Jason made our big news Facebook official last week. I have been getting some questions so I thought I would put some information on here.
Why Adopt?
That's a big one! I think the reason for that is different for each of us. I have always wanted to adopt. I can remember when we first decided to try having a baby, I had said I would be totally up for adopting. I have always wanted to provide a family for a child in need of one. We had no difficulty having our own children, but the thought of adopting never left my mind or my heart. I really thought after having Kian, Jason would never agree to more. He did though! We have three children of our own and there are sooooo many children out there that need families, I thought why have more when we could provide a loving family and home for one of those children. Jason thought about it and said, OK, look into it. I have a very dear friend or two that have adopted, so I immediately talked with them, called some agencies, and passed along the information I had gathered. I tend to jump into things with both feet and little thought so thank goodness Jason is the thinker! It about killed me waiting for his answer but after a lot of thought he agreed that we could make this happen. His reasons for adopting are different than mine but I will let him talk about that.
Why Ethiopia?
We had originally thought and planned to adopt from China. After speaking with a couple of different agencies, we decided China was just not going to work for us. The wait time for China is approximately 7 years! That was way too long! Our children will be grown up by then. The other options that we felt would work for our family were a few African countries and Bulgaria. I have a friend that has two handsome little boys from Ethiopia, so I called her up again! I got a lot of information from her. I talked to the agency we had decided to go with and got more informaiton on each country. I did some of my own research online. First of all, Ethiopia just felt right. One thing I told myself from the beginning was to listen to my gut, follow my heart. It was leading me to Ethiopia. The information I was finding about Bulgaria scared me a little. It was also very comforting to know somebody that had been to Ethiopia. There were also soooo many reason why we should go there:
* Ethiopia is ranked as one of the four poorest countries
* 1 in 10 children die before their first birthday (can you imagine?)
* 1 in 6 children die before the age of 6
* Malnutrition is the underlying cause of more than half of all deaths
* Dr. to child ration is 1 to 24,000
* Only about 50% of children attend school
* Ethiopia has on of the largest populations of orphans: 13% have lost one or both parents ( this represents an estimated 4.6 million children)
Those were just a few of the facts I found as I was researching our options. They were enough!
Every day the 75 million people of Ethiopia face famine and disease. While nearly every Ethiopian feels the impact, the 4.3 million orphans are the most vulnerable.
How long does it take?
You can view our timeline off to the side, but we started the end of December. We ended making some agency changes, so we actually began our home study process and paperwork in February. That takes on average 4-6 months to complete. We have completed our Dossier and did it in 4 months. I was on top of things! We are now on the waiting list and have been told to expect a 12 month wait for our referral. At that time we will receive photos and information on our child. We will either accept or deny the referral. We will then wait 2-4 months for our court date. We will travel to meet our child(ren) and attend to court. At that time, the child will be legally ours. We will then come home and wait another 1-2 months for our embassy appointment. We can then travel back to Ethiopia, obtain our child's documentation and come home! From referral to homecoming is estimated to take 5-6 months. We are hoping that we will be a family 6 or 7 by Christmas of 2014. It is all estimates though. Things could happen faster or they could take longer.
Do we know what we are getting?
Yes we do! We have been approved to adopt a child of either sex between 0-4 years of age. We (right now) are on the list for a little girl age 0-2 and a little boy age 2-4. We can change that at any time as long as we stay within our approved age range. We are really hoping to get siblings.
Those are the questions we are being asked most frequently. I don't mind the questions at all. I'm so excited, I really just love when somebody asks me about it so I can talk about it!
I am going to leave with some beautiful photos that were taken by Stacey Clack Photography on her recent trip to Ethiopia. She sold the prints as a way to raise some money to help with travel expenses. I just love them all!
