Outreach Africa

Jen and I were watching the news last night and heard about a organization in Iowa called Outreach Africa. Outreach was created to supplement the work currently being undertaken by the Iambi Hospital Project, Inc. a non-profit organization. Iambi Hospital project is a five-year program to rebuild Iambi Hospital and expand its function to include certified nurses, training programs, and AIDS / HIV hospices services. Another program they are involved in is called "Kids Against Hunger." Each food package they produce provides six nutritionally complete servings to feed the starving children around the world and the hungry here at home. All for the low cost of 25 cents per serving. I am including a link, please take a look.

The first of Jen's three pregnant sisters had her baby on Sunday. Elizabeth and Zach welcomed Benjamin David into the world at 5:00a. Mom and son are doing well. I am pretty sure I saw some more grey hair on dad.

Finally lots of activity on the adoption front. We have moved up to 15th on the "unofficial" list. So far in April there have been 15 referrals we know of so our hopes of a May, early June referral seem good. Now we are trying to make sure we get all the vaccinations we need, we have talked with our doctor to make sure he can look over the medical report when it comes in, and figuring out possible names.

EXCITING TIMES!!!!!!

http://www.outreachafrica.org/index.php

$20 or your child

I didn't even know how to title this post.
I read this article from another blog and am brought to tears. Little Mark Kwadwo. His picture, look at that face. That could be any little boy or girl. The story is about child slavery in Africa.
http://www.wehaitians.com/africa%20world%20of%20forced%20labor%20in%20a%206%20year%20old%20eyes.html

A couple months ago a friend had told me about an Oprah episode she had seen that sounded like the same story. I had meant to try to find more information on the story, and I am just sure this is it.

This story is about the same little boy. http://www.thevillageofhope.com/former_slaves.htm

This little guy, Mark, has been saved. But it is just so awful to think what he and so many, many, many more are going through. I don't understand why this has to happen, why there has to be injustice this great in a world. A world where I have too much food and worry about getting new clothes or a better car or house or whatever. It makes me sick and sad.

Quick programming note

A documentary on Ethiopia coffee farmers called "Black Gold" is being shown on PBS. If you check local listings you can find out when it will air in your area. It will be shown here in Iowa on April 22nd at 10:30pm.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blackgold/

Alittle excitement

OK, I am in a reeeeaallly greeeaaat mood tonight!!!! There have been 9 referrals this week!! That is really high!
As you may or may not remember, our adoption agency has a website with forums for each country they have programs with. The Ethiopia board is HIGHLY active, seriously can't keep up with everything that happens each day. They estimate 50 to 60% of the people using CHSFS for Ethiopia adoptions are active on the forum. So, of the people on the forum - 9 got referrals this week and we are now 20th on the list! The babies this week have been fairly young - 2 months, 3 mo, a couple 4 mo, a couple 6 mo, 7 mo, and 17 mo old. And more girls than boys, interestingly enough.
That still puts us alittle behind my first guess or hope. Our dossier was approved Jan 11th. When we started the process last fall, the wait time for a baby boy was 0-4 months, but then around November or December it changed to 4-6 months. Still I was hoping for less than 4 months - I don't know why. So, I was hoping for a referral by the end of April. Now, I am hoping for one by the end of May.
After that we wait 2-3 months to travel. My guess is we will be traveling in August, maybe September.
Wow - now that seems like a long ways off. We have lots to keep us busy, but we would love to go get our son NOW! I think about him alot and wonder where is he and what he looks like. I think he is probably already born and with a loving mother, but a mother that is not going to be able to take care of him for some reason. I don't like to think about what they are going through or why she will have to let him go. I cannot imagine making that decision. I tell myself I would never be able to leave my child, but I also know that I have no idea what their lives are like and what they suffer through every single day. So, as much as I DO NOT want any woman to be forced to let their babies go, I want to have my son now. I want to get him and make him safe and healthy and happy.

OK, on to another topic, because my mood went from really good to kinda sad.

