WHY AFRICA??

So I guess the next appropriate question to ask is, why Africa and, more specifically, why Ethiopia.

For James, his first encounter with the overwhelming need in Africa came when he was a junior in high school. It was at that time that he came across the pulitzer prize winning photograph taken by Kevin Carter. The photograh is of a famine stricken toddler, crawling towards a United Nations food camp, about a kilometer away. Nearby, a vulture waits for the child to die. According to one account, Kevin Carter waited for over 20 minutes, hoping the vulture would spread it's wings. It didn't. He snapped the picture and left. Kevin Carter committed suicide three months later.

About 4 1/2 years ago, I was flipping through the channels and stopped at Oprah. This, in and of itself, is a minor miracle. I won't get into the specifics but let's just say I don't usually watch her show. That particular day she was doing a show on The Invisible Children. It was all about these kids living in northern Uganda who were leaving their homes every night and walking, sometimes for hours, to get to a place of safety away from Joseph Kony and the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army).

Basically, the LRA is a guerilla group that raids villages nightly, abducting children and turning them into child soldiers. I was astonished at the footage of these babies walking alone for miles and miles. I had never seen anything like it. At the time, Halle was about 2 months old, and I tried to picture what it would be like if that were my daughter. All I could think about was how I would do anything to protect her, and how devastating it must be for those mothers who can't protect their children from this terror. I don't think there would be anything more terrible than losing your child to the type of horror these children experience once they are abducted by the LRA.

So we became involved. That year, Invisible Children hosted an event called the Global Night Commute. We were unable to attend as Halle was still nursing, but were thrilled the very next year when we heard about the Invisible Children event Displace Me. James and I, along with Dave Ballenger, Sarah Ballmer and Malachi Hoye, drove to Chicago to sleep on the concrete in boxes. We wrote letters to our congressmen and spent the night outside. (For pics of the event go to my archive on the right side of the page and click on April of 2007). It was amazing. Since our exposure to the Invisible Children back in 2005, we have tried to stay involved and updated on both the conflicts in Uganda and in the Sudan.

When we began thinking about adoption, we were immediately led to America World Adoption Association, which is who we were considering going with the first time. They currently have 6 programs: China, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia and Rwanda. We were immediately drawn to Rwanda (for no better reason than we love Africa and had seen the movie Hotel Rwanda). Side note: see that movie. It's painful and wonderful.

Anyway, due to some of our medical history, America World felt that Rwanda would not be a good match for us. Rwanda is a new program and AWAA was afraid that we would invest a lot of time (and money) into preparing a dossier for Rwanda, only to be turned down due to a minor medical history.

I was astonished and, frankly, devastated. Was this a sign? Were we not supposed to adopt? Why did we feel led to adopt from Rwanda only to be shut down so early in the process?

But James, and many of you, reminded me that, in our hearts, God had already confirmed our adoption. This was just a bend in the road.

America World told us that they thought we would be very successful in their Ethiopia program. We took some time to pray about it, and a few days later called AWAA back to tell them we were excited about the opportunity to adopt from Ethiopia.

Already the road has not been entirely smooth, but we are so excited to see what God has in store for us. Already we have begun to pray for our Ethiopian son and the mother who may not yet even be carrying him in her womb.

Thank you so much to all of you who are walking this journey along side us. Your support and encouragement are invaluable to us!!