Sweet Moment in Time

I have a sub teacher today because I am chaperoning a group of 8th grade girls to a day at the University geared towards women in science careers. I met with my sub this morning and she asked what all my daughters’ names were. You see, I have pictures of all 3 girls, Tuki, Panda and Cheetah on my desk. I didn't tell her that two were not home yet, but I did mention that we are a family of adoption after she said “it looks like you traveled far for your family” . She said the girls were all beautiful and asked where they had been born. She asked the questions sensitively and thoughtfully. That was nice. It was also nice to talk about them like we were all under one roof; operating as a family.....I guess my fantasy waiting to happen. It was sweet for that one moment in time, and I can't wait until it is all the time.

Wait is NOT a pretty word

Tuki, 2 1/4 years old, Mama 42 1/2 + 2 years old.
We both feel the same way about WAIT..
One of us is completely age appropriate, the other isn't...........

W = Want it now
A = American's don't like to do it
I = Impatient
T = Today already!!

Good thing I find myself so funny, problem is no one else is laughing with me LOL!!!!!!

One year

On the way to church I realized that it was 1 year ago today that Tuks started walking... now she is running, jumping, skipping, tippy toeing, tumbling, rolling, hopping...you name she does it. So much learned in one year, unbelievable!!!

Short on Words

Just enjoying the weekend after a rough week, so I am short on words and would like to print this neat story;

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"
"It was great, Dad."
"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.
"Oh yeah," said the son.
"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.
The son answered:
"I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."
The boy's father was speechless.
Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."
Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.
Appreciate every single thing you have.

UNICEF....UGH!!!!

I linked this post and then pasted it below..It is from Vera's Haiti Update Blog .. What does it mean, not sure, but not liking it at all....

http://adoptivemomhaiti.blogspot.com/2008/02/call-for-action2007-haitian-adoptions.html

Following are the number of Haitian children who joined their adoptive families in 2007 compared to 2006. So far, by my calculations (and I am still waiting for formal statistics from the US Government and Canada - I have Quebec's statistics, but am missing the other Canadan stats. though I am presuming about 44 children for the other Canadian provinces) in 2006 - 1059 adopted children from Haiti joined their forever families, however in 2007, only 724 adopted children from Haiti joined their forever families.

That is a 32% decrease of Haitan children joining their families. This decrease is not because there are less families trying to adopt abandoned or orphaned Haitian children, this decrease reflects how many children's adoptions are stuck within the Haitian system (IBESR, Parquet and ultimately Ministry of Interior).

If the adoption process had been continuing in a smooth manner, and using the statistics of increased adoptions of about 20% per year, it is my estimation that about 1200-1300 children total would have come home to their forever families in 2007. This means that about 500 children's adoptions are stuck somewhere in the adoption process.

France:
2006 - 571 adopted children from Haiti
2007 - 403 adopted children from Haiti (168 fewer - 30% decrease)
Source: http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/chiffres_adoption_2007.pdf

USA:
2006 - 309 adopted children from Haiti
2007 - 195 adopted children from Haiti as of Dec. 15, 2007 (114 fewer - 37% decrease)

Canada:
2006 - 123
2007 - ??? ** Can you help get me the official statistics?
2007 - 44 *Quebec statistics (66 in 2006)http://www.adoption.gouv.qc.ca/site/fr_statistiques.phtml

The Netherlands:
2006 - 41
2007 - 28 (13 fewer - 32% decrease)
Source: www.wereldkinderen.nl/site.php?=47
www.stichtingflash.nl/wachtlijstenoverzicht.phtml
http://www.nederlandseadoptiestichting.nl/

Spain:
2006 - 15
2007- 10 (*Spain abandoned Haitian adoptions, however approximately 20 families who started the adoption prior to Spain's closing its doors to adoptions in Haiti are still waiting for their children.) (5 fewer - 33% decrease)

As we know, UNICEF is putting a lot of pressure on the Haitian government, telling them that too many children are being adopted internationally. (I was told the same thing by the UNCEF representative in Haiti during a face to face meeting in December 2007.)

Thus, the Haitian response has been to make the adoptions more difficult. For example, Gassant in Parquet is refusing to sign adoption decrees and the Ministry of Interior was not authorizing adopted children's passports.

UNICEF should be really proud of itself because less children are leaving the country.

BUT, did they solve the problem of the Haitian children? Many of the children have adopting families and they continue to live in orphanages, institutionalized.

Many other children continue to live on the streets, hungry and sick, many dying. There is no assistance that is being provided to make those children's lifes better.

This has to change and it is going to take an international effort of people who care for the children of Haiti to come together and expose what is really happening in response of the UNICEF pressure on the Haitian government.

I had a meeting with Mario Joseph, leading human rights lawyer in Haiti. He agreed to assist in this effort. I briefed him on what is happening in Parquet with Mr. Gassant's refusal to sign adoption decrees of families seeking to adopt Haitian orphans/abandoned children who have biological children. (Actually, he is not even signing adoption decrees for families with no biological children.)

In order to assist in highlighting the plight of the Haitian children who are stuck in limbo because of Mr. Gassant's actions, Mr. Joseph needs the cooperation of families and their orphanages/ orphanages' lawyers. He needs to highlight individual cases to Mr. Gassant in order to question the legality of his actions (or inactions).

He plans to hold a meeting with Mr. Gassant and if there is no result in response to the meeting, he plans to go on Haitian radio and TV to address the problem and to expose what is happening.

I know that some families and orphanages might be afraid to take this action, but without action, we are at a literal stand-still in Parquet.

MOI's issue in signing passport authorizations used to be a problem, but it is running much smoother now and that is in part because of the grassroots effort of adopting families.

Thursday Delight

Panda


Cheetah

Nice

I was brushing Heathcliff and Einstein tonight and Tuki decided she needed to help me. So she picks up a dog comb and then tells the dogs "nice" and proceeds to brush them. I tell her to be nice all the time to the animals so I'm not sure if she was telling herself to be nice or telling the dogs to be nice while she combed them. She is growing in leaps and bounds with her activities, language, sentences and understanding. I have myself a little shadow, a "minnie me" around and I love every minute of it. Did I ever tell you what an amazing kid she is, because wow, she sure astounds me everyday......