My baby girl - Annalise Lucille - is 2 years old!! Let me count them 1 - 2!!! Holy smokeroos. I cannot believe two years have passed since that little darling was born. She had a fun birthday! Well a couple of them - one with her cousin Holden who is 5 and all my family. Then on her birthday - just cupcakes at 8:00PM, because we had swim lessons and Katie had religious ed and we weren't all home together until that time. And finally another with the real cake and presents the following night. She is getting real good at singing Happy Birthday to herself and blowing out candles. She is a very expressive little one - big wide open eyes and mouth about everything - it was fun watching her open her presents. My mom gave her a beautiful dress with a very fluffy skirt. She tried that one and ran around twirling and fluffing it. Just makes me smile thinking about her.

So this is Easter weekend - it will be awesome to see all my sisters with their bulging bellies. I think we will be skipping the egg hunt at the high school Saturday morning, since it is supposed to be 22 degrees with a wind chill making it feel like 7 degrees. (You know, it was 80 degrees two weeks ago!) Thanks for reading!
Happy Easter!

Site meter fun!

Okay, as it will become obvious, I am starting to run out of things to talk about. This week's topic is is the wonderful world of the site meter. When we started this blog one of things I wanted to put in was a site meter so we could see from where and how many people were reading our blog. I admit it may seem geeky but I am what I am. Let me just say it is COOL!!!!

If you click on the site meter below you can view reports and maps about where all of your traffic is coming from. We have people across the globe reading this, not all of the time mind you but once in a while. There is also a referral link which shows how people are finding our blog. Seems we are links on a couple of other people's site. One of sites linking to us are the relatives of our neighbors which Jen has mentioned before. (Big shout out to Stephanie and Brian, now that the weather has improved we need to get together and chat. I still can't believe the connection!)

I can also see from looking at the reports that most of you check our blog early in the week. Of course since this is being posted on Thursday, I am obviously not taking advantage of this knowledge.

*Personal goal will be that we get back on track posting Sunday or Monday.*

However please keep in mind that I also have personal goals to lose more weight, somehow grow hair on the top of my head, and to retire at an early age.

So now that I have shown you all the wonders of the site meter, what should we do with this knowledge? I want to take a family vacation activity and bring it into the 21st century. When we were kids, we took the car practically everywhere for vacation. On the trip mom would try and find license plates for all 50 states. I want to do one better, I want to get comments from as many states and countries as possible! So click the word "comment" below this post and let us know where you are. You can post as "Anonymous," just select that option, write in the box above that and click "Publish your comment" Really quite simple. Also, if you wish, you can click on the envelope below and send this blog to anyone you think can help us reach our goal.

Drinks are on me if we can get all 50 states and let's say...30 countries. Don't let me down.

All's Quiet on the Adoption Front

We just realized that we had forgotten to post anything yet this week. This in an indication that we don't have much to share. It's Spring Break this week for the kids and we had plans to make a short trip up to Minneapolis. Unfortunately the U.S. Census Bureau decided this would be a great week to release the 2006 county population estimates. That meant I have spent most of the week getting all the data together and getting the website updated. Today I get to field calls from the press and local municipalities asking me what the numbers mean. Yippee. Since this all came up and we had to scrape our Minneapolis plans we took the kids to the Omaha zoo on Sunday and plan on taking them bowling and to the movies later this week. They seem cool with it all but I felt like crap that I had to change our plans. Quick question, does money still buy happiness? When I get a chance I will post pictures from the zoo, the kids had a blast and truth be told Jen and I like that zoo probably more than the kids.

Adoption news: Waiting and more waiting. As of right now there has not been any referrals given out this week. We would really like to see a big bunch given out before the end of the month but we are not holding our breath.

This week's Amharic word: Konjo - beautiful

Can it be? Is Spring here?

We don't have a lot to say this week other than this past weekend was beautiful!!! After being stuck in the house for the past three months, and having two big snowstorms hit us the past two weeks, it appears that the worst MAY be over. (It is Iowa after all so I will not be surprised to see another big storm.) Yesterday it was just over 60 degrees so we were able to take a couple walks with kids, grill out, and I even caught Jen sitting on the deck reading a magazine. Personally I think she was trying to get some sun and those of you who know her, know I am right.

Nothing new on the adoption front. There were a small number of referrals given out last week so that has moved us up "the list."

Right now we are trying to come up with ideas for this summer. We want to come up with some things so the kids can have a good summer but we need to save up our vacation time for the big trip to Addis. Any suggestions for some fun, short trips we can take in June and July would be met with great appreciation. Even better would be a couple beds, good food, drinks and nice conversation while the kids go crazy. Boating and camping with the Hickmans wouldn't be too bad either.

Finally for all of you looking for an ethiopian music video, well you are in luck. Enjoy!

Video link

Yeah, we're still here

Hello, Gary has been bugging me to post since it has been a couple weeks since we have posted anything and because he posted the last 2 or 3 times. I have been meaning to, but haven't had anything real exciting to add. But I can talk about the adoption forever, so I will give alittle update.

First of all...waiting is hard. Jeepers, I thought it was hard when I was pregnant and in those cases I had a due date and the doctor will only let you go so far past it. So it was hard to wait, but we knew what we were waiting for - we had a fairly specific date.
Well, the wait for a baby boy is 4-6 months, but that is just an estimate. And the wait to travel after that is about 12 weeks, though it seems alot of people are only waiting 9 or 10 weeks. So, who knows when we will have a referral and then when we will get meet him. I use our adoption agencies message board list as a guide, but it isn't anything I can hold my breath on. So, we watch and wait and wait. We get excited when other families post that they received their referral or their travel date, because it so exciting AND, very selfishly, because it means we are moving up on the list. Best guess for us is a late April/early May referral (where we get the babies information and picture) and traveling in July. I kinda don't like giving myself a date, because then I might come to hope and plan for it and if things slow down then I will be disappointed.
From what I remember reading, there are 4 millions orphans in Ethiopia. Why then does it take so long? Many reasons, I think I have heard the government has to wait a certain amount of time to allow an orphan to be adopted, maybe to be considered an actual orphan, in case someone comes to claim the child. But still there are so many already orphaned. Our adoption agency, Children's Home Society and Family Services, runs the care center that the children are in. There is only room for so many children, I can't remember the number, say 60. Those children are evaluated and then matched with a family. The family accepts the referral and then a court date it set and the family travels to Ethiopia to adopt the child. When the 60 kids are anywhere in this process but haven't been picked up yet, there is no room for more children to come into the care center. So, basically a child has to be picked up so another can come in and then the process starts again. I think the slow down comes in with the Ethiopian court. I am sure they are so, so busy, and the dates get pushed back, so everything gets pushed back. That is all my interpretation from what I have read here and there. Pretty logical, but I had to think it all through to understand why we have to wait.

And so we are back to waiting is hard.
It is hard on the kids too. Jack said - out of the blue, I think we were at the store - I wish we could get our baby brother now. Summer, I tell him - but that is a long wait for a 5 year old. Katie is the same way, talks about her baby brother all the time, wants to know how old he will be and when he is coming, etc, etc.
Annalise LOVES babies. Every time we see a stroller, say at the mall, she will wriggle away from me to go check out the baby. Same with carseats, someone is carrying one and she is trying to peek in to see the baby. She has a little kitchen in her room and 2 high chairs and she loves to feed her dolls. Every kid under 4 years old that she sees, 'baby, baby!'. But, I think a new baby in her momma's arms all the time is going to be a little different. Jack, my cuddle bug, climbs onto my lap and Anna can be busy doing anything, but she will drop it to come running across the room screaming, 'MY MOMMY!'. She pushes him off my lap. Hmmm, so I think she is OK with the wait.

OK, so I said I would give a little update, and I just rambled on about poor me waiting.

Some friends of ours from nearby left on Saturday for Ethiopia. They are picking up their little girl. I know they will be really busy after they get back, but I can't wait to meet her and here about their trip.

That is it for tonight, I will post again soon.

Fingerprints to Big Brother...Check.

Teanastëllën,

Well we had our appointment with USCIS (formally INS) Thursday to get our fingerprints done. I had all kinds of smart alec comments in my head to use while there. Stuff like "I hope they don't solve any old crimes with this data" but when the time came I quietly went up and let them have their way with me. The whole process only took us about 15 minutes which was also a little disappointing. I got to leave work and was hoping to be gone longer.

Saturday night we had dinner with another couple who are adopting from Ethiopia. They have their referral, a beautiful baby boy (13 months old I want to say), and are waiting for their travel date. We had actually gotten together with them in December when the larger group of us met at David's. Nice night, good food, great conversation.

One of the questions that have come up a lot recently amongst ourselves and from others is what are we going to name our child. To be honest that is a tough question for us. I may ask Jen to hop on later and give a better answer, but in a nutshell we don't know. We are kind of waiting to see what our child's name is before we make any decisions. It seems from the people we have met and those on the boards that it is a about 60-40 in keeping the original name. For us it will depend I think on what that name is. At the very least I think we plan on using a combination of our child's Ethiopian name and one that we pick. I am including a link which gives a sample of some of the names used in Ethiopia. Any comments and suggestions about names will be greatly appreciated.

Ethiopian boys names A-T
Ethiopian boys names T-Z

East Africa Coffee Dispute

Starbucks to Buy More E. Africa Coffee

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Starbucks will double its purchases of fine coffee from East African countries by 2009, the vice president for procurement said Thursday at a coffee conference in the Ethiopian capital.

Starbucks Corp. also announced it would help small-scale coffee producers by providing $1 million in micro-financing loans and would set up a farmer support center in 2007 to improve bean quality.

"We will double our coffee purchases from East Africa in the next two years," said Dub Hay, Starbucks's senior vice president of coffee procurement. "East Africa is not only the birthplace of coffee and the origin of some of the finest coffees in the world, its coffee trade is tied to the well-being and economic development of the region's countries and people."

The announcement comes following a dispute between Starbucks and the Ethiopian government over the trademarking of certain coffee names. British charity Oxfam accused the coffee giant of denying Ethiopia from earning $88 million a year by blocking its bid to trademark three types of coffee beans _ Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe.

Oxfam's Horn of Africa regional director Abera Tola said the new measures taken by Starbucks were appreciated, but that they should also increase the price they pay for coffee.

"The volumes they are asking for are quite high," Tola said. "They are not talking about price."

Starbucks buys 294 million pounds of coffee a year and posts sales of more than $7.8 billion a year. Currently, Starbucks buys 6 percent of its coffee from Africa, but that is expected to reach 12 percent by 2009, Hay said.

Half of Ethiopia's 77 million people live on less than $1 a day. Starbucks already provides $4.2 million for social development projects in East Africa.

The announcement came at the largest-ever coffee conference in Africa. More than 500 industry leaders attended the meeting, the Eastern African Fine Coffees Association said.

East African growers account for about half of the world's specialty coffee. Producers have increasingly sought to brand their coffee in order to capture higher consumer prices. Most coffee growers in Africa live in poverty.

Pictures, message boards, and other stuff

So sorry for the lapse in postings. I would love to say it is because we have been so busy, but when the temperature outside starts with a "-" it is safe to say we haven't been going anywhere. So why the long interval? Basically we haven't been able to come up with anything new to say. Well enough of that I say, today I plan on throwing about a dozen different things out here. (If I lose you all I apologize)

• Jen asked that I post some pictures of the kids from our Chicago trip as well as some outdoor playtime so I will be putting them in at the bottom of this post.
• On Saturday night we met with another family in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We got their e-mail address from Angela our case worker. Jen had been e-mailing her over the past month or so and we decided to get everyone together. They have two boys and have received their referral for a beautiful baby girl. They are now waiting on their travel date. Oh I forgot to mention they live here in our area too. There are a couple other families we have been in contact with who were unable to join us this weekend but want to get together next time. It is so nice to have other families close by who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We really think it will be helpful to our family to have these connections close by.
• Ahhhh, message boards. You could say I am slightly addicted to them. (Jen is slowly becoming a junkie as well.) The wealth of information as well as the camaraderie that is out on the web is unbelievable. I think Jen mentioned the CHSFS board in a previous post, but if not this one is GREAT! The Ethiopia forum is the biggest and most active of all their boards. As of today there are over 12,000 posts. What is nice about this board is that everyone here for the most part are using CHSFS or have used the agency in the past. If you have a question you can post it and have a reply in minutes. I also have subscribed to a number of boards on Yahoo! There is an Ethiopian adoption board which has people from all of the different agencies, there is another board for people using CHSFS and recently I stumbled across an Iowa international adoption board. This one has posting from people in Iowa about adoption, it is not as active but still something I check with some frequency.
• We didn't mention a nice little get together we had in early December. We got together with about 4 other families at David's Place in Iowa City. I mention this because David's Place is an Ethiopian restaurant and I highly recommend it. In fact I beg of you, if you are in the area stop in and give it a try.
• We love that people have been posting comments! Please do so if you have time, it lets us know that we have people reading this and actually makes doing this blog a lot more fun. We have not replied to the comments because we weren't sure if that was the "right way" to do things in the blogging world.
  
