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. 

Happy Ethiopian New Year!

Melkam Addis Amet!

Today is the Ethiopian New Year, called Enkutatash (en-koo-TAH-tash). I thought I would give a little history/culture lesson today since we don't have any new info while we're waiting for our babies.

Most of Ethiopia still follows the Orthodox Julian calendar. Unlike the Western or Gregorian calendar, the Julian year has 12 months of 30 days each and an additional 13th month with 5 or 6 days (depending on Leap Year).

Meskerem is the first month of the Ethiopian year. The first day of Meskerem, New Year’s Day, falls on our September 11 this year. Ethiopian New Year is a time to express hopes and dreams for the future.

Enkutatash marks the end of the rainy season in Ethiopia, when fields bloom and the spring begins. The literal meaning of Enkutatash is the “gift of jewels”. This is in reference to the gifts the Queen of Sheba received after her expensive journey to visit King Solomon in Jerusalem. The first day of Meskerem also marks the commemoration of Saint John the Baptist.

In Ethiopia, people celebrate New Year by placing flaming torches of dry leaves and wood in front of their houses on New Year’s Eve. On New Year’s Day, the people attend church, dressed in traditional Ethiopian attire. Historically, people would send flowers to mark the occasion, but greeting cards have become more popular. Villagers celebrate with singing and dancing.

Lucas and I plan to celebrate this holiday once our children are here. Creating new traditions with family is something we've always been excited about. So, if you get yellow flowers on September 11th from us, know that we're including you in the celebration. At the end of the rainy season and on New Year's day, yellow daisies bloom across the wild fields surrounding Addis Ababa called Yadey Abeba, identical to our Tickseed Sunflower.

We'll also go out for ET food, as most restaurants will stay open late for feasts and dancing.

On the 10th anniversary of the terrible events that happened at the Twin Towers, although we'll never forget, we're now ready to embrace and celebrate a new culture that will be a part of us very soon.

Ethiopian Cooking Class

Sorry it's been so long since the last post-- crazy week with Lucas's knee (no driving makes for some complete rearranging of schedules for both of us) plus school and work. Lucas is back to work, and is actually trying to play a few shows on the weekends. I would stop him if I could... but hey, Lucas does what he wants! He is feeling good, and on the road to a full recovery. Thanks to all our friends and family for meals, snacks, video games, movies, and helping with cleaning and driving Lucas around!

Last week we got to take a cooking class at Generous Servings (thanks for my early birthday present, Rick and Claudia!) and we had SO much fun. Lucas and I learned about 6 recipes that we will add to our cooking repertoire. If anything, we learned some ET cooking basics and flavor profiles so we can make some traditional meals for the kid on special occasions (and cook for friends!). Here are some pics of our fun class-- hope they look ok since we used our phone to take the pictures:

Prepping the Injera, a squishy sourdough flatbread used in place of utensils and made from Teff flour

Curried Brown Lentils, Spicy Red Lentils, Beef in Red Pepper Paste, and Spiced Vegetables. This inspires my next culinary purchase to be a dutch oven.

Getting ready to eat!

Hambasha, a traditional honey bread. Delicious!

Our Stewed Beef- we made a traditional spice mixture which is used in many dishes called Berbere as well as a Temsi (spiced clarified butter) before adding to the beef. 

Finished traditional family-style plate. The white on the plate is Iab, a fresh cheese we learned to make from buttermilk.

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.

4 Updates

The first update is a good one. According to our agency, the blip in the processing in ET will not likely affect us. This is a temporary situation while they investigate one agency (not ours!) and the statements made by officials were exaggerated. In fact, the man who reported the "only 5 case loads per day" has lost his job for giving mass misinformation. I am grateful that ET takes allegations of child trafficking seriously, so all-in-all, this is good news. I'll post more updates as I hear them. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts.

Next update: My DC trip was a fun one (although a bit exhausting!) Seems like I've just been going going going. (but update #4 seems to be helping with a slow down). I really like DC, with great food, cozy bars, great public transportation, cute neighborhoods, H&M, and my office headquarters. On this trip, I was able to get to the Hill, making visits to our Senators and House Representatives to tell them about Colorado's badly run school and summer meals programs for low-income children, as well as SNAP participation. Colorado ranks 51st in the nation- this is bad news and means Colorado is missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars that are already set aside for these programs. ANYWAY, off my soap box... I think anyone who gets a chance should go to Capitol Hill at some point in their lives. Its a pretty great experience.

Update 3 is that we completed 8 hours out of 16 of our core adoption training yesterday. We learned a lot about child trauma and attachment disorders, as well as disciplining an internationally adopted child which is actually quite different than what most families do or what you find in a typical parenting book. This will all be a challenge, but the bright side is that we can reverse effects of any trauma and neglect the child may have been exposed to, and our baby can grow up to be a happy healthy person. Overall it was sobering, yet empowering. We also met families going through similar processes, although no one from Denver!! Families came from Durango, Grand Junction, Greeley, Lamar and other remote areas.  We were hoping to make some friends closer to home, but we have met some great families none the less.

Tough Guy with Busted Kneecap

Update 4 is that we only completed 8 hours of 16 of our core adoption training. After our training last night, Lucas was asked to be an alternate on our friends' indoor soccer team. He gladly accepted... but about 10 minutes into the game, Lucas made an unfortunate movement which literally snapped his patella in half. He was ambulanced to Swedish Hospital where I met him and waited to get results. In extreme pain, we were sent home with Vicodin and surgery scheduled for this coming Monday. He is doing well, considering the pain, and Lucas's sister Audrey is helping find a good orthopedic surgeon. We had to cancel our next day of adoption training, but our social worker assured us this won't affect our process. More than anything, I think Lucas is just bummed about what this will mean for driving, work, music, sports, and everyday life in the coming months. Send good thoughts.

2nd Home Study and good food

We had our 2nd home study on Tuesday, and everything went smoothly. This time, our social worker separated us and interviewed each of us for about an hour an a half. The questions this round were mostly related to our childhood and family lives. We realized through talking with her and actually putting into words what a wonderful support system of family and friends we have. So thanks to you all for being there for us and reading these updates!

On Friday, one of our friends had a birthday party at a local Ethiopian restaurant on Colfax (where there is an Ethiopian community and about 12 different authentic restaurants). We had lots of fun and dancing. We decided to get food at a place down the street called Habesha and the food was great! This was Lucas and my 3rd time having ET food, and this was by far the best. I can't wait to go with those of you who haven't tried it yet (OR I can make it for you after I've taken my cooking class- Thanks Rick and Claudia!!).

A little about the food. We started with delicious sambusas (ET version of a stuffed wonton or empanada) filled with lentils or spicy beef. And then our entree- I realize this picture looks a lot like colorful slop, but it is so much more! This is a vegetable platter for 5 people. Every color is a different spiced dish. ET food uses a lot of lentils, onions, greens, and spices similar to Indian food. Everyone shares and eats with their hands using a spongy sourdough "pancake" called injera to pick up the different stews. Quite filling! I also had some traditional honey wine, which is a very sweet white wine served cold. Lucas and friends tried some ET beer that they liked. It was a good night.

Negative 11 and dropping...

I got my snow day wish! This gives me time to clean, do school work, and watch a movie that Lucas would hate. And dream of this:

http://www.generousservings.com/EthiopianMarch29.html

Ethiopian Cooking class! Maybe an early birthday present (hint hint, wink wink). Anyone else want to join?

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