Last night our church hosted a fundraising dinner for our adoption! It was so sweet to see so many come out to support our adoption. A BIG thanks to Faye for making the event happen and for a wonderful meal.
I made caramel corn for each person to take home as a favor. We also printed up cards with adoption prayer requests and Ethiopian statistics. Here are the statics we shared:
Total population: 77 million
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.
The average life expectancy is 43 years.
Ethiopia is home to 4 million orphans, or 12% of all children. More than half a million of these were orphaned as a result of AIDS.
Literacy rate: 42.7% age 15 and over can read and write.
Only 18 percent of children reach grade five.
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.
Statistics are from the CIA, Save the children, WHO and UNICEF websites
Adoption timeline
Our Family Coordinator and I were able to touch base this week. She was able to clear up our questions that resulted from the conference call. The only restriction we fall under is our Ethiopian child most be 2 years younger than Igor. Duni encouraged us to think outside our age range of 22-48 months since there are fewer children in this age range. She stated the wait is longer for a toddler than an infant. The toddler wait is 7-9 months. Rob and I agree that we will stay with a toddler request for now. We are entering our 6th month of waiting so we have more waiting to do!
Bear & the boy's room
Igor and I found this adorable bear for $2.50. (I LOVE a great sale.) We thought it would be a perfect stuffed animal to send to BOC (Igor's name for his brother) when we receive his referral. We are taking turns sleeping with bear so it will smell like us.
Bear is sitting on the new bedspread purchased for Igor and BOC's bunk beds. Igor did some paintings to help tie the colors of his dresser, walls, curtains and bedspreads together. I need to touch up the wall paint in the boy's room and we'll be done!
Nana and Babushka requested paintings. Babushka's painting (left) is simple and bright. Nana's painting (right) is deep and moody.
3 comments:
I think it's wonderful that your church is so supportive of your adoption! I think many of my church are still unsure of our adoption and tend to avoid asking us about it (let alone giving a donation).
I love Igor's painting!
Heather
www.russianblessings.wordpress.com
-I'm so glad you were able to talk to Duni! I'm still hoping your referral will come in really soon. :)
-Glad to hear the fundraiser went well.
-We have a teddy bear for our little one too. Your's is so cute!
-Good job on the paintings, Igor! :)
Tisha
So glad to hear you were able to talk with duni! wonderful news from the church dinner and great painting Igor! Blessings, Jori
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