Well, Joey and I have decided that this is what we are going to do and it doesn't matter to us what anyone else thinks. We feel like this is where God has led us and we are excited! Some people ask "Why adopt over seas?" We say, "Why not?" I'ts our decision. We know there are children here but, I do believe they are better off than some children are overseas. So many children are starving and have lost their parents due to illness/disease. Here are some statistics for Ethiopia:
1/10 children die before one.
1/6 six children die before 5.
44% of the population<15 years old.
60% of kids stunted by malnutrition.
The median age is 17.8 years.
1.5 million people are infected with AIDS.
There are roughly 4.6 million orphans.
Per capita receives less aid than any other country in Africa. 1/2 of the kids will never attend school.
The doctor to child ratio is 1:24,000.
For me, I feel like even as a child, I have always had it in my heart to adopt. I remember when I was a little girl and I saw this woman with a little girl from China or India (I don't remember exactly) but, I always thought that it was such an amazing thing to adopt a child. I've always wanted a little 'chinese baby' ever since then. I guess God knew what He was instilling in my heart even as a child because it has brought me to where I am now. This is how we are going to start our family!
1 comment:
Hi.
Congratulations on moving forward to adopt from ET. It is exciting once you make the decision and begin to move forward. I believe there are several yahoo groups for families who have and are in the process of adopting from ET. If you have not joined one, you may want to—they are free. Just go to Yahoo groups and search Ethiopia adoption. Yahoo groups also has a group for rating adoption agencies—in yahoo groups you can search on “rate your adoption agency.”
I would caution you about family. You may want to consider how you will handle it if someone in your family doesn’t fully accept your child as part of the family. This is always something to think about when you adopt—but I think it is even more important when you adopt transracially. Even racism directed at a different ethnic group will send a bad message to your child (not a good message to any child – regardless of adoption!), but you probably know what I mean. We know one family that is dealing with racism not directed at them or their child—directly—but at another family member who is romantically involved with someone of a different race. It is complicated, very painful, and very well may cause a huge rift in this family.
We know of another family in which the grandparents do not treat the adopted child equally as the biological grandchildren—and the parents allow their adopted child to be slighted—because they don’t want to cause a rift in the family. Their child is still fairly young—I doubt they realize the kind of rift they are likely leading themselves into with their children.
Just food for thought—maybe you have thought about these things. I did a lot of reading before we adopted our daughters—not just about adoption, but also about China- the history, culture, and life in general. I highly recommend reading as much as you can. It is largely my experience that the Adoption Agencies do the bare min in terms of preparing families who adopt transracially—as helpful as they are—remember they are a business. It also helps the time pass—but as you mentioned you are also in school. Too funny—I finished my dissertation during the home study process for our first daughter. Another good resource is a website called LIE—love isn’t enough.
Best wishes to you as you move forward,
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