The Jade Panda

Happy thanksgiving to you and yours! I wish you a day filled with family, warmth and turkey!  We are off to my mom’s for dinner and then are heading to National Harbor to see Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza with the entire family.

For the holidays?

I am not. Does it feel like we skipped Thanksgiving this year and moved right to Christmas? All of the big box retailers are pulling at all of their best sales early. Christmas trees are at the entrances, not even hidden at the back of the stores. It is a little overwhelming and more than a little annoying.

bah humbug.

I wanted take a minute to be thankful. I am thankful for my family and friends, for my home, my health and even my cats. I am thankful for having a good job, vacations and time to myself. I am thankful that the elections are over. I am thankful for the wonderment of childhood and ladybugs.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

And bring on Christmas… I am now ready!

Lots of people ask us if we will HAVE to travel to China. Actually, we really want to go, to understand the culture and the people a little bit better.  Today, I found a blog for a couple who is also using our teeny, tiny adoption agency. Their LID is 2/13/06 and they received their referral last month. They are currently in China and are posting info and pictures from their journey.

So, what will it be like for us? Probably a lot like this (minus the twins)!: Two Bookends

Referrals are here!  Want to meed the new families, click here: http://chinaadopttalk.com/2008/11/05/babies-17/

For those of you who are keeping count, it appears that this is a 2-day batch.

In today’s Washington Post, there was a very good article about the Milton Hershey School (MHS). For those of you who have not heard of it, it is a boarding school for disadvantaged students nestled in the rolling, green hills of Hershey, PA. The school is free of charge. However, students are required to be well behaved and to complete a regular set of chores.

My brother and I are both graduates of the school. The school has a tumultuous past with alumni fighting with the school over its future direction. In fact, most of the coverage in recent years has been on this tiresome topic. I am please to say that the article in the Washington Post is both balanced and accurate. Even 15 years after I graduated, the story rang true.

Many of you know that we are adopting a child for many reasons. One of the primary ones is that we wanted to give back for all of the things that MHS gave to me. Since the school is so well endowed, they do not need our money. So, we decided to help children in a different way – through adoption. I will be forever grateful to MHS and am happy to see that they have remained true to their mission.

Do you want to read more? Here is a link to: “The School that Chocolate Built”