I know that a blog seems very out of character for a couple that has no cell phone, no tv, one car and four bicycles but here we are. I have to confess that I have become a bit of an adoption blog addict, but through this we have come to the path that we are currently on. As many of you know, we are in the middle of a Chinese adoption that started about a year and a half ago. At that time, the wait time was 9 months for a little girl. Unfortunately, things have dramatically slowed down and now after 16 months we may be waiting another 2-3 years for our little pea!! So after a lot of soul searching and talking with our agency, we decided to start a concurrent adoption in Ethiopia. Through reading other blogs, I learned of other families doing the same thing and received advice and encouragement from them to go down this road.
On the day after Christmas, all of our paperwork was received in Ethiopia. It is now being translated and when that is completed they will begin looking for our little boy! We are hoping to receive a referral in the next month or so, and then we may be off to Ethiopia in the late spring. Of course this is international adoption, so I'm sure it won't go as smoothly as it does in my mind! We hope that through this blog you can follow our journey to our little one and keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
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Chichi and Chili deep in conversation.
One of THE most exciting days of my life...AFC Championship Game. Steelers V. Broncos and yes the Steelers won!!
Follow us from Colorado to Ethiopia to China and back again!
Our Sweet Little Ethiopians
About Us
- Our family
- An American, an Englishman and two little Ethiopians...this is our story.
Why 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 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 ports.
• 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 ports.
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Chichi and Chili deep in conversation.
Here we go Steelers!
One of THE most exciting days of my life...AFC Championship Game. Steelers V. Broncos and yes the Steelers won!!
7 comments:
This is my favorite new website! You guys are amazing!
what fun, what fun! am anxious to read your updates. we'll update you on the ohio weather (currently overcast -- surprised?)
Mary & Chris
We are so happy for you!!!!
Kevin and Ellen
We are also adopting from Ethiopia and I'm in the process of also creating a blog. I love your section containing information about Ethiopia. I think I'll do something similar in order to answer everyones question who think I've lost my mind. I have five children- 4 biological ranging from 16 years to 26 years and one new son, who is 4 yrs. old ( My Spiderman), who my significant other was granted custody of in September after his mother finally got in trouble with the authorities. We had already started the adoption process before this happened, so we are doubly excited about our growing family. Great to hear of someone else adopting from Ethiopia!
We are so happy for you guys and excited to be able to keep track of what is happening through your blog! You and Chris will make amazing parents, and we can't wait to see your little family take shape! Keep us posted, and we'll keep you in our thoughts and prayers.
So happy you guys are able to do this concurrent adoption! Glad to see you online - we'll be following your journey!
Dear Mary & Chris! Wow! We couldn't be more thrilled for you and we hope and pray this goes speedy for you! If you receive a little boy we'd be happy to share some of Henry things if you'd like. Please keep us in the loop!
Lucky little one!
Bruce, Laurel & Henry
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