Tues Afternoon on my blackberry I got a photo from the agency of a updated picture of Aslynn our adopted daughter in Ethiopia. Breaks my heart how her arms and legs looks like bones, and they covered her body with a cloth. Her express is one like the other with her tongue out, gasping for good? or excited that someone picked her up for a picture? held her for a brief moment, a little contact or touch?
I was so excited to see her as she has gotten so tall,but on the other hand she has gotten so thin and her hair so short. I am now just wanting and counting until the courts open so we get a date and hopefully fly before the new year to go and get her. Jon and I also put in a request for a son, we decided that since we were there getting Aslynn that if a little boy was available we would get him also if it did not mess up with the schedule of picking her up as her health has not been well and in the pictures you can see it. We will see how it plays out as of course it is all in Gods hands. I will keep everyone posted. YES I know I must be crazy with 4 kids, but yeah, everything is possible if you have God on your side, and I have a great support team and people (shawna) that give me positive encouragement, so we will see how it plays out. Keep us in your prays.
I would post a picture of our daughter but per regulations of Ethiopia, we cant post a pic of our children until after the final court date. But take it from me she is soooo cute and pretty,bit eyes, smile, nice round head, cute wavy hair, light fair skin, and just needs a big bow! You know how I love my bows!!!!
Interesting from the Times:" Why Africa Is Still Starving"
Hunger has swept East Africa this year, spurred by poor rains and rising food prices. The U.N. estimates that 14 million people urgently need food aid, including 2.6 million in Somalia and more than 1 million in Kenya. In Ethiopia, 4.6 million people are at risk, and 75,000 children have severe acute malnutrition. Nearly a quarter-century ago, an outright famine led to Live Aid, an international fund-raising effort promoted by rock stars, which produced an outpouring of global generosity: millions of tons of food flooded into the country. Yet, ironically, that very generosity may have contributed to today's crisis.
Over time, sustained food aid creates dependence on handouts and shifts focus away from improving agricultural practices to increase local food supplies. Ethiopia exemplifies the consequences of giving a starving man a fish instead of teaching him to catch his own. This year the U.S. will give more than $800 million to Ethiopia: $460 million for food, $350 million for HIV/AIDS treatment — and just $7 million for agricultural development. Western governments are loath to halt programs that create a market for their farm surpluses, but for countries receiving their charity, long-term food aid can become addictive. Why bother with development when shortfalls are met by aid? Ethiopian farmers can't compete with free food, so they stop trying. Over time, there's a loss of key skills, and a country that doesn't have to feed itself soon becomes a country that can't. All too often, its rulers use resources elsewhere — Ethiopia has one of Africa's largest armies.
Why do we get aid so wrong? Because it feels so right. "The American people," says U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Yamamoto, "are simply not going to sit tight while they see children dying." Nor should they: a starving man needs to be saved first, before he can be taught to fish — or farm. But as the world rallies again to Ethiopia's aid, donors face a dilemma. "We're not getting to the real problem," says Yamamoto.
What would? Ethiopia thought it had found one answer. In 2005 a $1.4 billion five-year program identified 7.3 million Ethiopians unable to live without free food and gave them jobs in rural projects, such as roads and irrigation. The idea was to create livelihoods as well as to save lives. It was working, slowly. By this year, says a Western economist familiar with the effort, "a few thousand" had left the program and were making it on their own. Then came the double blow of drought and soaring food prices. Of the 7.3 million, 5.4 million suddenly needed extra food aid. The sobering lesson: even the best efforts to eliminate hunger are expensive, slow and uncertain of success. Depressing as it may be, this may not be the last time Ethiopia needs help.
With reporting by Kassahun Addis/Addis Ababa
HAD TO POST A FEW AFTER PARTY PASS OUT PICTURE OF MY LITTLE MAN! STILL WITH THE FEW LAST BALLOONS HE FOUND THAT DID NOT GET "LET GO"
