Bringing Macy Home: Three months waiting!

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.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Three months waiting!

Today is our 3 month mark on the waiting list! (Hence Hannah and the 3 fingers!) And we got some awesome news yesterday! Our case worker at WACAP emailed me telling us that we have quickly moved up the waiting list. As of now there are only TEN families ahead of us requesting a toddler over 12 months! We are #25 on the "big list" that includes newborns, but for toddlers we are headed to the top of the list! Just for perspective, when we got on the waiting list 3 months ago we were #47 - so we have moved up rather quickly! This news was a big surprise to us - and we are just thrilled! We have been telling people that we should receive our referral by November, and it looks like it could be much sooner than that. We will see!

This weekend is our MOTHER OF ALL YARD SALES!!! You would NOT believe how much stuff we have for this sale. My helpers and I have been pricing for the past 5 days, and we STILL have more to do. We have a 3 car garage full AND a 2 car garage full of great stuff people have donated for us to sell. Dozens of families have donated, and we have furniture, toys, clothes, skis, antiques, collectibles, sporting goods, tools, electronics, TONS of movies and books - you name it, we've got it! All priced for dirt cheap! The sale will take place this Friday and Saturday (April 23rd and 24th) from 8am to Noon. It will be at my mom's house at 110 Strathmore Court in Hendersonville (in Riverchase Subdivision near Jack Anderson Elementary). We'll have lots of brightly colored signs for you to follow. We are also having a bake sale. Come after 11:00 on Saturday, and you can fill a Kroger shopping bag for $10! (If there is anything left!) The weather looks fine on Friday, but in case of rain on Saturday morning we will have it again next Saturday. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS SALE! It is all priced to sell quickly because I am NEVER going to have another yard sale again. Never. Never.

Hope to see you on Friday or Saturday morning!
Happy Wednesday!
Amanda