"Why not adopt Domestically?"
The first time that we looked into adoption, a while back, we thought about adopting locally in the United States because we know there is a need hear as well as internationally. We looked into adopting from social services because this was the least expensive way to adopt but it also scared us. Many of the children in social services have been exposed to all kinds of abuse, addictions, neglect, etc. These are all issues that we felt we needed to try to limit Isabelle and Davie's exposure to. I recognize that some of these issues will also be issues we face with a child from Ethiopia but from all of our research most of the orphans from Ethiopia are orphans due to death of their mother in child birth, death of the family due to disease/illness, or the lack of money to be able to provide for a child. These are completely different issues than what a child in America would be exposed to.
If you know anything about me you know that I love to live in my bubble, I don't watch the news and I try at all cost to avoid all of the bad things that are going on around me. I know it's naive and unrealistic but it's how I protect my heart (good or bad). Adopting a child is a huge step out of that bubble for me, and believe me that bubble is sacred to me so it's a HUGE deal. Where I am going with all of this is my fear of foster care. One of the many things that scared me about local adoption was the possibility that we could have a child in our home that we were fostering to adopt and then because of whatever reason loose that child. I do not know what I would do if I had a child that was coming from an environment that was not safe, nurtured and loved that child and then lost them to the state because the mom changed her mind or something. That would be devastating to me and even more devastating to my children who would have already claimed him/her as their sibling. That would absolutely burst my family bubble. There are people who do this and are amazing foster parents, that is just not the gift that God gave me.
The last thing that we looked into domestically was open adoption. We looked into that for about 30 seconds before we came to the realization that we are territorial and that is our baby. Again, there are amazing people that do open adoption and God bless them but this is just not the right fit for our family.
"Why Ethiopia?"
Wow, this is the heading of this whole post and it took me a while to get here! Sorry about that :) Dave and I looked at a bunch of different countries to find out what looked best for our family. Price was a factor because each country has a different set of cost that go with it. Ethiopia was pretty much the middle of the road, awesome! We knew that we wanted Africa which obviously made our international search much smaller. Some of the countries in Africa require significant stays in country and with two kids here there is no way that we could stay in Africa for months.
One of the reasons we wanted Africa is because of my love for little girl babies with afros. So not only do I live in a bubble but I am shallow too :) Who can possible deny the cuteness of a little brown girl with an afro? I honestly think that God has made me obsessed with these little girls for a reason, we are being called to help one.
Lastly and most importantly after looking into Ethiopia the statistics sealed the deal. Here are some of the statistics we found in our research:
* 1 in 10 children die before their first birthday (People do you know how much our family has to give? We have great healthcare, lots of love and Lord knows we have lots of food to eat)
* 1 in 6 children die before their fifth birthday
* There are approximately 5 million orphans in Ethiopia (this country is twice the size of Texas, that is A LOT of little children who don't have someone to love on them)
*Half of the children in Ethiopia never attend school and 88% of children never attend secondary school (we are in Frisco ISD and go to one of the best preschools around, seriously WE CAN help and we want to so desperately)
*The average life expectancy in Ethiopia is 55 (I don't know what it is in America but seriously 55, that is sad. With all of the medical advances we have here in America I cannot imagine 55 :( We need to hurry and get our baby)
*The average class size in government school is 85-100 children (so if you do make it to school, you have to struggle to learn anything because of the amount of children in your class)
*60% of children are stunted because of malnutrition (Again, we have so much food! We love to cook, and cannot wait to learn how to make Ethiopian food)
*Malnutrition is the underlying cause of more than half of all children deaths (see above)
*Doctor to chid ration is 1 to 24,000 (I can throw a rock out my window and hit 10 doctors square between the eyes)
There are so many more statistic that could bring a person out of their bubble to help a sweet innocent little baby but these are the ones that stuck out in my mind.
It all boils down to the fact that Dave and I want to help, we are being called to help and we would love to add to our family. Not to mention Isabelle is so over the moon excited and has started learning all about Ethiopia because, "that's where her sister is coming from". We are a family looking for our missing piece and that piece is in Ethiopia.
No comments:
Post a Comment