Why Ethiopia?

Today I'm going to answer the question of why we decided to adopt from Ethiopia.

Well, I touched on that a little in the first post. We were drawn to Etiopia; I can't explain exactly why except that God completely had his hand in the process. We were inspired by other families.I saw signs everywhere that I was on the right track! Our eyes were opened to some staggering statistics, which I will let speak for themselves:

• According to UNICEF, there are approximately 6 million orphans in Ethiopia, a country the size of Texas.
• The average life expectancy is 55.
• About 36% of adults are literate.
• 38% of children under five are underweight.
• The average annual income is about $160 US dollars.
• 1 in 10 children die before their 5th birthday.
• 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old.
• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition.
• Ethiopia's median age is 17.8 years.
• Between 60-150 million kids live on the street.
• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world).
• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS.
• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school.
• 88% of children will never attend secondary school.
• Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000.
• 82% of the population live on less than $1 a day.

WOW!  I don't know about you, but these facts are deeply saddening to me.  I would think about this at night when I went to sleep.  I just couldn't ignore it!

I wanted to leave you-my 10 followers : ) with this video.  Watch it!  It can articulate the question "Why Ethiopia? so much better than I can!