Bringing Macy Home: FUN Fundraising!!!

Why Ethiopia?

• One in six children die before their fifth birthday
• 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old
• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
• The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years
• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone, and there are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia.
• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
• In the 90s the population (3%) grew faster than food production (2.2%)
• Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)
• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school.
• Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002.
• Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000.
• In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

FUN Fundraising!!!

I have been amazed at how many emails I have gotten requesting photo shoots! This is something I LOVE to do, and am so glad it is coming in handy for our adoption! I wanted to share a few of the portraits I have taken so far. A HUGE thank you to the Stacy, Cornett, and Brown families for letting me photograph your sweet families. And if YOU would like some portraits done of your family, PLEASE let me know! I have some wonderful outdoor locations around town that I frequent. And the leaves are finally changing! Think fall portraits and even Christmas cards! For an $80 donation you will get the images on cds and all rights to them. Which means you can have them enlarged, cards printed, etc. ALL of your donation goes straight to our adoption fund. Give me a call at 615-264-8330!
Quick update: We pretty much have our paperwork done! Now we are just waiting on other people - our homestudy agency (for our report), the government for certain forms, etc. In our recent "down time" we have been thinking about a name. This is something that Jason and I always do pretty easily - we actually enjoy going through lists and lists of names! And we have decided what to name our sweet baby girl....drumroll please.....MACY! (Yes, like the department store. But that is not why we like the name!) We will most probably keep her given, Ethiopian name as her middle name. (If we can pronounce it, Jason says!) Now that we can refer to our next child by her name, it makes it even more real! I can't wait to eventually get our referral picture and see the sweet face that we have been praying for every night. Aidan and Hannah are already talking about her. Hannah, in her funny little voice, says, "Me wuv Macy". This Momma is so happy!