• Finally, Jen wanted me to mention that I have ended a couple of my posts with a word in Amharic. So for those keeping score at home:
• Dehna hunu - Goodbye
• selam - Peace
  

I guess that's it for now. I know that isn't quite a dozen but I tend to exaggerate at times. Just ask Jen. Here are the pics.

To my wife and family, Afekrishalehou!

Video Clip

I just wanted to post this link to a video about orphans in Ethiopia. It is kinda long - 20 minutes, but I really thought it was good. Just a small glimpse of what is happening there.

The main character of the book that I just finished, "There is No Me Without You," by Melessa Fay Greene, is Haregewoin Teferra. She was in part of this video. I thought that was kinda neat. This book (have I said much about it before, I can't remember) is amazing and a true current day story of this woman and the orphans she has taken in. The book also tells stories of these children, which you just don't want to believe could be true. I will write more about this book another night.

Ethiopian orphans video

weekend in Chicago

Hello, this is Jen. Just wanted to post a note, though there are no adoption updates for us. Children's Home Society and Family Services has forums or chat rooms on their website for the various countries they adopt from. The Ethiopia forum is by far the most active with over 10,000 posts and 1000 threads. It is actually hard to keep up on if you miss a day. But, it is so helpful, you find people who have the same question you do and lots of other people who know the answers.
Anyway, my point is, many families post updates on their adoption process. There is also someone who keeps track of families who are in different stages of the process, if they want her to. I think they guesstimate that about half of the families adopting from Ethiopia provide updates for this. During December there were 23 children referred to families, 14 of those between Dec 19-22. In January, there has only been 1, so I expect a big flurry of referrals any day now. It won't be us for a few more months, but I am still excitedly waiting for the families who are next.

We spent the weekend in Chicago. It was my sister Sarah's birthday on Saturday and we wanted to celebrate her big 3-0 with her. My niece, Maggie, turned the big 3 on Sunday, so even more to celebrate. Very nice, yet quick, weekend. All 4 sisters were together with the 7 kids and 2 of the hubbies. We went to the Shedd Aquarium on Saturday and to the Du Page Children's Museum in Naperville on Sunday.
Did I mention that all four of us are expecting???? Elizabeth is due (eek, can't remember) April 20-something. Sarah is due June 5th. And Laura is due June 4th. And my due date (minus the growing belly) is alittle more up-in-the-air. My parents will go from 7 grandkids to 11 in a few months.
So, maybe if I can sweet talk my guy, we will post a couple pics of Chicago or all the snow we got while we were gone. :) Take care.

Ethiopian Calendar

Ethiopia gears up for millennium party
© afrol News / UNWTOafrol News, 15 January -

Ethiopia is still living in the year 1999, according to its own calendar, meaning that Ethiopians can look forward to yet another millennium party later this year. And authorities are planning a magnificent celebration for citizens and the many expected foreign visitors; launching projects worth birr 290 million (euro 26 million).

The Ethiopian calendar is unique in the world, developed by the indigenous Coptic church leaning on ancient Egyptian astronomic calculations, the Jewish calendar and the Julian calendar - adopted under Julius Caesar and the root of all Christian date calculators. Europe in 1582 shifted to the Gregorian calendar, now putting most of us in January 2007.

According to the Ethiopian calendar, we are in mid-1999. Here, "the year is divided into 12 months of 30 days each and a 13th month of 5 days and 6 days in leap year," the Ethiopian Ministry of Culture explains. The Ethiopian calendar is 7 and a half year behind the Gregorian calendar, also having 365 days in a normal year and 366 days in each leap year, so the distance remains almost constant.

According to Harvard University Professor Ephraim Isaac, most scholars that have studied Biblical times agree that the Ethiopian calendar is much closer than the Gregorian to start its calculations of time around the birth of Jesus Christ. Some put this event in the year 0 of the Ethiopian calendar, while most historians hold the founder of Christianity was born in year 3 of the same calendar - or year 5 in the Gregorian.

