Why Ethiopia?

...why Ethiopia?
Well, let me begin with I LOVE AFRICA. I know, I have never been there. But I can literally remember going to my secret spot at the age of six, where I pondered life, and thinking of my future...and it has always involved Africa.
 When Jon and I started seriously speaking of the start of the process of adoption I was already sold on Africa, and thankfully he was 100% beside me in this. I prayed, he prayed, and we prayed together. Ethiopia kept calling us, and soon we were certain that Ethiopia was where our child was.

Sadly, Ethiopia's circumstances are less then ideal:
 *An entire generation of parents are no longer; there are 4.4 million + orphans
*One in six children in Ethiopia die before their fifth birthday
*44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old
*1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
*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.
*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.

...and sometimes it seems daunting to look at statistics. The reality is that most of the time they make us feel hopeless and overwhelmed. Where to begin when it feels like emptying the ocean with a eye dropper. But this breads within ourselves complacency, not doing anything because we know we cannot do everything. But God's plan is bigger then our plan. He is the one who has chosen this child specifically for our family. He knit this child together. And so we will go after God's plan, we will go searching for the ONE.
 "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?" Luke 15:4



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