiti and many other children but there are over 143 million orphans in the world. Children that will go to sleep tonight without a warm bed, a goodnight kiss, a prayer, a full tummy, a person that loves them… that cares if they wake up in the morning.

So… we can do something about it…we can take one of those precious children home, we can love, nurture and parent that child. So that’s why we are doing it.

So why Ethiopia? (stealing these statistics from my friend’s blog, who I went to Ghana with in 1997, and who is also adopting from Ethiopia)

One in ten children die before their first birthday.
One in six children die before their fifth birthday.
44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old.
60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition.
The median age in Ethiopia is 18 years.
1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world).
720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone.

Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa.
In the 90s the population (3%) grew faster than food production (2.2%).
Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school.
88% will never attend secondary school.
Ethiopia has approx. 4.3 million orphans and the country is twice the size of Texas.

It is also one of the most open countries currently for adoption and the process is rather short. We researched many other countries as well… but God lead us here.

There really aren’t very many countries that are open to adoption though the orphan numbers are heart wrenching. If orphaned or abandoned children are not adopted their fate usually lies in one of these options…they starve to death, they are funneled into sexually and physically abusive relative situations, they are sold into prostitution, or they could become street thieves and beggers for someone else’s profit.

The truth is gruesome.

There is a mom out there in Ethiopia that cannot care for her baby girl for a reason we do not know right now. There is baby girl, our baby girl, that needs us and that we love already though we do not know her yet.

YARD SALE for ADOPTION-

This weekend September 24 and 25 we are having a huge yard sale for adoption. If you want to drop off some stuff this week or want to come and help a day please let us know! Also we would love to see you here we have some great treasures so far – furniture, antiques, baby stuff, kids clothes, toys, teen clothes, washer, all kinds of good things!