Soon-to-be parents!

Why Ethiopia?

One of the first questions people ask us after learning that we are adopting from Ethiopia is, “Why Ethiopia?” I believe people are curious because while they may know people who have adopted from Korea, China or Eastern Europe they may not be familiar with people who have adopted from Ethiopia. Everyone has different reasons for selecting the country they adopt from, but here is how we came to decide to adopt from Ethiopia:

Last spring (April 2004) we had the opportunity to spend a long weekend in Boston and we stayed with a friend of ours from College. Erica (our friend) is a social worker and has been in the adoption world for quite a long time. We talked with her about domestic as well as international adoption and then when talking about international adoption we talked about all the country programs available. When she began talking about Ethiopia we both had that “gut” reaction that THIS was the country. While in Boston we also had the opportunity to meet a couple who had recently adopted from Ethiopia and we heard about their experiences and met their little girl (Aliyah). We also met the Ethiopia program director for the agency that Erica works for as well as an Ethiopian student who was studying at Gordon-Conwell in Boston. To read more about Aliyah and her parents, click here: http://www.nscn.org/article.asp?iArticleID=9

There was also, of course, an intellectual decision making process that took place. The children in Ethiopia are extremely well cared for and can be adopted at a very young age. The process is very fast and the government doesn’t make the process difficult with a lot of unnecessary red-tape.

We look forward to learning as much as we can about Ethiopia’s rich culture!

Grant and Anna's adoption

I've been thinking for months that I should begin a web log to record our adoption journey. So here I am, January 26th, writing my first posting! There are several reasons why I am excited about keeping a web log of this journey:

1. It'll be a great place for our friends and family to get the latest, most up-to-date information regarding our adoption without us trying to remember who we've shared what information with. We are so thankful for the number of people who have shown interest in our adoption plans and we don't want to offend anyone by forgetting to keep people informed.

2. We are learning a ton about adoption in general and adopting from Ethiopia in particular. This information has been so helpful to us and we hope will be interesting to you as well!

3. Ethiopia is a relatively new program and as we encounter others who may be interested in adopting from Ethiopia, we can point them to this website as a place to come and learn about our experiences.

Thanks for being a part of this journey with us! Blessings, Anna