I just read these statistics over at takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.com It's unimaginable.
"According to United Nations Human Development, United Nations International Children’s Emergency and Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey, today there are an estimated 5 million orphaned and vulnerable children in Ethiopia; 800,000 of them are AIDS orphans. The country’s cities and villages are overwhelmed; Addis Ababa alone has more than 100,000 orphans. The system is overtaxed, and sadly, new orphanages are not the answer."
Today's post there also says, "Men create orphanages for children, but God created children for families."
Saturday, May 29, 2010
A Friday afternoon in the park
We went to "Forest Park" to enjoy an afternoon with friends. It is almost 10,000 acres of nice places to walk, sit, and enjoy some fresh air. We'll be going back soon I'm sure.
Monday, May 24, 2010
We think it's good news...
So, the California Department of Justice mailed our completed background checks back to us... without taking issue that the fingerprints were opened (by them). We are so thankful for that, and especially that we don't have to waste time redoing anything!
The only strange thing is that one of ours is signed by an official, and one is not signed, just a typed in name at the end of the letter. We aren't sure if they just forgot to sign it, or if it doesn't need signed. ?? We'll send it to our adoption agency and see what happens!
Thanks for supporting us along this journey! We'll continue to let you know what we find out.
The only strange thing is that one of ours is signed by an official, and one is not signed, just a typed in name at the end of the letter. We aren't sure if they just forgot to sign it, or if it doesn't need signed. ?? We'll send it to our adoption agency and see what happens!
Thanks for supporting us along this journey! We'll continue to let you know what we find out.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Lest you entertain the slightest idea that the girls may be suffering here....
Emily obviously loves her bed above all beds. The wall decals are vinyl stickers that both grandmas have sent to decorate her room with. Super fun!
Ox's foot muscle
We can count on one hand the number of times we've eaten ground beef in the year we've lived here. It is only sold at one location, and not prepackaged. So I was looking at the "deli fresh" area of THE supermarket and thought it looked okay that day. After the 5 workers helping me confirmed that it was ground beef, I got 2 kilos. The meat was weighed and slapped with a pricing sticker that said in English "Ox's foot muscle". At least they're honest about what they ground up?? Which actually leaves me wondering if ground beef in the US has feet muscles in it?
With a lot of doctoring, the hamburgers tasted great!
With a lot of doctoring, the hamburgers tasted great!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Cross your proverbial fingers
In one small piece of paperwork that we are waiting on to complete our dossier for Ethiopia, there's a snag.
It's in the mail now, and we want to ask you to pray that it gets processed correctly.
A few weeks ago, we sent our offically done (and officially sealed) fingerprints to the CA Dept of Justice to process our background checks. They opened the official seal, but then returned them to us saying we needed to include the embassy's address. The background check results were to be sent to our adoption agency, so we don't know why they wanted that.
Our adoption agency called the CA DOJ, and asked what they wanted exactly. They said they wanted the address of the Ethiopian embassy in Ethiopia. This is impossible of course (as countries do not have an embassy on their own soil). After our adoption agency convinced them that this makes no sense, we are mailing the fingerprints back to them.
Now, the deal is.... we wonder if they will not accept the fingerprints (since they themselves opened the seal). We won't know til the mail arrives in a few days. Please lift up this situation with us. If they won't accept the fingerprints without being in an officially sealed un-tampered with envelope, we will have to buy plane tickets for the family and go try to do our fingerprints again.... only to be unsure of whether the same thing may happen again (if opened by a different CADOJ worker).
Who would've thought California would give us more trouble than foreign governments!
It's in the mail now, and we want to ask you to pray that it gets processed correctly.
A few weeks ago, we sent our offically done (and officially sealed) fingerprints to the CA Dept of Justice to process our background checks. They opened the official seal, but then returned them to us saying we needed to include the embassy's address. The background check results were to be sent to our adoption agency, so we don't know why they wanted that.
Our adoption agency called the CA DOJ, and asked what they wanted exactly. They said they wanted the address of the Ethiopian embassy in Ethiopia. This is impossible of course (as countries do not have an embassy on their own soil). After our adoption agency convinced them that this makes no sense, we are mailing the fingerprints back to them.
Now, the deal is.... we wonder if they will not accept the fingerprints (since they themselves opened the seal). We won't know til the mail arrives in a few days. Please lift up this situation with us. If they won't accept the fingerprints without being in an officially sealed un-tampered with envelope, we will have to buy plane tickets for the family and go try to do our fingerprints again.... only to be unsure of whether the same thing may happen again (if opened by a different CADOJ worker).
Who would've thought California would give us more trouble than foreign governments!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Happy times before the colds
Well the girls had a nice weekend and were in good moods. But they don't look this happy now since their colds returned! Only 3 weeks of healthy children before they got another cold! Oh well, colds can't last forever, can they?
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Spring has sprung
This large park is only about 10 kilometers from our home. It has a stream, reservoir, small hills, places to BBQ, to fish, etc. And it is very uncrowded.... which is a novelty.
There's a picture below of us enjoying a BBQ there with friends. (Aubrey's first BBQ.) Our friends brought a whole container of just chicken skins to throw on the grill and then devour. :) Pigs feet, chicken's feet, cabbage and tofu were also on the BBQ menu.
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