Why Ethiopia?

So, how did we settle on Ethiopia for this adoption?

First, we considered what countries, or areas, we had an interest in. I had an interest in Eastern Europe, probably based on the horror stories I had heard years ago about Romanian orphanages. Jamie has long had a heart for Africa. Next, we started looking into what countries in these regions allow adoptions to the U.S. Not all do. We considered Malawi, since our church has an ongoing ministry focus there. However, Malawi, as of the writing of this post anyway, requires two years residency in country in order to adopt. Cross that one off. We looked at Romania, but it is currently closed to U.S. adoptions.

So, as we prayed about which country to choose, God began to move my heart toward Africa. Certainly, there is much need there. AIDS and war have orphaned many children. So has poverty. Perhaps my main reason for not wanting to adopt from Africa was that the child would not look like us. My heart began to change quite dramatically on this point over a period of weeks. If our lives are to glorify God, and the Gilchrists want their adoption to do so, what better way than to have a child that will bring questions? Africa it is.

Next, we started looking at Christian adoption agencies that work with African countries. It turns out there are only a few African countries that are currently working with the U.S. for general adoptions. Ethiopia was the primary one; Liberia was open as well. There were far more agencies that worked with Ethiopia than Liberia, so we started leaning that way.

Then we had to check out the requirements as set forth by the Ethiopian government for international adoptions. Fortunately, Ethiopia has less restrictive requirements for prospective adoptive parents than some other countries. Requirements vary by country, and may include such things as minimum age for both parents, no small children in the home, no more than one child in the home, maximum age difference for mom and dad, maximum age for either parent, stays of 6 weeks or more in country at time of adoption, minimum income, minimum education, can't adopt a child younger than age two, can't specify gender of child to adopt, must have blood ties to country, and the list goes on. For Ethiopia, we met all the requirements!

We sent out requests for information from quite a few Christian adoption agencies, and chose Christian World Adoption. They have placed a lot of children from Ethiopia, and simply put, they were great at answering all of our many questions, even before we signed with them! All of our correspondence with them has been excellent. We have seen God's blessing in this choice.

One step closer!

After weeks of dreading, as well as much organizing and cleaning, we finally had our home inspection and personal interviews, and we passed! The social worker and her understudy were both nice and the visit was quick! I think we really did not know what to expect from the interviews or home inspection, so we tried to cover all the bases, organizing closets and cupboards, even going so far as to clean behind furniture. I think we went above and beyond the call of duty, but we passed the homestudy and are all done with home visits until after we bring our sweet baby girl home!

Why are we pursuing international adoption?

First blog post ever.... drum roll please....

We've had a number of people ask us about how we decided to adopt internationally, so here are some thoughts along that line...

Both Jamie and I had an interest in orphanage ministry when we were young... um... well... when I was young anyway. I don't know that either of us ever thought that our interest would lead to anything in particular, but I suppose now it has in a way. God seems to have awakened that heart in each of us again, and we are working toward that end, albeit not exactly George Mueller style. Three things happened last year to move us to the place of pursuing international adoption.

One - I was studying through a great little book by John Piper, entitled "Don't Waste Your Life", and desire for something more than standard temporal pursuits began to gnaw at me again. The reminder that "Life is Short, Eternity is Long - Live Like It!" began to grow and bear fruit in my heart. If our lives are to count, we had better be about the things that God is about. As Jamie and I talked and prayed about this, we grew more and more confident that God is not so interested in "stuff", but in people.

Two - Jamie's pregnancy with Lana was a very difficult one, with 9 months of daily hugging the porcelain throne, a few trips to the hospital, loss of weight, lots of medicine, etc. By the end of that pregnancy, Jamie and I agreed that her body needed a break - not permanently necessarily, but for a few years at least. But, we were still interested in having more kids in the near term. This consideration sparked the adoption conversation anew. We had considered it before as a way to love a needy child, but we hadn't been thinking of doing anything along that line until later in our marriage.

Three - Some friends of ours were in the process of adopting two special needs kids from the Ukraine (see their blog at the Finding Zoe link in the sidebar). We followed their exploits with interest, and suddenly it dawned on us... you know, we could do that! We hadn't considered international adoption until that point. There is a HUGE need in some countries, and the desire to demonstrate the good heart of our good God by giving of our resources to one (or hopefully more later) truly needy child from overseas loomed ever larger in our hearts and minds.

At this point, the proverbial ball began to roll...

Anyway, lots more to be said, but it will have to wait for another post. We appreciate your prayers as you think about us.