To read the rest of the article:
http://www.afrol.com/articles/23759

Officially "Waiting"

Well we received word on Thursday (1/11/07) from CHSFS that our dossier has been approved and we are officially "waiting for a referral." What this means is that clock has started ticking. Wait time for an infant boy is currently running 0-4 months. After we get our referral and accept we have to wait for an appointment date at the embassy in Addis Ababa. Travel time from when we accept our referral to when we actually leave can be up to 12 weeks. So let's do the math: we could get our referral anytime between now and May. Let's assume May, we could then expect to leave for Addis sometime between late June-August.

That's in a perfect world where dates don't change, the courts don't close in late July and world events don't play a factor (F.Y.I. Ethiopia and Somalia are not getting a long currently. So far this has not had an affect on international adoption, but we are keeping up-to-date with everything that is happening just in case.)

Since this isn't a perfect world, we don't really have a clue for sure about anything. So that is the long answer to the question we have already been getting "So when will you leave to get your new son?" The short answer we have been giving is a blank stare and a shrug of the shoulders. Now you know why.

Selam.

Busy times ahead

Hi - this is Jen. I don't have any big updates, but thought I should write a quick note.
We took down Christmas decorations this weekend. We always put up a fair amount - 2 trees, several wreaths, lots of garland and lights, a little village and train set, outdoor lights, etc, so it takes awhile to take back down. It is kinda sad, the house just doesn't feel so festive and fun. But, the house does feel cleaner. Less clutter. Katie asked what the next holiday is, I think she was alittle sad it was 'over'.

We also made trips to Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot this weekend. The kids were thrilled to say the least! NOT! They did find some excitement in trying out all the shower, bathtubs, and toilets we were looking at. At one point, the 3 kids and I were all squeezed into 1 shower stall with the clear glass door closed. We had a couple strange looks from fellow shoppers. I think the sight of toilets inspired Anna, so we visited the real restroom in every store. We are (we - whatever!, I meant Gary is) going to be working on building a bathroom in the basement over the next couple months. Gary's buddy Scott will be coming in 2 weeks, so we need to make some decisions on what we want to do. I had dreams of a really cool bathroom, but the price tags have brought me back to the reality that we really just need it to function.

We are getting ready to sign the kids up for softball and tee-ball. And swim lessons. But that is all! Last spring, we had t-ball, dance, swim lessons, soccer, and tae-kwon-do. We were busy every night of the week. The spring before, we had t-ball, soccer, swim lessons and a new baby born in the middle of everything. (I cannot imagine what things will be like when the kids are older and all 4 will be in activities.) For some reason, we always over do it and really run ourselves around like crazy. So this year we are just letting them do 2 things each.

Well, the point of this is that it should make the waiting time for the referral time of our little guy and then the wait to travel go alittle quicker. I hope.
Bye. :)

E-mail assault

Well it is possible some of you woke this morning to about 100 e-mails from us. (Actually it was not that many but it WILL seem like it) Jen wrote a brief e-mail to everyone we had in our address book mentioning this blog. When she went to send it she started getting multiple error messages. After a little digging she found the bad address and resent the message. In the meantime the e-mail kept trying to mail itself, hence the multiple copies you are seeing in your Inbox. Sorry about that. The moral of the story is that we need to look through out address book again and make sure there are any other problems before we try that again. Oh and if you are reading this and saying to yourself, "Hey we didn't get 1,000,000 e-mail messages from the Krob's this morning." That means we might not have your address or the one we have is old. Please send a comment below with your name, e-mail address and bank account numbers and we will update our list. Dehna hunu.

Article from eMediaWire

Adoption Agency Sees Surge in Applications for Ethiopia Program

Children's Home Society & Family Services celebrates 200th child from Ethiopia placed with an adoptive family in 2006.

Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN (PRWEB) December 23, 2006 -- On Saturday, December 23, 2006, a couple from Burnsville, Minnesota, will arrive home from Ethiopia with their adoptive daughter, marking the 200th adoption placement from that country in 2006 through St. Paul-based Children's Home Society & Family Services (CHSFS). This is the family's second adoption from Ethiopia.

CHSFS' Ethiopia adoption program started in April 2004 and since then, 345 children have found stability and permanency through adoption and is the fastest growing adoption program in the 117 year history of Children's Home Society & Family Services.

