Ethiopia Facts: Wildlife
We’ve been doing a little furniture shuffle at the Tol House this past couple weeks, trying to move Brian to a quieter workspace for his new job and anticipating the arrival of a baby sometime in the next year or so. I’ll spare you the details of our confusing room to room furniture shuffle, but I will say that the new arrangement is working out nicely.
So what in the world does this have to do with Ethiopian wildlife? Well, we sacrificed our living room to create a new playroom, and decided it’d be fun to decorate the new room with a theme. We call it our “Out of Africa” playroom and it features lots of safari friends. In the process of creating some homemade animal artwork for the walls, I got to wondering: Do any of these animals actually live in Ethiopia? Or is my safari playroom more cliche than reality?
So off I went on a roadtrip down the Information Highway, researching Ethiopia’s wildlife. Here’s what I learned (courtesy of Wikipedia): Ethiopia does, in fact, have a beautiful variety of wildlife including the lions, elephants, zebras, and giraffes that are adorning our playroom walls. (Sigh of relief: My artwork can stay.) Some other interesting animals I discovered on the Ethiopia list: mongoose, gazelle, warthog, anteater, aardvark, hippopotamus, and rhinoceros.
But wait. I also placed a charming stuffed monkey on the playroom bookshelf: Is he authentic, as well? With a bit more searching I discovered that there is plenty of simian life in Ethiopia, including monkeys and baboons. What a relief, because really, what kind of playroom doesn’t feature at least one monkey?
One animal that didn’t make the playroom scene, despite his presence in Ethiopia: the hyena. Apparently, the so-called “laughing hyena” isn’t a funny matter to Ethiopian children. These ferocious animals play much the same role as our big bad wolf in Ethiopian children’s tales. So we’ll just keep Mr. Hyena out of the Tol house for now. Other Ethiopian animals that didn’t make the cut: The Naked Mole Rat, the Ethiopian Fruit Bat, and a bountiful variety of shrews.
One sad discovery: The friendly stuffed tiger who is lounging on the playroom sofa really doesn’t belong. I always thought tigers and lions were good chums, and pictured them doing the savannah equivalent of going to a diner for milkshakes together. Not so. Tigers actually live further north, in areas of India and Asia, while lions roam Africa. Perhaps they could be penpals, at least?
At any rate, since Noah is rather attached to his tiger friend, we’ll let the tiger slide in with the lion under the general category of “big cats.” (Come to think of it, our housecat Mocha fits in this category as well.)
So there is my rather brief tour through Ethiopian wildlife. Isn’t it amazing to think of all those animals roaming about their country? And here’s one last wildlife fact for those of you who’ve stuck with me: Ethiopia’s national symbol is the lion. It’s hard to imagine a symbol with greater beauty and power.
Writer’s Note: So here’s the thing. Whenever Brian writes a blog entry, we seem to get comments. When I (Amy) write, there is an ominous silence. So I’m humbly begging for a response. Just a word. Or maybe a whole sentence if you have the time. Please? It’s not that I want to compete with my husband prolific comments: It’s just that I’m starting to wonder if my words are being sucked into some secret black hole of the web!
Ethiopia Fact: Coffee
We’ve been learning a lot about Ethiopia in recent weeks, and we thought it’d be fun to share some of our newfound knowledge with you, so we are launching an “Ethiopian Fact of the Week” here on the blog. As we explore this country and culture through books and websites, we are growing excited to travel to this land in person. It’s a land of great beauty and rich history.
We’ll start with a fun fact that has drawn Ethiopia dear to our hearts. So here is Ethiopia Fact #1: Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee!
According to Ethiopian legend, a young goatherd in the Kaffa region first discovered the effects of wild coffee berries over 1,000 years ago. An Epicurean.com article offers this explanation of the tale: “After discovering his goats to be excited, almost dancing on their hind legs, . . . He tried the berries himself and rushed home to his wife who told him that he must tell the monks. The monks tossed the sinful drug into the flames, . . . Within minutes the monastery filled with the heavenly aroma of roasting beans, and the other monks gathered to investigate. After sitting up all night, they found a renewed energy to their holy devotions. The rest, as they say, is history.” (Check here for the entire article about Ethiopia and coffee.)
While this legend may be debatable, the roasting and brewing of coffee beans did, in fact, start in Ethiopia. Today, coffee is Ethiopia’s #1 export, generating around 60% of its total export earnings.
