Sadness... and worry

One of my fellow adoptive parents had their baby girl die two days ago. She is in the same orphanage as our two girls. She died from a complication of chicken pox. One of the other adoptive families was just out in Ethiopia picking up their baby two weeks ago, and saw her, and she was fine.

The difference between medical care in the US and medical care in third world countries is night and day. What is available here is impossible there... cost wise, and just general availability. This is true for the HIV epidemic. We have medications that can drastically change the lives of those who carry the virus, but costs and red tape (things with the pharmaceutical companies, etc) make it difficult to distribute and make these drugs available.

Having children in this country has opened my eyes in so many ways. It's not that I didn't know before, that people died from simple things like chicken pox and diahhrea and tuberculosis and measles in third-world-countries. I knew it. I just was removed from it. Now I'm not. These are my kids you're talking about.

Please say a prayer for Woinshet and Meaza. And also, please keep this little baby girl in mind when you think about whether you have the means to donate to charities or think of what you can do to help the world. This little 1-year-old girl was healthy two weeks ago, and now she is dead, from an ailment that is not very serious here in the United states.

Some places you can go to find out how you can help:

Doctors Without Borders

International Medical Relief
Unicef

Adoption Court Date

Our kiddoes will be officially ours (pending the actual passing of court... hopefully we will be able to do this with our first appointment!) On May 20, 2009. We will be able to go and pick them up 2-6 weeks later, depending on how long their passports take.

So we will be traveling to Ethiopia, home to the world's oldest human skeleton, the great rift valley, the source of the blue nile, the birthplace of Makeda, Queen of Sheba, and also of two of the most beautiful girls on the face of this planet, sometime this June.

Hooray!!

I'm filling these months up with more reading, hair practice, cooking practice, and other important things. My goals are to learn several important words and phrases in Amharic if I can, and also get some donations from local people/ward members to take to the Aids orphanage.

So basically we'll be running around like the proverbial headless chickens.
We're so excited.