Yes, we will soon have 5 children! Our fifth child, a 4 y/o boy, is currently in Ethiopia. We can not post any pictures of him or give anymore information about him online until he is home, so I thought I'd tell everyone about his home country.
Ethiopia is one of the oldest nation on earth and Africa's oldest independent nation. It is a beautiful country composed of both lowlands and highlands. The lowlands are very hot but the highlands where the majority of the population live is quite mild. Addis Ababa, the capital and where our son is living, has an average temperature of 62 degrees. Unfortunately Ethiopia has had some hard times. Years of drought resulted in a devastating famine and civil wars further wracked havick on the country. Ethiopia is now a democratic country attempting to repair the years of damage. Unfortuntely the wars, famine and AIDS epidemic has left over 5 million children orphaned, the doctor to children ration is 1 to 24,000 and despite the government requiring children to attend school from 7 to 13 years of age only half the nations children will ever attend school. With all these problems to address and the extreme poverty preventing Ethiopian citizens from adopting children, Ethiopia has turned to international adoption to provide families for their orphaned children.
Although international adoption will not solve the nation's problems (we pray that Ethiopia will some day overcome their years of problems and become a prosperous nation again), it does change the world for that child. We feel that GOD has called us to provide a home and family to one special little boy. It will not be easy. this little guy has experienced more lost in his short life than I have in my 34 years but we believe with God's help he will grow to be a healthy, happy young man.
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