Toddler Adoption

Matthew and I are in the process of changing the age request identified in our homestudy from 0-10 months to 0-3 yrs old. This has been a decision that has been in the making for quite some time now. I think our initial reason for choosing 0-10 months was mostly out of fear that we may struggle, or our child may struggle more adjusting if he/she was a bit older when coming home. With all of the time we have spent waiting since then it has given us an opportunity to read about toddler adoption, talk to other families who have adopted older kids, and as a result our feelings about it have changed.

Yes there will be different challenges to face (the book above is really good at outlining what they may be), but I am confident with the right support and resources families created trough toddler adoption can be very happy and well adjusted. We met with our homestudy practitioner about a month ago and she helped us submit a request to change our age range to the Ministry. I just found out last week that the document is now sitting on someone’s desk at the Ministry and they expect we should hear back regarding approval in about a week.

I am just finishing up this book today. It was one of the few books I could find that is only about toddler adoption (if anyone has heard of any others I would love to know). So when our referral comes now it will be a really big surprise because it could be a boy or girl, a baby or a 3 year old – wowzers!

Dead Aid

(10 min clip)
Click on this link for the full program:
http://fora.tv/2009/06/05/Uncommon_Knowledge_Dambisa_Moyo

This is an interview with Dambisa Moyo that I just watched online. It is a bit long (34min) but she shares a very interesting perspective of why she thinks aid in Africa has done more harm than good. This past summer on CBC radio I heard her having a debate with Steven Lewis who is very pro-aid. I'm not sure I know what to think, it seems like a very complex issue and there are very good points being made on both sides. I guess if the solution to poverty was going to be easy they would have had it sorted out by now.

Fun Stuff

Bead for life:
Click here to check out the "Bead for Life" website. This is a picture of the pack of glossy paper beads I purchased online. They also sell very nice necklaces etc. This is a projet that provides work for women in Uganda. They also have a lot of other projects on the go like health programs... Click below to watch a video that shows how they make the beads. http://www.beadforlife.org/video/4DVDRoll.html

I purchased a bag of loose beads, hmm now what to do with them? Below are my first two tries at making earrings.

Little Travellers:

Click here to go to the "Little Traveller" website. My cousin gave me the little one below in the picture. They are very cute little pins that you can put on a shirt or coat (about the size of a safety pin). This is a project from South Africa to raise money for HIV/AIDS. Your little traveller comes with a booklet and the idea is to write down all of the places he/she visits. On their website they have pictures posted that people have taken all over the world with their "little travellers", very cute! http://www.littletravellers.net/your-photos

So far my little traveller has only been to Ingersoll Ontario, how sad )-: I will have to remember to pin her on the next time I go out.

Retainer Agreement

We got the retainer agreement from our agency on Friday and Matthew went to the bank and had it sent in the mail by the time I got home from work (good work Matty!). This is the last hurdle we all need to get past and then things should be back on track for our adoptions. I really hope people send them in fast, we have all had enough waiting that is for sure.

Another family we know through adoption in London Ontario is setting up a transracial parenting group that will meet every few weeks to chat. She sent out some resources for us to have a look at and I thought I would post them on this blog because they seem quite good.

Click on the links below if you are interested:

An online booklet on transracial parenting and the white privilege checklist. I have not read the full booklet (it is 48 pages) but it looks like it has lots of info on skin and hair care etc...

Guilt free snack time

Two new things I love that, no kidding, are good for you !

(I have such a sweet tooth that this almost NEVER happens):
Ok, they don't quite taste like potato chips. But they are crunchy and salty and full of goodness. These ones are seasoned with curry (-: I guess you can make them at home as well, but I have yet to try this. These ones I found in a health food store. There seems to be lots of recipes online if you search "Kale chips".

This stuff tastes darn close to chocolate milk, and has no cholesterol, fewer calories, and is also very good for you. Yum! It can be found in the grocery store and I have started to have a glass every morning before I rush out the door.

15 months

So I have not been consistently posting our waiting time over the last few months, but I have not forgotten – haha (like that would be at all possible). So we are now at 15 months waiting for a referral (and 20 months since we started the whole process). But the surprising thing is that I don’t feel as stressed about it now as I did just before the bankruptcy happened. Why? I don’t know. Maybe you get used to the waiting after a while and become numb to it, or maybe it is just because I feel more confident now knowing that really good and hardworking people are doing their best to get the agency up and running. Whatever the case, I am looking forward to watching the next few months unfold.

Halloween Haunt

We went with some friends to the Halloween Haunt at Canada's Wonderland on the weekend and it was a lot of fun (and very scary). It is from 7-midnight and addition to all of the rides they also have a bunch of haunted mazes where scary clowns and monsters jump out at you! Ahh!! "Don't touch the monsters and the monsters won't touch you" is what we were told....ahh good words to live by. hehehe

Food Inc.

Here is a must read book and must see movie.

A few months ago I was out for dinner with Matthew at a restaurant and he ordered a big steak. When he only managed to eat about half of it so I suggested he should try to finish it out of respect for the poor cow. He got a little grumpy and said he would not be able to finish it for sure now because me pointing out how a cow had lost its life for his meal had grossed him out. Maybe I had crossed a line, but when I thought about it after it struck me as strange that we have become that far removed from what we eat that we don't even want to think about what it is that we are eating half the time.

It then started to occur to me that I know very little about the food I eat, where it comes from, how it is produced, and the impact my food choices have on the animals involved, the people producing it, my health, and the impact on the environment. It was surprising to me that I know so little about the food I eat because eating is such a big part of my life and something I have to do every day. So I did some searching and found this book. It is really good and looks at the implications of our food choices from a number of different perspectives.

I feel that I am just at the very beginning of what will now be a long process for us to improve upon our diet for the sake of our own health, and because of the impact our choices have on the environment etc. We have already started to cut back on our meat consumption, buy more "free range" products, and have started to pick up more organic items. One of the best tips in the movie is not to forget the power we have as consumers and to think of every item that gets scanned at the grocery store as your opportunity to place a vote.

Funny - Diamond Shreddies

This has to be the funniest marketing campaign I have ever seen. Check out the new diamond shreddies, you can ever vote on their website for what you prefer: diamond vs. square. (heheh)

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story

ok, here is where I come clean and let you know what a geek I am (-: I enjoy watching the occasional TED talkes online (they are online lectures on a variety of subjects from some pretty smart people). In fact the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" started as a lecture by Al Gore on the TED talks website. I came across this one today by a Nigerian woman. It is a little long (18min) but I think worth watching for those of us with an interest in Africa and how people from Africa are perceived here in North America. She talks about stereotypes and how they form when you have limited exposure to the stories (good and bad) about a people.

I know that 3 years ago if you asked me what I knew about Ethiopian people I would have been caught in the same trap and my answer would have been "poverty". What a shame because there is so much more that they have to be proud of that is largely unknown unless you go searching out the information for yourself. So based on my own personal mistake, I can definitely appreciate how ignorance changes your perception of the world and the people in it. And when you recognize your own ignorance it is a powerful thing because it opens up a world of possibilities and wonder to you that you didn't even know existed.

TED talk Summary:

"Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding."