Ethiopian Adoption

Celebrations are always better with friends!
We are blessed to have a great and GROWING group of families who have or are adopting from Ethiopia in our region.  Yesterday, Ethioguatemama and Ethioguatepapa, of Casa de Chaos, opened their home to all of us to celebrate the Ethiopian New Year, Enkutatash. We had lots of new members in attendance... I think I counted 13 families, 6 families have their child(ren) home from Ethiopia.  People drove from 2-3 hours from two different directions to converge together.  We were able to share photos, items, food, and stories. The few dozen kids played together and had a blast!!

Coffeybunny was there with SJ and B.  Easties were there. The A Team was there. The M family was there with their new daughter Rusie. We were able to meet Robyn and the Inmans for the first time, along with a half dozen other new families who don't have blogs.

Really and truly, I can't tell you how much of a blessing this group is. We have been home with Miriam almost three years (making our family the first ET adoption of the group) and only in the last 9 months have we had these connections.  It feels so good to finally have the physical, real life connections.  Now if we just didn't have to drive 2 hours. :)   If you're in East/ East central TN,adopting from Ethiopia, and you're looking for a group come join us.

Looking to buy Ethiopian items and help out a good cause?  Check out this little online store. They have clothing, jewlery, toys, decor, and other Ethiopian items. All proceeds go to benefit Ethiopian Orphan Relief. Check it out.

One of the harder things about living where we do is that as far as I have been able to tell, we are the only family with an Ethiopian born child in the immediate area. We have to drive hour and a half to get to the nearest group. Which, as I talked about here, we have started doing. The wonderful thing is that I know of two other families in process who live much closer... and even BETTER, last night we were able to have supper with a third family who is seriously considering Ethiopian adoption.

Well, today we had the awesome opportunity to attend the FIRST ever meeting of the East Tennessee Ethiopian Adoption group. We had six families in attendance with a total of 5 children home from Ethiopia. It was so fun to see so many little Ethiopian-Americans together at once. Hopefully the next time we meet even more people will be able to attend.

ETHIOPIA FAQ

1. What is a ballpark estimate of costs? $15-25,000

Adoption Links

• CHSFS (our adoption agency)
• CHSFS Forum (great forum for CHSFS families)
• Ethiopia Adopt Yahoo group (for all interested in ET adoption)
• Ethiopia Adoption FAQ (mainly a CHSFS family site but good info)
• East Tennessee Ethiopia Adoption Yahoo Group (for families in Eastern TN)

Please keep in mind that our timeline was in 2005! A lot has changed in Ethiopian adoption since then.