Ethiopia by the numbers

Many people have asked us why we chose Ethiopia as our choice for adoption. While there are many reasons for us beyond these numbers, I thought I would share a few sobering facts.

• Life expectancy in Ethiopia 39 years for males and 42 years for females. The leading cause of death is communicable diseases such as malaria, typhoid, meningitis, cholera, AIDS, tuberculosis, yellow fever.
• One in ten children die before their first birthday
• One in six children die before their fifth birthday
• Woman have an average of 7 children and the maternal mortality rate is 1 in 14
• Ethiopia's neonatal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world - 49/1000 births with tetanus infection being the second major cause of infant/neonatal death.
• Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Over half the population lives on less than a $1 a day. The average income in Ethiopia is US$100 a year. Almost 82% of the population lives on less than $1 a day.
• Malnutrition levels are among the highest in the world.
• Ethiopia is home to 4-6 million orphans, or 12% of all children.
• That is the same number of children under age 18 who reside in Massachusetts, New York State, and Washington DC combined. If every parent in those places died tonight - that would be similar to Ethiopia's orphan crisis.
• More than half a million of these were orphaned as a result of AIDS.
• Only 42.7% age 15 and over can read and write.
• Only 18 percent of children reach grade five. That means 82% of children don't.
• 44% of the population is under 15 years old
• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
• Ethiopia's doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000
• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
• Coffee prices (Ethiopia's only major export) declined 40-60%from 1998-2002
• Severe drought struck the country from 2000-2002
    - first year no crops
    - second year no seeds
    - third year no animals
• Ethiopia is experiencing yet another drought now. 

What a crazy coupla weeks!

Sorry for any suspense as I know I left my last post as sort of a mystery...

*Complainer Alert!* I have barely been keeping my head above water these last few weeks with a hectic work schedule (working 10 and 12 hour days), no car, and the mix up that happened last week with our sweet boy. I have been stressed, feeling defeated at work with little support, feeling guilty for making people drive me around, and just want to focus on the cute pictures I get maybe once a week. *Complaining over, I think*

So- I'm not so sure that I should be writing this in a blog, but I want those that are also in the adoption process to know what bumps may come along the way. Two Thursdays ago, when we were anxiously awaiting any news on our little Agegnehu, we got an update email late in the evening from our adoption agency... with pictures of a frail, thin baby who was 6 months old and only 8 pounds. We sat there staring in disbelief and we searched the picture for any feature that slightly resembled the healthy baby boy we had gotten a picture of only 2 1/2 weeks earlier. We were certain there had been a mistake. We immediately called our agency and left a message. I made Lucas do it because he would sound meaner. How could our baby have 1) changed ages 2) lost 3 1/2 lbs in 2 weeks 3) not look anything like the first picture?

We were shocked when we heard back from the agency that this was in fact our Ageghehu, that he had become very sick, and that we just didn't recognize him because of the weight loss. Lucas and I still weren't convinced. But we felt everything was out of our control. We tried to talk ourselves into believing that the pictures were of the same boy: "Maybe the eyebrows are the same... his ears are kinda the same shape..." Either way, we were somewhat mourning the loss of our healthy baby- the one we had first gotten the picture of and studied daily. Our little boy in pink was now very sick. I began researching formulas to send with friends to Ethiopia. This boy had to get some weight on him fast. We had already heard this week of a little girl who died of pneumonia in the same orphanage... this could be us. Somewhat thankful that I have a nutrition background, I started to believe that this boy was meant to be my son.

Fast forward 4 days. I get a call at work, on a busy busy day. "You were right. We made a mistake. We found your Agegnehu. There was a mix up between the two orphanages. This never happens. Your boy is safe and healthy."

Emotional roller coaster. Bittersweet. Jerking our hearts around! Now who will love the tiny Agegnehu? It's still too much to think about at times. But I am SO happy we have our boy in pink back!!! I am already madly in love with him.

There is more to the story that I won't share here. I will always think about tiny Agegnehu, I hope he finds a family soon.

This week's stats:

Jalele Lark (~6.5 months)
11lbs 12oz, 24inches

Otis Alan Agegnehu (~5 months)
11lbs 13oz, 26inches

Both are growing... but I would be a happy with about 5 more pounds each! Can't wait to get you babies! C'mon court date!!!

And I really can't wait to celebrate these two on Friday. You should come... we'll have pictures! Thanks again, Sarah and friends!

And now we have our boy!!

We were supposed to receive our referral of a boy and a girl at the same time. But- we are adopting, so things are bound to not go as planned. On December 5th, 2011 we found out about our 5-month-old little girl in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. On January 11th, 2012 we finally received word of our 3-month-old kissy-lipped baby boy!!

We know much more about him from his referral paperwork than we do with Lark. While I won't tell his story here, we do know where he was born and how he made his way to the orphanage. His lips are so big and kissable, and for his debut picture, we was adorned in a very pink sweatsuit! I can't help but giggle when I look at this picture, his expressions seems to be so serious- like he is telling us how tough he is even though we are seeing him in all pink. I'm not big on pastel pinks and blues for defining genders, but I have to admit it is pretty funny!

For some reason, naming this boy is much harder. His given name will be pretty hard to pronounce and spell in our culture- so we are working on a name that works for everyone but honors his Ethiopian heritage.... hmm.

This week's stats for baby boy:
11lbs (he weighs more than Lark, who is 3 months older!)
22 inches
head circumference: 15 inches

This week's stats for little Lark:
(we got an adorable smiley pic of her this week)
10lbs, 7 oz (may have lost weight? or maybe measurements are off? Will try not to get concerned yet.)
24 inches
hc: 15 1/2 inches

We couldn't be more excited about our family of 4!! Please pray for a court date soon!

We have a girl!

