We Made the List

We had a nice four-day round of festivities with family for Christmas. It was so nice to see all of our family (my brother was home!) and spend time just hanging out.

For those of you who missed the news, we're officially "on the list" (aka. waiting for a referral). This is so exciting for us because it means we're getting closer to finding out who our baby is, and picking him/her/them up! Another 4-6 months and we'll receive our baby's information and photo. Right now the agency is estimating another 12 weeks before we can travel from the time we get the referral information, but we're hoping that time decreases as the courts catch up...hoping. Our friends just got home this week from picking up their 6 month old baby boy at the care center. He's a doll and further fuels our fire.

Today the NY Times has an article about malnutrition in children in Ethiopia. I don't include this here to perpetuate the stereotype that all Africans are all living with AIDS and are starving. Instead I include this to help us all better understand some of the incredible challenges that many children are facing when they don't get a fair shake at life based upon lack of food in their early years. I think that as Westerners, it's hard to comprehend these realities...and even harder sometimes to figure out what (if anything) we can do from half a world away. I don't want to plug WV, just because I work there, but I know firsthand that sponsoring a child can help make the world a much smaller place and can allow us to make a huge difference in a family's life, a community's life, and our own.

These problems are not insurmountable. Where there's a will, there's a way.

In case the link doesn't work (or you want the Cliff Notes), here's an excerpt from the article:
Yet almost half of Ethiopia’s children are malnourished, and most do not die. Some suffer a different fate. Robbed of vital nutrients as children, they grow up stunted and sickly, weaklings in a land that still runs on manual labor. Some become intellectually stunted adults, shorn of as many as 15 I.Q. points, unable to learn or even to concentrate, inclined to drop out of school early...Bleak as that may sound, the outlook for malnourished children in sub-Saharan Africa is better than in decades, thanks to an awakening to the issue — by selected governments, anyway...Ethiopia may, in fact, have the most comprehensive program in all Africa — a joint venture with United Nations agencies that regularly screens nearly half of its 14 million children under 5 for health and nutrition problems. Since 2004, the program has delivered vitamin A doses and deworming medicine to 9 in 10 youngsters, vaccinated millions against childhood diseases and delivered fortified food and nutrition education.