Why Ethiopia?

S0 why Ethiopia? After choosing to adopt internationally, some pragmatics came into play:

1. Cost. Adoptions to Eastern Europe, Russia, China, and others can run anywhere from $40,000-$60,000. Adoptions from Africa generally run from $20,000-$30,000. If we were millionaires, hey, we'd go anywhere. But we're not, and have limited means of fundraising. So we decided to look into African adoptions.

2. Agency. We felt very strongly led to America World Adoption Association. It is a Christian agency that believes very strongly in placing orphans in families where they will have both earthly parents and will learn of their Heavenly Father. That resonated strongly with us. The African countries AWAA works with are Rwanda and Ethiopia. (For those who know Bob and Sarah O., this is the agency they used for all three of their adoptions).

3. Travel. Most countries require two or more trips to the country, with total time in country lasting from 3-6 weeks. With having three kids already, that just isn't feasible for us. African adoptions take generally just a week in country. Now that we can do!

Obviously, the Holy Spirit led us in all of these areas. As I've mentioned before, we took the longest to decide between Rwanda and Ethiopia. And when it came down to it, we went where we felt at peace with our decision!