History in the Making

Somehow in the midst of adventuring and fieldworking, blogging didn't happen.
But I am back in the States with a bit of time to fill in the gaps.

Ethiopia is beautiful. It is full of surprises. It's old and complex. It's broken and striving for hope.

Ethiopia just declared peace with it's neighboring country of Eritrea after 20 years of war. While I was on the ground, the first direct flight from Ethiopia to Eritrea happened, and the Eritrea Prime Minister came to visit Addis. We happened to be in town that day, and it was beautiful to see the flags hanging side by side, banners strewed everywhere, and people wearing ribbons and shirts to celebrate the historic moment. An excited energy in the air. It was powerful to witness a piece of history that was filled with such hope.

But another piece of history that left brokenness is that last year the government (under an old Prime Minister's term) declared there would be no more international adoptions. For a country with 5 million orphans, this was devastating. What a timely moment in history for me to visit Ethiopia, as I, myself have been wrestling with the solution of adoption for the orphan care crisis. As I have prefaced before, adoption is beautiful and I will never tell someone to not adopt...but I also want to encourage people that there are ethical procedures to follow and other solutions that we can be putting our resources towards. But as I talked to the Ethiopians about this decision, they laid out how this decision was not well thought through. It stood on some shaky reasoning with no follow up plan. While it is early to see the long term effects, the immediate impact is that there are thousands of children left hanging in the balance. It leaves me with a lot to process. But many also told me that there were more inter-country adoptions. A US staff member held the perspective that maybe that will force Ethiopia to step up in new ways...to open their eyes to this crisis that is happening in their neighborhoods. Before adoption was seen as the solution, and while it was one of the solutions, it can not, and never should be, the only solution. It will never catch up with the number of kids that need care. Even though I grieve for the gaps that are left in the wake of this decision, I am praying, and hoping that my friends words are true- that Ethiopia, under this new, hope charged, leadership will find ways to rise up to serve their vulnerable children.

History is a funny thing. It is always changing and shaping a legacy and a path for a country. Sometimes certain countries have one moment that will forever be carried with them. Sometimes countries rewrite their story. Ethiopia is extremely poor and has faced many challenges. I won't sugar coat it...it will take a lot for Ethiopia to pick itself up. But I also am not without hope. The people I met, the things I experienced, the stories I heard all have a layer of something more. There is still history to be made, and I will now have a closer eye on how the Lord walks Ethiopia forward.