Ethiopia???

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I had begun to take a special interest in Uganda. So, you may be wondering how in the world we chose Ethiopia. You might also be wondering why we decided to adopt internationally rather than domestically when there are so many children in need here in the United States.

To answer the first question, my heart had become connected to Uganda mainly as a result of Katie Davis' blog. God really used her ministry there to get my attention. So, all along I had thought that if we adopted, we'd definitely go to Uganda and specifically to Amani Baby Cottage. There are several families here who have adopted children from there, and it just made sense to do the same. However, after speaking to Gwen & Suzanne of 147millionorphans.com, we learned that Amani isn't currently taking applications. Also, the government there has no established laws regarding adoption, making it much more complicated. I had already begun to think of Ethiopia as a second option because an old high school friend of ours is adopting from there, as well as some other people from Nashville that I've recently met. We also learned that there are approximately 4.5 million orphans in Ethiopia alone, so the need there is great. There are several placing agencies that have very well-established programs in Ethiopia, too. If you're like I was, you might not even know exactly where Ethiopia is, so here's a map of Africa if you need a little geography refresher:



And here is a map of Ethiopia:




The answer to the second question (why not adopt domestically) is pretty simple, and there are two main parts: 1) We sensed that God was leading us to Africa rather than the United States, and 2) adopting a child from a third-world country is sometimes the difference between life and death for them. It basically just comes down to the fact that Ethiopia is where God has directed our hearts.