Why Ethiopia?

The amount of paper we've had to edit, copy, notarize, certify, fax, and then recopy is enough to question the effect of international adoption on the environment, although the quantity of trees that have been sacrificed is obviously very well worth it. We'll go as far as we need to go and fax as many 35 page copies of our dossier that need to be faxed to bring our little one home! But why Ethiopia?

The first page of our dossier is a letter to the Ethiopian Government explaining why we would like to adopt a child from Ethiopia. My husband and I wrote this letter and edited it all in one evening. We sat down and just thought out loud and reflected on our thoughts and feelings together and wrote an honest and excited letter. I guess I've just always felt that this is how my family is going to grow, and who we are going to be, and have always had that one little place in my insides that didn't feel quite complete, but has always known, somehow, exactly what was going to complete it. It's hard to put that into words, but when you've been planning something as long as my husband and I have been planning this the words tend to flow.

Why Ethiopia? Because we live in an area of the USA where we have access to an active Ethiopian community and will be able to provide our child with knowledge and pride for where Bean came from and who Bean is. Because we live near a street where Amharic is the primary language and Ethiopian restaurants are in no short supply. Because as we researched adoption programs Ethiopia kept calling to us as this absolutely amazing country with such an astounding history. Because there is a little one out there who is family. Ethiopia will be entrusting us with an amazing responsibility, to raise one of their children with love and respect and pride for who they are and will become. Obviously this is a responsibility we are anxious to take on.