I'm a little too excited to write a blog post, but I wanted to keep you informed:

We got a referral for a beautiful baby girl!!! She is approximately 5 months old and perfect. I wish I could post her cutie face, but we can't post pictures until everything is legal and we pass court (but if you see me I'm sure I will gushingly show you her picture on my phone). We only know some of her story, and I'm not sure that I will share it all on this blog, but she has already had quite a life in her 5 months.

We are still waiting for a referral for a little boy, and we've been told this is in the works as we speak. Either way, we have the best Christmas present ever of seeing our baby's face. I thought surely we had months to go before getting to this point!

More to come................

squeeeeee!

Yes, we know it's controversial.

Yesterday, this NPR story aired and it was obviously very close to my heart.

So, to those of you who have wondered- yes, we know international adoption is controversial. And that fraud exists. And that having an interracial family will be hard. And we aren't trying to be a trendy Brangelina family. We just want to be *a* family.

And no matter how you slice it, there are millions of kids (an estimated 5 million orphans and homeless children in Ethiopia, in fact) who don't have a family that can take care of them. Right now. And can't wait for their country's infrastructure to get better.

no worry

HABAKKUK 2:3

If it seems slow, be patient!
For it will surely take place.
It will not be late by a single day.

Not much of an update...

But our dossier is on its way to Africa!

Dossier Submitted!

Well, it's official. We have submitted our dossier, and a whole lot of money (!!!). This is what we've been working on for the past 3 months. We took a little longer than anticipated, with Luke's 3 knee surgeries and all, but we're finally done!

Our dossier consists of paperwork that tells everything about us (from family photos, a study of our home and relationship, medical records, blah blah blah) each notarized, then given the state seal, all in triplicate. Lucas and I both had a HUGE sense of relief when we completed the final organizing and stapling of papers:

So now what? Our precious precious stack of papers will make it to Washington DC sometime early next week, and then forwarded on to Ethiopia. Sometime during this period, we'll officially be put on the wait list for a little boy and a little girl! (related or unrelated, both under 24 months)

And now, the real waiting begins.

New Books

Here are a few more books we've received as gifts and we're really enjoying:

This was given to us by our adoption agency, and it has very helpful information on almost every topic. Great for international adoption.

Thanks to Amber and Todd, this book has been great and a few family members have already read it!

Some classic kids books from Trixie and Ryan that are perfect!

We're going for it! (still)

We got some good news this week. Sounds like MOWA (The Ministry of Womens Affairs) in Ethiopia is back to processing up to 20 cases a day- which is great news for us on our wait time. This news comes at a good time, since now is the time we have to put down some serious money and we were starting to get hesitant about going forward. We decided to go for it, trusting that this is how it's meant to work out, and that we have a little person waiting for us who is predestined to be in our family.

Now that our home study has been finalized, we're able to apply for adoption loans and scholarships. Cross your fingers that we'll be able to find the money that it takes to complete this process. Lucas's knee surgery has put a slight crunch on the money we had set aside for adoption... and we've yet to see the entire bill or how much our insurance will cover.  But again, we're trusting that this is the way it's all supposed to go in the grand scheme of life, and we aren't bothered in the slightest!

This week we submitted our home study, birth and marriage certificates to US Immigration Services. Once this is approved, it will allow us bring our baby home as a US Citizen.

Stellar Patella(r)

Lucas and I read this post from a blog I follow while we sit in the hospital, waiting for his knee to go under the knife. It is very touching and makes me both happy and sad, and is beautifully written. This family just got home from their first visit to ET. Please read: Valuable

Update on Lucas's patella: Right now we are waiting for surgery. Lucas is in his gown with his leg shaved and being hydrated through IV. In about half an hour, he will go under general anesthesia, get 2 pins in his kneecap, with a thin wire wrapped around the entire cap to hold it into together. Ouch.

Eyes on the Prize

We finished our 3rd and final pre-adoption home study last Thursday. Everything seems to be moving along nicely, and our social worker says we'll be great parents! We are pretty excited to have this part out of the way. Next steps:

• Physicals
• Taxes (so we can submit our most recent financials)
• 16-hour training at the agency
• another 8 hours of online courses
• submit dossier to DC
• WAIT
• find funding for the biggest expense of submitting dossier to ET, plus travel there (x2)
• WAIT
• submit dossier to Ethiopia
• WAIT
• receive a referral of a baby!
• WAIT
• Travel to ET for court and meet baby!
• WAIT (I assume this one is the hardest)
• Travel back to ET to bring baby home!
• Post-adoption assessments

So as you can see we have a ways to go. But, we're happy and excited and keeping our eyes on the prize. Baby prize.

I'm headed to DC this Friday through Tuesday for the National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference. I'm looking forward to it, but it's always hard to leave for 5 days. DC is a great city, although I have to admit that I've passed up monument and history tours to shop at H&M... whoops.

Update on home study

So we had day one of our home study this morning, met our assigned social worker. It went well! She is not scary, and I think our first interview went smoothly. It was about two hours, she spoke with us together, toured our house, and spoke with us each alone for a minute. I think so far we passed heh! We need to get a fire extinguisher..OH and Andrea finally told her boss today, which she was stressed about, so that's good! Welp, thanks for your support, we will keep the updates coming!

The Rougés are on fire!

Hello friends and family!
Its not very often that we find time or energy to write about what is going on in our lives. Even getting Christmas cards out is a feat we rarely conquer. BUT we've got something pretty exciting going on! We're adopting a baby from Ethiopia.

Check back often to see our updates, successes, failures, and thoughts as we go through this crazy (but well thought out) decision to adopt internationally.

Feel free to send thoughts, prayers, and questions our way! We can't guarantee how often we'll post, but if anything exciting comes up, we'll be sure to post it here. Happy New Year!
Love, Lucas and Andrea