Why?

Why Adopt? And why from Ethiopia?
Many people have asked us these questions. It's simple:

-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
-Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school.
-88% will never attend secondary school.
-Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000.
-Ethiopia has approx. 4.3 million orphans and the country is twice the size of Texas.
-Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa..

Finally Some Snow-Our Little Man Is "Cooking"

Last year we never got any snow. We got some ice but JT never got to have a "real" snow day to go and play and put on a snow suit. I guess his snow suit from last year will be for our next little man. So, it finally snowed. It only took us 45 minutes to get JT ready to head outside! I was sweating to death. JT was consumed with playing with his chainsaw that Gavin gave him.

We put JT on the flying saucer and pulled him with a tow rope. He loved it. All the neighborhood kids were at the top of the hill sliding down. I really wish JT could have gone out there with all the big kids. I have the best memories of playing in the snow with Jenny and Francesca in Cinnamon Creek. We had a hill that we called "Kill Hill." Jenny's dog Duke would chase after us and try to take our hats off. We always had to stop short before hitting the trees at the bottom. Estelle told me not go on that hill several times because she thought it was too dangerous but I would lie about not going and go anyway. The good news is that I am still alive and well and hitting a few trees never did much harm. I hope JT and our other little man have such great memories when they get older.

As for the adoption....Everyone always asks us how the adoption is going. We don't mind at all but the fact is that there is never any news and we probably won't have any for a long time. It's annoying but we knew this was long process when we started. I do wish we went with another agency that seems to be getting referrals more quickly but we can't change now without losing a lot of money. So hopefully by this time next year we will at least have a scheduled court date and a picture of our little man.

It's weird to think he isn't born yet and his birth mother is probably only a few months pregnant with him. I do wonder if she already knows she will be giving him up for adoption or if that decision will come later. I have no idea what kind of medical treatment they get during a pregnancy but right now as we speak our little guy is "cooking" away in his birth mother's belly. I hope she is taking good care of herself.

The are so many reasons why people give up their babies for adoption. For people in Ethiopia it is mostly because of poverty. Sometimes the family has to decide what children or child to keep while they give one up because they know they can't afford to take care of them all. We will not know why until we get the paperwork and we may not ever find out. I guess it really doesn't matter. We are hoping that we do get to meet the birth parents or mother or at least family members. It is their decision. We want to be able tell out little guy about his family and have pictures to show him. We do plan to go back when he and JT are older and show him where he is from. We do want him to now that his birth mom had a very difficult decision to make and she loved him so much that she gave him to us. That is whole conversation within it's own! As for now..... we wait.

Enjoy the pictures. We are still working on the Genesis video.