Coffee also plays a strong role culturally, as Ethiopians often perform a coffee ceremony for friends and guests who come to their homes. (Something we have in common with our Ethiopian friends!) But here is areal stroke of genius: The Ethiopians traditionally serve POPCORN along with their coffee.
Popcorn and coffee together. Could there be a more perfect union?
Excuse me, I think I need to make a trip to the kitchen for a moment . . .
(Editor’s note: For those of you who may not know, Amy is rather fond of popcorn. As in, she’s the only person in North America who has actually had to replace TWO popcorn appliances because she uses them so frequently for late-night snacks.)
Homeland Security
So here’s the fun part of international adoption paperwork: You get to walk to your mailbox and receive mail from the US Department of Homeland Security. (In this week’s case, we just got a notice that their Immigration division has received our I-600A Form) You also get to casually insert sentences like this into conversations with friends who ask about the adoption process: “We’re just waiting for our biometrics appointment as part of our dossier preparation.” (Which really means: “We need to be fingerprinted by the feds.”)
Neat, eh?
A little closer to home, we realized that we had a security breach in our home this week. It happened around 3:30 at night, when I was awakened from a deep sleep by sounds over the baby monitor. Noah seemed to be whimpering a little, so I went upstairs to make sure he had his pacifier and blanket. Imagine my surprise when I got to his bedroom and didn’t see a toddler in the bed! I scanned the room, saw no little boy, and quickly felt all over the bed again to make sure he wasn’t crumpled in the blankets. Just as I was about to panic, I noticed some legs sticking out from the end of the bed.
That’s right. Noah breached the bed rails, must have gotten out of bed, and crawled under his bed. And there he laid, with only two-pajama clad legs visible to my sleepy eyes. I’m really not sure if he was even awake when I pulled him out and tucked him back safely into bed. And I really can’t imagine why he decided he needed to investigate underneath his bed in the middle of the night.
Perhaps it’s time for more stringent security measures in Noah’s room.
Change of Course
Funny how God works sometimes.
As we’ve written here before, we’ve been planning to adopt for awhile, saying lots of prayers for wisdom and guidance along the way. We had settled on adopting from Korea for a variety of reasons. We were excited learn about a new country and culture. And it seemed to be the best fit for our current family situation.
And yet, there was a small bit of doubt in my mind. Even as I shared the news about Korea with family and friends, a small piece of my heart felt uneasy. I suppose this is how every adoptive parent feels before they get matched with a child, I reasoned. I’ll bet it all “clicks” when you see that first picture of your little one. Still, I’ve been tossing up many heartfelt prayers throughout the past several weeks, asking God to give me peace–or to somehow make it obvious if Korea wasn’t the program for us.
Since our decision to adopt from Korea back in January, several things have happened:
1. We’ve heard more and more about the desperate needs of orphans in Ethiopia.
2. The Korea program was put on hold - initially expected to open on April 1.
3. We’ve heard about more and more people adopting–or considering adoption–from Ethiopia.
4. We’ve learned about recent legislation and cultural developments in Korea that promote adoption within their own country and make it easier for single mothers to raise a child, something that was very difficult before. This is great news for Korea’s children and families, as more of their children will be raised by their birthmothers, or in their birth country. It just means that the need for non-Korean families to step in and adopt is gradually declining.
5. Did I mention that we seemed to be hearing a lot about Ethiopia?
6. The hold on the Korea program did not end on April 1, but was extended for an indefinite time.
As you’ve probably figured out already, we feel God’s calling us to a change of course: After lots of prayers and discussion, we’re now planning to adopt from Ethiopia. And that uneasy feeling in my heart? GONE. There’s no doubt in my mind–or Brian’s for that matter!–that Ethiopia is where we were meant to go all along. God has made it pretty clear, and we are excited to follow along.
So we’ve made it official by mailing in our I600A form to the US Citizen and Immigration Services department. This form basically asks for government approval to adopt from a foreign country, in our case we’ve specified Ethiopia. And we are praying for a speedy processing of our form, as we cannot actually get on the Ethiopia waiting list without this approval. I’ve heard some nightmare stories about trying to get this form processed, so I’m hoping we won’t have too much trouble.
So if you’ve been tracking with me to the end of this post, please join us in thanking God for his clear direction and peace about adopting from Ethiopia. And then, could you just ask for a small miracle: That our little I600A form would sail through the system quickly?
We’re excited to keep you updated as we continue on this journey.