Dear Maya, You are Loved

Why Ethiopia?

*Life expectancy in Ethiopia 39 years for males and 42 years for females. The leading cause of death is communicable diseases such as malaria, typhoid, meningitis, cholera, AIDS, tuberculosis, yellow fever.
* One in ten children die before their first birthday
* One in six children die before their fifth birthday
* Woman have an average of 7 children and the maternal mortality rate is 1 in 14
* Ethiopia's neonatal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world - 49/1000 births with tetanus infection being the second major cause of infant/neonatal death.
* Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Over half the population lives on less than a $1 a day. The average income in Ethiopia is US$100 a year. Almost 82% of the population lives on less than $1 a day.
* Malnutrition levels are among the highest in the world.
* Ethiopia is home to 4-6 million orphans, or 12% of all children.
* That is the same number of children under age 18 who reside in Massachusetts, New York State, and Washington DC combined. If every parent in those places died tonight - that would be similar to Ethiopia's orphan crisis.
* More than half a million of these were orphaned as a result of AIDS.
* Only 42.7% age 15 and over can read and write.
* Only 18 percent of children reach grade five. That means 82% of children don't.
*44% of the population is under 15 years old
*60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
*Ethiopia's doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000
*Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
*Coffee prices (Ethiopia's only major export) declined 40-60%from 1998-2002
*Severe drought struck the country from 2000-2002
first year no crops
second year no seeds
third year no animals
* Ethiopia is experiencing yet another drought now.

Our Adoption Timeline

May 14, 2010 - Applied for the Ethiopia Program with America World Adoption Association

June 3 - Get a phone call from AWAA. We've been accepted into the program!!

June 5 - Sent in our first set of paperwork. Wait to be given a family coordinator

June 9 - We have a family coordinator. She emailed us a ton of paperwork to start collecting.

June 17 - We go to the doctor to have our physicals

June 28 - Home Study Visit #1

July 2 - Completed 8 hours of online Hague training

July 18 - Home Study Visit #2

August 3 - Home Study Visit #3

September 23 - Received draft of the Home Study Report to look over

September 30 - Received our official Home Study Report. FINALLY.

October 1 - Mailed off our I600-A (Application for advance processing of orphan petition) to USCIS (US Citizen and Immigration Services)

October 15 - Received a letter with the date/time for our fingerprinting apointment

October 26 - Fingerprinting appointment at the Department of Homeland Security

November 10 - Received our I171

November 11 - Mailed our dossier to AWAA

November 19 - We are DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia). Our wait time officially begins.

May 19, 2011 - We have been on the wait-list for 6 months and are unofficially #20 in line for an infant girl referral.