Why Ethiopia

Ethiopia has a very rich culture and the country, people, and children are absolutely beautiful. When looking for a country to adopt from, those are some of the things we considered but we also found the following statistics that truly touched our hearts:

• Ethiopia is about twice the size of Texas has an estimated 4.3 million orphans
• 46.3% is under the age of 14
• Literacy rate is only 30%
• Average income $380 per year
• Only 26% have access to safe water
• Life expectancy- 59 years 
• There are .022 physicians for every 1000 people

Data collected at these 3 locations:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook//geos/et.html
http://www.awaa.org/programs/ethiopia/default.aspx
http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/6d1210430917461d8825735a007e2f2b/world-vision-ethiopia!OpenDocument&Click=

Summer 2012

The school year has started and our summer went by so quickly. I'm so thankful to be able to homeschool our son. He's such a quick learner and I love being able to witness his breakthroughs. I also love the fact that we can put school on pause as the adoption moves forward. Even though I'm excited about our first homeschooling year, I'm really going to miss summer; 90 degrees and all. Here are some shots of summer 2012.

Summer is my favorite season and I love to celebrate it.

  

I planted my first veggie garden.

We had a really good lettuce harvest. It was delicious!

Daddy and son built a cardboard boat.

The boat turned out great and it actually stayed afloat on the river.

VBS was a blast this year! They even had legos.

The guys hiked Schloss Mountain and had a great time.

Peaceful fishing with Daddy. He actually caught one.

We made a human board game in the drive way.

We had a great field trip with friends to an awesome park.

The garden got much bigger and we got tons of tomatoes and cucumbers. 

Besides the face painting, carnival games and free books, we also learned about waste management at the end of summer carnival at the library.

Moving On

We have recently had a delay in our process. The details of the delay are private but God knows why all of this has happened and I am trying my best not to question His plan. I am thankful that we are now moving on.

We had our fingerprinting appointment yesterday. It wasn't at all what I thought it would be. In and out. Bam, we were done. Things are looking up! Don't know if the rest of the process will be that flawless or not... It would be awesome but, either way, we're up for the journey.

Where We Are in the Process

We are still shuffling papers. This stage of the process is commonly referred to as the "paper pregnancy". Our Home Study has been approved!! So now we can apply for grants. Hallelujah! We're also finishing up our Dossier. That's the second chunk of paperwork necessary for adoption. We're waiting for a few of the required documents to come in. You can see the process in detail on our adoption agency's website here. 
Lots and lots of paper folks but we know it will be well worth it!!