Another family at PCC recently started their adoption journey and shared their letter. With their permission, I am posting it. I think it is great example how to educate family and friends on the front end.
Friends and Family,
On July 14th we officially submitted our application to Holt International to begin the adoption process! We will be adopting an infant girl (typically around 6-8 months old) from the country of Ethiopia in Africa. We couldn’t be more excited, but Ashley and I wanted to write to let everyone know of our intentions and also answer many questions that you
may have.
Why Adoption, and Why Now?
Ashley and I have known that orphan ministry was going to be a big part of our life for many years. I felt this call very strongly while on a mission trip in the Czech Republic during my time at Taylor University. During the mission trip we spent a month visiting orphanages, trying to show these children love that they desperately needed and deserved. Ashley and I have continued in this passion over the years through supporting a child with Compassion International as well as helping with the orphan ministry within our church, called Truevine.
Our plan was to have several children the more traditional way and then proceed with international adoption. Many of you know that Ashley has been diagnosed with chronic headaches in the last couple of years - forcing her to be on some medications that she couldn’t take if she were pregnant. Could she still go through a pregnancy and simply be in pain for nine months? Yes. As her husband, I know without a shadow of a doubt she is “tough” enough. The question that has really challenged us recently is - Are we fighting God’s plan for our family?
Over the past several months, Ashley and I have been asking God to break our hearts for the things that break His, to challenge us to step away from the ordinary and to open our hearts, hands and abundance to God’s calling for our growing family. Through this process our eyes were opened and our hearts broken for the millions of orphans worldwide. As we researched and prayed, we began to feel God lead us towards Ethiopia to adopt an orphan and make her our own.
Why Ethiopia?
A few statistics about Ethiopia that point to the enormous problem that this country is facing (as a side note: this is also true of many countries in Africa)
There are nearly 6 million orphans in Ethiopia, a country with a population of only 80 million people.
To put that in perspective:
7.50% of Ethiopian population is an orphaned child
0.16% of the U.S. population is an orphaned child (likely in foster care)
50% of the children will never attend school.
88% will never attend secondary school.
One in ten children dies before their first birthday.
51% of children under the age of 5 are suffering from moderate to severe stunting due to lack of nutrition
up to 20% of the population are not able to eat even once a day
26% of the population live on less than 1 dollar per day and 81% live on less than two dollars a day
40% of children sleep on the floor, where nighttime temperatures average 5 degrees Celsius in the cold season
The average life expectancy is 48 years old.
The median age of the population is 16 years old, meaning that 50% of the population is less than 16 years old.
There is 1 medical doctor per 100,000 people.
For comparison, in the US there are 300 medical doctors per 100,000 people
In sub-Saharan Africa, one in six households with children is caring for at least one orphan. Yet this still leaves
millions of children who are left in the care of strangers — or with no one
Why Write This Letter?
I believe there are four reasons that we wanted to write this letter:
1. The first reason is simply to inform our family and friends of our journey and our excitement. We don’t get to see you all as often as we’d like, and we knew that to share the whole story with everyone would have to be through a letter.
2. The second is hoping that many of you will partner with us in excitement, prayer, and emotional support. The process will take some time (12 months - give or take), and we know there will be emotional ups and downs.
Having the support of our family and friends will help us through this process. We plan to keep our blog updated often.
3. The third reason is to give everyone the green light to ask us questions or to learn more about our adoption process and the questions/concerns you may have. We realize that there are many stereotypes and preconceived notions
regarding adoption, but we are trusting God’s leading to guide us through the challenges.
4. The fourth and most important reason is we hope to inform and influence others to be passionate about the fact that as Rick Warren states, “Orphans and vulnerable children are not a cause, they are a Biblical mandate and a
social mandate that we cannot ignore.” We would love nothing more than to influence families to help 100 other children to be adopted into forever families, and countless more orphans helped and ministered to in different
ways. If you know anyone considering adoption or interested in orphan ministry, we would love to walk along side of them.
I would encourage you to go to this family’s website: http://vogeltanzfamily.com/adoption-faq/ Near the top of the page
they have a video detailing their Ethiopian adoption that was incredibly powerful for Ashley and I, and then after the video they have more answers to FAQ’s that you may have. The video hit so close to home for us.
We’ll have plenty more to come on our blog. More cultural information about Ethiopia, stats about adoption, updates on where we are in the process, various quotes, verses, and other random items should show up on the blog as we plan to update it fairly regularly. http://thebakercrew.blogspot.com/
Thank you all for your love and support. We’re so thankful for our great friends and family!
God Bless,
Drew, Ashley, and Evan Baker
