Why Ethiopia?

Through this process we are often asked, "Why Ethiopia?"

Initially Nikki and I wanted to adopt from Sudan. The intense war going on, and horrific violence is heartbreaking and has produced over a million refugees. We wanted to try and save a child from this disaster. Some U.N. reports suggests that as a result of the war, 500,000 children are orphaned!!!!! 500,000!! Can you fathom this? Unfortunately, Sudan is not allowing any adoptions because they are in the middle of a civil war. So we began to hear that the estimated 1.2 MILLION refugees from the civil war were fleeing to neighboring countries such as Ethiopia. Hence, we began praying toward adopting from Ethiopia.
We chose to adopt from Ethiopia for several reasons. First, we wanted to adopt a child from an area of the world in which the child would be unlikely to be raised in a Christian home or perhaps even hear the gospel. We are praying that God would use us as a means of grace to communicate and display the gospel for this child in hope that God will open the child's eyes to see and cherish Christ. Second, we wanted to adopt from a country or region of extreme poverty so that we may share what blessings the Lord has given us and meet the physical needs of the child. It breaks our heart that so many children suffer from neglect, lack proper medical care and die of starvation. We want to put and end to that for a child and meet their physical needs as best we can. Third and not least, we chose Ethiopia because the Lord led us to choose Ethiopia through many prayerful nights.