We are Aaron and Whitney Pratt, and are soon going to be parents to a baby from Ethiopia!
We have been happily married since July 23, 2005, nearly 4 years this summer! Our love story has always involved children. We met while working at the same elementary school. For three years, we actually got to work at the same school again where Whitney worked as a preschool director & lead teacher, and Aaron taught world geography & coached soccer. We love to spend time together with our numerous nieces and nephews. Hours and hours have been spent talking about our future family, and a year and a half into marriage, we were ready to start our own family!
We pursued international adoption after two years of trying to start our family without success. We decided early on that we would adopt someday regardless. Instead of pursuing any fertility treatments, our "Someday" began December 23, 2008 when we realized this is our opportunity to give a child a loving home through adoption! Over Christmas, we announced our excited journey to family, and we were met with tremendous support and love! January 5, 2009, after research and prayer, we found our agency All God's Children International (
www.allgodschildren.org) out of Portland, Oregon. We saw the countries that they serve, and immediately fell in love with the sweet faces of Ethiopia and the great need there. We applied for and were accepted into the Ethiopia program and are thrilled to be in the process to adopt a baby between 3 months to 12 months boy or girl! Our child will be living at All God's Children's orphanage called Hannah's Hope in Addis Ababa. We, then, selected Hope Cottage (
www.hopecottage.org) in Dallas, Texas to work with us on our home study process. The time frame given is 12-16 months from beginning to end, and our process has been extremely smooth. We hope to be on the waiting list soon, then called one day with a referral of a child for us! Soon after, we fly to Ethiopia and stay there for 5-7 days, and come home as a family of three!
The world has over 147 million orphans, and 4.6 million of them live in Ethiopia. 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone. 44% of the population is under 15 years old. Ethiopia's doctor to child ratio is 1 to 24,000. One in ten children don't see their 1st birthday. One is six children don't make it to their 5th birthday. Half of the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa. Ethiopia is a country full of precious people and a beautiful, rich culture that we look forward to incorporating into our home.
We are overjoyed to become "Mommy" and "Daddy" to a precious child in Ethiopia, and have peace knowing that God already knows which child will be ours. A child needs a loving home, and we have love to give!
Aaron and Whitney Pratt
