Ethiopia...Here We Come!: December 2009

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It's almost 2010! In 2010, Gladney tells us we can expect the following once we receive our CIS approval (a.k.a. "The Golden Ticket") for our second adoption: The average wait time for a referral for an infant up to 12 months is 7.2 months. The average wait time for a court date from acceptance of referral is 2 to 5 months. The average wait time from successful court date until travel is 2 to 6 weeks. We hope our 2010 is...average!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Almost Done!

We've received word that our final home study should be submitted to Gladney by Monday. Once that's done, there's just one more form to be completed, and then we get some forms notarized on our end and send it back. This completes our dossier! The dossier then goes to Washington D.C. for translation and on over to Ethiopia. We're getting closer!

Facts About Ethiopia

Ethiopia's official name is Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. It's capital is Addis Ababa. Ethiopia covers 437,600 sq miles, roughly 5 times the size of the U.K..
The total population of Ethiopia is approx 76,500,000. Approx 2,500,000 people live in Ethiopia's largest city, Addis Ababa.
The local currency is the Ethiopia Birr, made up of 100 cents. The official language of Ethiopia is Amharic.
There is one physician per 34,988 people, and one hospital bed per 4,141 people.
Per 1,000 people there are 200 radios, 9 telephones, 6 televisions, 2 motor vehicles, and 0.01 internet hosts per 10,000 people.
In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports.
Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals).
The story of coffee has its beginnings in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant still grows wild in the forest of the highlands. Ethiopian coffee has earned itself a reputation as one of the finest, most flavorful coffees in the world. The Ethiopian coffee ceremony takes roughly 30 minutes to prepare and consists of each guest drinking a minimum of 3 cups of coffee.
Coffee is critical to the Ethiopian economy (Ethiopia’s only major export). Unfortunately, coffee prices fell 40-60% from 1998-2002.
Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa