#6

New Official number on the waiting list! This is our number for May. We pray that things start moving even faster, especially since I am out of school for the summer and now have many hours to sit and feel anxious about the wait! This number does not take into account the people who were in the process of getting their referral paperwork in when the numbers went out. Yes, I said paperwork; every step of the way there is more paperwork. I pray that we don't get our referral while we are out of town, because you want to get your paperwork done immediately so that you can get your travel dates ASAP. Lord, give me patience and quickly! :) But, seriously please pray for our referral to come sooner than later, so that we can get that baby home and have lots of time with her before the school year starts again.


Also, yesterday was Tony's "forever" day. We celebrate the day that he was "officially" ours; forever. We had a picnic and cupcakes, and Tony swam in the lake by himself. That was quite an accomplishment for him. He has come so far! I am so excited about the growth that he has made. I am so thankful that God has given us the same opportunity. The chance to be His forever, with unconditional Love that we can never be separated from. How wide and deep is His love for us all. I pray that we can all love our children the way that the Father loves us, and those days that we fall short, we can accept God's mercy and start afresh.

I thought that I would put up some statistics about the country of Ethiopia, since people have asked why we chose that particular country to adopt from. These facts had an influence in our decision; go where the need is greatest. The following statistics give you a brief overview of the need there.

There is an estimated 4 million orphans in Ethiopia......

 1 in 10 children die before their first birthday
 1 in 6 children die before age 5
 Over 50% of children are stunted
 Malnutrition is the underlying cause of more than half of all child deaths
 Although accurate statistics are hard to come by, it is estimated that approximately 4.4% of the population in Ethiopia is infected with AIDS (CIA World Factbook) and that there are approximately 1 million AIDS orphans
 Only 50% of children attend primary school (K-3)
 Average class size in government schools – 85-100 children
 Overall literacy rate is 42%, with many more girls and women illiterate than men
 Unlawful kidnapping and forced seizure of young girls for marriage is common in certain parts of Ethiopia, especially in the SNNPR (13%) and Oromia (11% )
 1 in 4 women dies in childbirth or from a pregnancy-related illness