The Jade Panda

Some of you may recall, that last year we volunteered for our adoption agency’s auction which benefits orphans. We “declined” to participate on the committee this year due to the horrific experience we had last year. Recently, we received an email from the committee sent to all adoptive parents and future adoptive parents. It is excerpted below.

 _________________________________

Dear Families:

ABC is planning their annual silent auction fund
raiser again this year and we need your help.  If each
family would provide one donated item for our silent
auction, it would help this year’s auction be a
greater success than last year.  Just think how many
children we could help with your help.

According to UNICEF there are 143 million orphans and
400 million vulnerable children in the world.  Every
year, almost 11 million children under the age of five
die, many of them orphans, and more than 70 percent of
these deaths are attributable to six preventable
causes: diarrhea, malaria, neonatal infection,
pneumonia, pre term delivery, or lack of oxygen at
birth.  11 million children a year. That means, every
day 30,000 children die.  That’s 21 children every
minute … or one child every three seconds.

If there were a million children on a sinking ship,
the outcry would be heard around the world.  We would
rescue these children.  The world’s orphans and
vulnerable children are not on a sinking ship, but
their futures are just as desperate. 

We thank you for already doing something about this
issue by adopting. You are an inspiration. We still
need your help because the immediate goal is to keep
these children alive so that they can later be adopted
into forever families.

So you ask what else can we do?  We just need each
family to provide one donated item for our silent
auction.   Some past donations included gift
certificates, movie tickets, airline tickets, jewelry,
children’s toys, vacation homes and art.

Today is the day.  We can’t afford to keep talking
about it.  These desperate children can’t wait. It is
time to take a small action to make a big difference
in the lives of these children.
 _________________________________

 Ok, I have several problems with this.

1)  ”You are an inspiration”? We are trying to create a family… not solve world hunger.

2) Enough with the guilt trip. Apparently, they never learned the you get more flies with honey and vinegar life lesson.

3) “If there were a million children on a sinking ship, the outcry would be heard around the world.  We would rescue these children.” Ahhh… yes. What are you trying to say.

Obviously, I dislike these people. I am admittedly biased. However, under any circumstance, I do not like being berated and guilting into taking action. Bad tactics… not effective.

 So, am I heartless? No, we’ll donate something. But, I may grouse about it for a while.

… there is way to much to buy, especially cute ladybug baby items… must resist…

the Ladybug Diaper cake  and

the ladybug bib and

the ladybug babyblanket and

Booties… I am a sucker for little shoes.

S0 much cuteness, so little time.

While I have not served our country, I am proud of those who have… happy memorial day and god bless!

We were reading “China Adopt Talk” site today. There is a thread named “Where does the money go?”. Several folks are chatting about how they are going to finance the adoption… home equity lines, all of their savings, credit cards. Hubbie and I are determined to save all of the money we need — but that is a tall order.

So, what would you do to have a child? I think it is an interesting question. There has been a lot of press lately about IVF, fertility treatments and adoption. We read some of those stories — spending life savings, injectioning yourself with drugs everyday and more –and just shake our heads.  But, there seems to be this draw to be a parent at any physical, mental, relational and financial cost.

I usually resist personality “tests”… but this one was too funny.

You Are a Ham Sandwich

You are quiet, understated, and a great comfort to all of your friends. Over time, you have proven yourself as loyal and steadfast. And you are by no means boring. You do well in any situation - from fancy to laid back.Your best friend: The Turkey SandwichYour mortal enemy: The Grilled Cheese Sandwich

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

Costa Rica 2024

Originally uploaded by DanaJ.

We LOVED Costa Rica and highly reccomend it to everyone. It was great trip – we soaked in hot springs, zipped between trees and swam in the warm Pacific Ocean.

We did learn a few things…
1) DON’T drive. The roads are bad and the drivers crazy. They think northing of passing on a double yellow line, on a blind corner, in the pouring rain, in the dark… bad, bad, bad.

2) the people of Costa Rica (Ticos) are wonderful… friendly, helpful, Pura vida!

3) It doesn’t rain as much as you might think in the rain forest… not such a bad thing if you are touring a country.

As you may recall, we had a list of things that we wanted to do prior to the adoption. Since the wait continues to expand, I decided to update our list.  

1. Learning Mandarin – Well, we have done nothin’ about this… maybe soon.

2. One more fabulous vacation — Done… We just got back from Costa Rica (more on this soon!) and we are planning our next one.

3. Go to a lot of minor league baseball games — This is all my husband and he is currently in his element…

4. Take more classes – photography, cooking, whatever… learning something new!

What else should we add?

Happy Mom’s Day to all of the mom’s out there…

So, our quest to become parents hasn’t progressed as quickly as we had hoped, there was a little bit of good news for adoptive parents in today’s Washington Post. A short article discussed how many (progressive, in my opinion) companies are starting to provide adoption benefits.  

For those who don’t know… adoptive moms do not typically qualify for the same benefits as birth moms. Given birth means that you qualify for short term disability and therefore some portion of your salary. Since, I will not be giving birth, I am not “disabled” (I did ask my HR rep if feeling mental overwhelmed counted as a disability, she laughed and then said no).  Adoptive parents only qualify for the Family Medical Leave Act, which, while very important, is unpaid. Many adoptive parents cannot afford to pay for the adoption and take three (or more) months of unpaid leave.   Today’s article was a bright spot. It is nice to see that adoption is become more widely accepted.

We have started our homestudy renewal process (they expire every 12 months). A social worker came to the house yesterday to ensure 1) that the house hasn’t burned down and 2) we are still married. She spend 20 minutes with us. For that, we paid $200 and were emailed our homestudy document so we could update it ourselves.

 Got it love it!

Otherwise – referrals are in. It is a little better news this month. China placed children to folks with LIDS through Nov1, 2005. So, there are about 9 months of LIDs ahead of us. Estimates are that will take 18 to 24 months.

Our social worker did hear that the process should be speeding up… here’s to that hope!