So tomorrow marks 4 months of waiting for a referral, but who is counting (-: I just started a new position at work and have been really busy this week which has helped to keep me from thinking about this process every second of the day. We will see how long this lasts - ha, probably not long!
On a different note I thought these were really fun ads.
Be a superhero!
Candice saves the planet by shopping with reusable bags
Iris saves the planet by turning off lights
Lungisa saves the planet by showering, not bathing
Just a neat find... if you go to http://www.art.com/ and seach for "Ethiopia" there are lots and lots of photos that are really neat that you can purchase. Type in "Africa" and you will find 10X as many posters and prints.
These are some pictures of my family (top left is me, the rest are my parents and brother) - love the matching vests mom and dad (hehe)
(sorry it is the only video I could find - there is a short ad it makes you watch first)
Matty and I really like the musician Pete Yorn. Today I was listening to this song "Come back home" and couldn’t help but feel a little sad. To me the song is all about growing up and the feelings you have when you think about your childhood and what brought you to this point in your life. In some ways it is strange that I am on the brink of becoming a parent because it doesn’t seem like my own childhood memories are that far away. I feel kind of sad thinking about how quickly time has passed, and I wish I could go back and spend 100 more years just being a kid and enjoying the close company of my own parents. But that is life I guess, time passes quickly and soon Matty and I will be trying our best to create that feeling of 'home' for someone else. So I am excited about becoming a parent and couldn’t want anything more, but I am also feeling a little sad realizing that I am leaving one phase of my life for another.
Here is the view out my front and back window this morning. I am not ready to speak the 4 letter S word yet, it is like a swear word. It looks pretty I will say that much, but it is cold, makes driving difficult, and I have no one to make a snow man with so - fooey on this white stuff, go away!
This is a video Matthew showed me that is really good. One thing that drives me crazy about North America is our crazy consumer culture – buy, buy, buy – bigger, better, faster, newer….ahhh! I think we start to lose sight of the big picture. This video was a reminder to me to try to be a smart consumer and keep in mind the power we have to make a difference just by being careful about how we spend our money. So with Christmas coming, the biggest spending time of the year, it was good to think about.
I love these quotes from Fight Club about our consumer culture.
“You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.”
“The things you own end up owning you. F**k off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything.”
I do agree that in our culture of excess we are often slaves to our possessions. Think of how many hours people work to pay for "bigger, better, newer, cooler" things they don’t really need, when they could be spending that time instead with their families. I am guilty as well. Why does my house have three bathrooms? That is just plain stupid, only two people live here and three or four people can be happy sharing one bathroom. I have a limited amount of time on this planet, why spend it working to pay for something I don't need when I could spend that time doing something else. Why is that so difficult to see sometimes? Does having more, or the latest thing really make us that much happier? And who else pays the price for the lifestyle we live? that is what the video makes me wonder....ahh it will be a constant struggle living in this part of the world to try to keep ones head in check.
I got a copy of a book called No Logo by Naomi Klein (Steven Lewis’ dtr-in-law) that is all about how branding influences us in ways we don’t even realize, and the impact it has on the world. I will let you know how it is when I finish but I have two other adoption books on the go to finish first.
Woohoo! I was really excited last Friday to pick up the calendars our London group will be trying to sell to raise money for Canadian Humanitarian. They look really good! Thanks to those of you who have emailed me to support this fundraiser by getting one. If anyone else is interested details can be found here. I will keep you posted on how much money we raise!
A little online shopping always seems to help pass the time, and when it is to support a good cause then hey that is even better!
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Above is an Ethiopian and Canadian shaped country cookie cutter from here. I can't wait to have a little one to bake cookies for!
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The bracelet is from the AHOPE store found here. Each stainless steel AHOPE bracelet features the AHOPE logo, the first name of an AHOPE child, and the Amharic word for "hope." The bracelets act as a reminder of the special children at AHOPE, and raise awareness of the plight of HIV+ orphans in the world.
Matty and I stayed up late last night and felt very moved watching Obama win the US election. What a great day for American and world history! I love the part of his victory speech posted below!
Below is a post from Erin's Transracial adoption blog . I think she really has a nice summary of some of the things "adoption is" and I thought it would be nice to share given it is adoption month. After reading this I felt the article was really in line with my own feelings on adoption.
"Adoption is a choice. It is a choice in a lot of different ways. Adoption is a choice for parents who are unable to care for their children. It is a way for them to provide for their children. For some parents adoption is a choice instead of abortion. For some parents adoption is a choice instead of extreme poverty and suffering. There are many other reasons a parent could choose adoption for her child. It is certainly never an easy choice for birth families, but it is a choice.
Adoption is a choice for parents who want to expand their families. For some people, adoption is a choice instead of infertility treatments. For some people, adoption is the only choice to become a parent. For some people, adoption is a just another way to bring a child into a family.
Transracial adoption is a choice. It is choosing not only to love, parent and make your own a child that is not related biologically to you, but also to love, parent and make your own a child that does not look like you. It is choosing to take on issues like racism, prejudice and white privilege. It is to care about a culture other than your own. It is taking on the criticism of those who see color of skin as a way to segregate people. It is complicated." "Adoption is also a business, expensive, hope, life changing, love, complicated, a roller coaster, risky, making connections, necessary, something to be thankful for, hard, beautiful, and family. When you put all of those pieces together, that is what adoption is to me. For many reasons, adoption is one of the things I am most passionate about. Because adoption is hope, is love, is something to be thankful for, is necessary, is life changing, is beautiful and is family, I believe that it is a very good thing and I believe that it is worth advocating for.
On the flip side, because adoption is also a business, is expensive, is complicated, is a roller coaster, is risky and is hard, I also think that it is important that adoptive parents, prospective adoptive parents and adoption professionals work at educating others and always strive to keep ethics a top priority.
And because adoption is only necessary and only exists because of social, personal and economic hardships that exist in this world, I think that we also need to work at trying to make a difference in the world and trying to make things better, so that less children have to suffer the trauma of being separated from their first parents. Fighting against hunger, poverty, social stigmas and preventable and treatable illnesses will lead to less orphans being created.
In a perfect world, adoption would not be necessary, as every child that was born would be born unto parents who were ready, willing, desirous and able to parent him. Since we do not live in a perfect world, adoption is a wonderful second chance for many children.
This November and every National Adoption Month I hope that we all can be aware of the millions of children across the world who do not have families to belong to. I hope that we can be aware of the tragedies that are causing these children to be orphaned in the first place. I hope that we can find ways to promote ethical adoption. I hope that for as long as there are children in this world that end up orphaned and alone, that adoption will be an available option to unite those children with new families."
Check out this website - it is very neat. People from all around the world are casting their vote for Obama or McCain. Once you vote it takes you to a results page where you can see how people in different countries are voting. For example when I was on there today it showed that 70,000 people in Canada have cast their vote and 88% of them prefer Obama (one of those being me). It is neat to see what people in different countries think.
We have created this blog for our friends, family, and others interested in adoption. We invite you to follow our journey to Ethiopia where we will go from being a couple to a family of three!
shmcnaughton@hotmail.com
Iris saves the planet by turning off lights
Lungisa saves the planet by showering, not bathing