CHSFS receives at least one adoption application each day from parents hoping to adopt from Ethiopia and averages 16 children placed into families each month. CHSFS is one of only a handful of US-based adoption agencies authorized by Ethiopia to provide adoption services and works with families across the country.

Some reasons for the increase in interest for adopting from Ethiopia are:

• The need is great. For years the media has shown images of the plight of children in Africa suffering from the effects of famine, disease, war and extreme poverty. Adoption provides a meaningful way to reach out to a child in need. There an estimated four million orphans in Ethiopia.

• The process is efficient. Once an adoption application has been approved, it only takes two to six months to get a referral from the country, a timeframe that is considerably shorter than other adoption programs. Also, the Ethiopian government has created an environment that is well-equipped to facilitate international adoptions.

• The cost is affordable compared to adopting from other international and domestic infant adoption programs.

Anyone interested in learning more about adopting from Ethiopia is encouraged to contact Children's Home Society & Family Services at 800-952-9302 or email.

About Children's Home Society & Family Services: Since 1889, Children's Home Society & Family Services (CHSFS) has met the needs of children and families through our adoption, child abuse and neglect prevention, early childhood education, and comprehensive family services. As a statewide non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, CHSFS is committed to help children thrive and to build, strengthen and sustain individual, family and community life. For more information please log on to www.chsfs.org or call 651-646-7771.

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/12/emw493606.htm

Small World

Can you believe it is 2007??? When I really think about it, I just can't. I mean what happened to the 90's for goodness sakes? And now it is well over half way through this decade (I knew know what to call it). Time really does fly when you are having fun.

We (the very exciting couple that we are) rung in the New Year on the couch flipping between old Twilight Zone episodes and the various New Year celebrations. Had some mixed drinks and champagne and actually made it up to nearly 1:00AM. Earlier in the evening, we had cheese fondue and buffalo burgers and then chocolate fondue for dessert. The kids had sparkling cider in wine glasses and just thought that was the greatest. We played Battleship and had lots of family fun. I was in a super excellent mood because the work-work that I had thought might take all weekend was done by 2:00 on Saturday (after starting at 6:00AM).

We spent today trying to figure out where all the new games, toys, and other gifts from Christmas would fit. We have Katie and Jack's room very organized - hopefully it can stay that way for awhile! Annalise's room is all done, too. We will have to do some re-arranging in her room when our son comes home - but that will be several months.

Anyway, I had not intended to use this blog to bore you all will the daily tasks of our lives. I do have to post a really interesting little story.
The week before Christmas, Gary and I and the kiddos delivered little goodie bags to the neighbors on our cul-de-sac. We included a Christmas card and note to say hello and give the news of our adoption. The next day on the blog, we had 2 comments. It just so happens that our very next door neighbors, Brian and Stephanie, have a family member who is adopting from Ethiopia as well. What in heavens is the chance of that? And it sounds like Amy, who is Brian's sister, and her husband Josh are pretty close to being in the same parts of the process. That is really amazing and so exciting.
Part of the reason I think it is exciting is because it shows how adoptions and specifically Ethiopian adoptions are growing. I cannot remember the exact numbers/details, but Children's Home started doing Ethiopian adoptions in 2004 with less than 50 adoptions. In 2006, they placed more than 200 children. Children's Home adopts from about 10 international countries, and said that the Ethiopian numbers could be close to overtaking China in the next few years. Wow!

Off topic - Packers vs Vikings

"It was a damp, slightly cool evening at Lambeau Field when the Packers took the field..."

I was going to write a little bit about the football game, Jen says I can post something about it but only if I somehow include our adoption into the conversation. As it turns out we mailed our dossier to the agency yesterday so now we are officially waiting. After a hectic and fun holiday with all of our families, we are exhausted and need another vacation just to catch our breath. Getting the dossier in is a nice way to end 2006, waiting for our referral is going to be a nice way to start 2007. Now on to the game. The final score unfortunately tells most of the story. Not the prettiest game, but for my first trip to Green Bay to see one, a win is a win. Also any season when we beat Minnesota twice is a good one. We hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve. Jen's working all weekend so for us if we make it to midnight it will be just the two of us. Could be a lot worse ways to start the new year. Peace.