Ethiopia Adoption

The Ethiopian adoption program is more popular than ever.  Over the past ten years or so, adoptions have gone along without huge problems and the program is considered a stable one.   This has attracted many adoption agencies to Ethiopia and in the last year or so the system in Ethiopia has been bogged down.  What used to take 6 months now can take 12.  Prospective parents who assumed they would be able to adopt a child in a little over a year are now waiting much longer. Earlier this year, court cases were suspended for abandoned children for an investigation.  There has also been a change in public perspective in Ethiopia about adoptions and traveling parents are having to stay at guest houses… [more]

Traveling to visit or pick up your child from Ethiopia can be a very busy time for families.  Now is a good time start learning about cholera, however, as you don't want to get sick while your meeting your new kiddo(s).  There has been a recent outbreak all over Ethiopia, including Addis Ababa.

According to the American Centers of Disease Control and Prevention:

Cholera is an acute, diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but sometimes it can be severe. Approximately one in 20 infected persons has severe disease… [more]

When looking at our checklist of things to put in our dossier the Letter to Ethiopia was one of the items I didn't think much about at first.  In my mind it was one of the easier items to complete.  When sitting down to write it, however, I started to panic.  I couldn't help but think that one wrong word, one poorly written sentence and Boom the adoption is stopped.  This gives you a look into my frazzled dossier-driven mind.  My agency actually sent a sample letter and it read so simply that I was sure it wasn't enough.  This is when I had to trust my research and my agency.  I did write a letter similar to the sample one… [more]

As I have mentioned in posts pasts, I am not a great cook. I do, however, try to make Ethiopian food occationally. I was excited to find berbere at a reasonable price in small amounts a few months back. I have used in in Ethiopian food and whenever another recipe calls for a spicy pepper. I have done this for MONTHS. I have told the kids everytime I used it for MONTHS. Tonight I make a chicken in a crock pot and used berbere to spice it up a bit. I mentioned this to the family and Mita and Enu went crazy. "You have berbere!" "I want some, I want more!" They rolled corn on the cob over it, dipped chicken in it and Mita… [more]

When traveling to any country it is common courtesy to learn some of the language. Hello, thank you, where is the bath room are all good things to know. I have to admit that when traveling to Ethiopia I did not take much time with learning these words. Hubby had learned a few and I was on a high stress level that made learning a bit difficult. Happily, I picked up on a few words quickly and felt like I was showing some respect. My accent of course was horrible, but accents aren't my thing. My spanish accent is pitiful and a bit red-neck to be truthful! Here are a few words and phrases that you can easily learn and put… [more]

It is that time of year again! Yes, it is back to school for most, but Ethiopian families know that September means New Years! September 11th to be exact. Yes, that is a strange day to be celebrating in the U.S. I am aware, but it falls where it falls. When the rest of the country doesn't follow the same holiday calendar you do, you have to be flexible! Enkutatash, meaning gift of jewels, is Ethiopian New Years Day. A great way to celebrate your families connection to Ethiopia and to share with friends and extended family. Last year I ordered Ethiopian food and had a nice dinner with all the tradition dress that I had. This year it falls… [more]

Ethiopia is made up of several ecosystems. I will not try and disect them because I found a site that does such a beautiful job doing just that and doing it very scientific I might add! The actual breakdown: Major Wetland: 1 % Desert and Semi-desert: 2 % Grass and Shrub: 41 % Crop and Settlements: 4 % Interrupted Woods: 32 % Major Forests: 20 % (Groombridge 1992) So what exactly is happening in Ethiopia's ethiopia-s-animals-ecosystems-and-what-i-2? Is it climate change, human impact, natural causes or a cyclical occurance. Personally, I think it is a bit of all of those things. Again, I think the best way to help Ethiopia is by education. Education to the locals in Ethiopia could… [more]

Upon some light reading this week about the Ethiopian Government using wasps' to kill aphids that are killing trees, I thought I should learn more about Ethiopia's natural resources. I will pass on the "Cliff Notes" of what I have learned to you and discuss animals and the ecosystems of Ethiopia in my next few posts. As parents of Ethiopians I know we want to learn all we can about the country, but we also have real time constraints on us as well! When we traveled in the Awash region of Ethiopia, we noticed that the tour guide and guidebooks tended to concentrate on small animals and birds as the big game had not been seen in the region for a while… [more]

We love books at our house. They are everywhere in fact. Some may call it clutter, but I like the books everywhere. It means the kids are using them! Two new books I want to share are Fire on the Mountain by Jane Kurtz and Silly Mammo: An Ethiopian Tale by Kily Mammo. Fire on the Mountain is one of the first books we checked out from the library after deciding to adopt from Ethiopia. I finally broke down and bought it last weekend at the culture camp I have been going on and on about! This book is written by Jane Kurtz. For those of you new to Ethiopian adoption, Jane Kurtz has many books out that are Ethiopian related. She grew… [more]