This is a tough question to answer believe it or not.  Well, it’s not surprising if you know me well to know it’s something I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember.  Growing up, I was always intrigued by families that had adopted.  Not to mention, haven’t met a kid I didn’t enjoy and fall in love with.  As for William, he really hasn’t let go of that only child thing.  I guess he thinks siblings are just the coolest thing.  So between the two of us, we have trouble saying we are done adding to the family.  Once the decision was made to add another, it didn’t take too long for God to work on our hearts to bring home a little one from Africa.

Our eyes were opened and we cannot pretend we don’t know what to do…Prov. 24:12 

There are 143 MILLION orphans worldwide!  Sickening!  I could hope to be pregnant again which is amazing but why would I with that number.  We are all God’s children.  And let’s face it, the children we have aren’t ours…they are God’s….for us to care for a while.  We are all children of God’s.  I am trusting God that no matter what child he gives me, it was the child I was meant to have and raise.

Why we are adopting from Ethiopia:

• 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 17.8 years
• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone, and there are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia.
• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
• In the 90s the population (3%) grew faster than food production (2.2%)
• Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)
• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school.
• Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002.
• Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000.
• In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring