Adoption FAQ #2: Why Ethiopia?

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Ah, this is a fun story....

When we submitted ourselves to God's call to adopt, our next question was "Where, Lord? There are so many orphans. How can we possibly pick a country?" We asked Him to show us--close every door, except the one we're supposed to go through. He did.

If I've ever had a "flashing billboard sign" experience, this was it. Ethiopia was everywhere I looked--conversations with friends, random blog posts I would stumble upon, the news....EVERYWHERE!  The night before we had a meeting at Bethany Christian Services, I told Ray I had a feeling it was Ethiopia.

When we first sat down to talk to the adoption coordinator she used Ethiopia as an example...I got goosebumps and nudged Ray.  She even showed us a picture of a little boy that had just come home from Ethiopia. My heart melted.

Through the course of our meeting, we looked over every inch of a spreadsheet with adoption requirements for countries. I made notes by each country and even marked a few that we didn't qualify for completely off the list...Some countries were closed to new applicants. A few required very long travel (2 months long!) and just wouldn't work for us. Others only had very severe special needs that we just aren't ready for at this time.

At the end of our meeting, the only country that didn't have a note or line through it was Ethiopia. We knew and our hearts fell in love with Ethiopia.

Since then, God has been confirming it over and over to us. Ethiopia is still everywhere I look!

I also found this video and I couldn't pretend I didn't know....

Proverbs 24:12

If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?

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