Ethiopian Orphans from Simon Scionka on Vimeo.

Ethiopia facts

Another local doula is adopting from Ethiopia. She also happens to have an awesome web designing husband. This page is completely copied from her website. I would retype everything and research it, but this way I can give a shout out to her husband's business :)

You can visit it at http://www.findingchurch.net/

In General

• Ethiopia is ranked by the UN’s Human Development Index as one of the four poorest countries in the world
• Annual per-capita income is less than $1,000.00
  
• Over 65% of the population lives below the poverty rate

Population

• Population: 79,455,634
• Average Ethiopian woman gives birth to 5.2 children
  
• Population is expected to double in the next 20-30 years

Religion

• Christian 60.8% (Orthodox 50.6%, Protestant 10.2%), Muslim 32.8%, Traditional 4.6%, Other 1.8% (1994 census)
  

Child Health

• 1 in 4 women dies in pregnancy or childbirth
• 4 million children are orphaned, nearly 1 million by AIDS
• 1 in 10 children die before their first birthday
• 1 in 6 children die before age 5
• Over 50% of children are stunted
• Malnutrition is the underlying cause of more than half of all child deaths

General Health/Life Expectancy

• Average life expectancy is 53 for men, 58 for women
  
• 1 physician for every 34,988 people
• 1 in 4 women dies in childbirth or from a pregnancy-related illness
  
• 22% of the population has access to improved drinking sources: 81% in urban areas and 11% in rural
  
• 13% of the population has access to adequate sanitation facilities: 44% in urban areas and 7% in rural

Gender Issues

• Unlawful kidnapping and forced seizure of young girls for marriage is common in certain parts of Ethiopia, especially in the SNNPR (13%) and Oromia (11%).
• 80% of women and about 50% of men believe that there are at least some situations in which a husband is justified in beating his wife.
• Rape is a serious problem. A study on street violence among girls ages 10-24 in Addis Ababa found that 15% of the respondents had been raped, and during their first sexual activity, 43% had been coerced into sex.

HIV/AIDS

• Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. An estimated 22.5 million people are living with HIV in the region – around two thirds of the global total. In 2009, around 1.3 million people died from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and 1.8 million people became infected with HIV. Since the beginning of the epidemic, 14.8 million children have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS.

Where we are now

The first step was to be accepted into the Ethiopia program. At this point we have paid the application fee and received a verbal acceptance. They asked that we save up the initial fees and then we will be in full swing. We also wanted to make sure that we were as debt free as we could be (still have a small car payment and house payment). As of Jan. 1st we are completely debt free (credit cards, kids instruments ...) and on our way to saving for our child. We have reworked our budget in hopes of saving as much as possible. I believe, Lord willing, that we will have the first requested fees saved up by the end of Feb!!!

A wise alumni of adoption suggested that I go ahead and pay other little fees and start the home study process. So far we both have our passports (mine needed to be updated) and the home study application is almost done.

The child we are seeking

We are currently looking for an infant, but are open to what God has for us. At this point we would like to adopt a boy. We have always had a heart for Africa and Ethiopia is currently the best option for us.

Time line

We will be saving up for the fee from now until Feb. and starting the home study process. We were told the home study should take until August to finish. We then will be given a referral for a child. Since we are looking to adopt a boy, the process will go a little faster. We need to make 2 trips to Africa. All this will take us until the beginning of 2012. (I can not wait to look back at this and see what God does with the timeline)

Early praises

We were told that we will receive 25% off of the agency fee, because Jeremiah is a pastor. That should save us $1250+. We also found out that the home study fee is less than estimated. Any little bit helps. :)

Prayers

Please pray with us during this process. We are very excited to see what God will do in these next few months and years. Pray for our child. He may even be on this earth. I am thankful that I am aloud to pray for him even before I know what his name is.

Without Anxiety

I promised myself that I would not be anxious. In fact I was certain I would not be. I have watched to many friends wait for their child. I knew it would be a long process with many waits. I prepared myself, until I turned in the application and the someone said they would call me. I stood by the phone and waited...and waited...and waited. A day later I received an e-mail asking me to answer some more questions. Finally a few days later the call came that we were excepted into the Ethiopia program with American World Adoption. The anxiety had already begun. It is hard to think that one of your children is already in this world. It is over whelming to try to imagine how God will write our story. What will they look like? How long will it take? What trials will we face? ....

In the beginning

I have thought about him for years. Not a few years, but 20 years or more. Way before I even wondered what my other kids would look like or even who his father would be. His face has been a distant blurry picture that I have seen, but could not fully see. I have thought about what it would be like to hold him and be his mom. I remember riding my bike in circles around our driveway thinking about my son.

God was gracious and allowed me to become pregnant easily. The children came quickly early in our marriage. There was no time to consider searching for the son that I had thought about for so many years.

Now 20 years later, 4 growing children, 13 years of marriage, and God has allowed the search to begin.