Red Threads: A China Adoption Blog

One more post...

2010-10-22T16:17:00.003-04:00

We went on the special needs list last fall and in December, we were referred a little girl from Datong, Shanxi Province. Dang Yunjing is now Leah Yunjing and she is a wonderful little girl. On May 10, 2010, she bacame a permanent part of our family. She has bilateral club feet but those are being taken care of. Thank you all for praying for us.

Miss me?

2008-11-13T18:07:00.004-05:00

You know what's embarassing? Forgetting your Blogger password. Boy, I thought I had it memorized.

No, seriously, I've lost the desire to maintain this blog even though I know there are a few of you who check in regularly (thank you for your e-mails).

As you can see from the banner, as of today we have been logged in for two years with the CCAA, and they are still nine months of referrals away before they get to ours. We really don't know what we're going to do, we may go special needs or we may stick it out. We'd appreciate your prayers.

Ally is doing fine. She loves kindergarten and pretty much aces every reading test put in front of her. We're very proud of her and we really hope we can get a sister or brother for her some day.

Anyway, I'm on Facebook now, so if you want to keep up with us, just get an account (everyone's doing it!), search for d e f r e s e (without the spaces) and you'll see my smiling face. Send me a friend request and I'll accept it.

I'll leave you with one picture of Ally. She had her class picture taken last month, and we think it turned out pretty well:

If anything changes on the adoption front, I'll be sure to update this blog. Otherwise, I hope to see you on Facebook.

-Ray

TVs in the Kids' Rooms: Just Say No

2008-03-15T09:55:00.004-04:00

Dr. Al Mohler has advice for Christian parents regarding placing a TV in a child's bedroom. You can read his article here. In it, he cites a New York Times story on the same subject. I've excerpted at length below. Bottom line: Don't do it.

A One-Eyed Invader in the Bedroom
Here’s one simple way to keep your children healthy: Ban the bedroom TV.

By some estimates, half of American children have a television in their bedroom; one study of third graders put the number at 70 percent. And a growing body of research shows strong associations between TV in the bedroom and numerous health and educational problems.

Children with bedroom TVs score lower on school tests and are more likely to have sleep problems. Having a television in the bedroom is strongly associated with being overweight and a higher risk for smoking.

One of the most obvious consequences is that the child will simply end up watching far more television — and many parents won’t even know.

In a study of 80 children in Buffalo, ages 4 to 7, the presence of a television in the bedroom increased average viewing time by nearly nine hours a week, to 30 hours from 21. And parents of those children were more likely to underestimate their child’s viewing time.

“If it’s in the bedroom, the parents don’t even really know what the kids are watching,” said Leonard H. Epstein, professor of pediatrics and social and preventive medicine at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Science at the State University of New York at Buffalo. “Oftentimes, parents who have a TV in the kids’ bedrooms have TVs in their bedrooms.”

Moreover, once the set is in the child’s room, it is very likely to stay. “In our experience, it is often hard for parents to remove a television set from a child’s bedroom,” Dr. Epstein said...

In a study among French adolescents, boys with a bedroom television were more likely than their peers to have a larger waist size and higher body fat and body mass index.

The French study also showed, not surprisingly, that boys and girls with bedroom TVs spent less time reading than others.

Other data suggest that bedroom television affects a child’s schoolwork. In a 2005 study in The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, researchers looked at the television, computer and video game habits of almost 400 children in six Northern California schools for a year. About 70 percent of the children in the study had their own TV in the bedroom; they scored significantly and consistently lower on math, reading and language-arts tests. Students who said they had computers in their homes scored higher...

Another October study, published in Pediatrics, showed that kindergartners with bedroom TVs had more sleep problems. Those kids were also less “emotionally reactive,” meaning that they weren’t as moody or as bothered by changes in routine. While that sounds like a good thing, the researchers speculated that having a TV in the bedroom dampened the intensity with which a child responded to stimulation.

Another study of more than 700 middle-school students, ages 12 to 14, found that those with bedroom TVs were twice as likely to start smoking — even after controlling for such risk factors as having a parent or friend who smokes or low parental engagement. Among kids who had a TV in the bedroom 42 percent smoked; among the others, the figure was 16 percent.

“I think it matters quite a lot,” Dr. Epstein said. “There are all kinds of problems that occur when kids have TVs in their bedroom.”

So while many parents try to limit how much television and what type of shows their children watch, that may be less than half the battle. Where a child watches is important too.

Ally Turns Five

2008-03-09T21:30:00.006-04:00

So we went low key with the birthday party this year. We let Ally invite her three closest girl friends for an afternoon of swimming at the local rec center pool. We had a giant cookie instead of a cake, on account that Ally doesn't eat the cake part, just the icing. No candles allowed at the rec center, but the girls sang Happy Birthday, which was really cute.

Ally's newest thing is Barbie Maiposa and the Butterfly Fairy, so she got a doll, complete with giant wings, which she held onto while watching the DVD.

Fresh Prince to Adopt From China?

2008-03-06T05:45:00.000-05:00

At least these parents understand...it's going to be a long wait if they do:

Will and Jada Smith to adopt child from China
ANOTHER adoption is on the way and this time it’s Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith who are having the option in their mind. The celebrity couple, according to source, are considering adopting a child from China. Will and Jada are “exploring” the idea of adopting a child from China. “Will and Jada are among a number of Hollywood couples looking into adopting in China,” the broker was quoted as saying.

Despite the pair intention to adopt, the source claimed that “(Adopting a child) is a long process, and from what I understand, not much has been done on their behalf.” No words just yet from Will and Jada about the adoption speculation.

Will has a son, Willard Christopher III, from his first marriage in addition to a son, named Jaden Smith and a daughter named Willow Camille Reign from his marriage to Jada. Will and Jaden both co-starred in the 2006 drama ‘The Pursuit of Happyness.’

The State of IA

2008-03-05T05:57:00.000-05:00

Foreign adoptions decline
By DAVID CRARY
Associated Press

The number of foreign children adopted by Americans has dropped for the third year in a row, a consequence of tougher policies in the two countries -- China and Russia -- that over the past decade have supplied the most children to U.S. families.

Figures for the 2007 fiscal year showed that adoptions from abroad have fallen to 19,411, down about 15 percent in just the past two years.

It's a dramatic change. The number of foreign adoptions had more than tripled since the early 1990s, reaching a peak of 22,884 in 2004 before dipping slightly in 2005, then falling to 20,679 in 2006.

"A drop in international adoptions is sad for children," said Thomas Atwood, president of the National Council for Adoption. "National boundaries and national pride shouldn't get in the way of children having families."

Adoptions from China, the No. 1 source country since 2000, fell to 5,453. That's down by 1,040 from last year and well off the peak of 7,906 in 2005. Two main factors lie behind this: an increase in domestic adoptions as China prospers and tighter restrictions on foreign adoptions that give priority to stable married couples between 30 and 50 and exclude single people, the obese and others with financial or health problems.

[The first part is true, China has increased their domestic adoptions. However, the new restrictions, applicable to those submitting dossiers after May 1, 2007, have not affected any families being referred children now. There simply were more dossiers submitted than there were children ready for IA, which led to China instituting the new restrictions. - ed.]

One consequence, adoption agencies say, is that the waiting time to complete an adoption from China has more than doubled to 24 months or more.

[It's more. The most recent batch of referrals, which arrived this week, are for dossiers logged in between December 28, 2005 and January 4, 2006, so the wait is now up to 26 months. - ed.]

Adoptions from Russia also dropped sharply over the past year -- from 3,706 to 2,310. Russian authorities suspended the operations of all foreign adoption agencies for several months earlier this year and have been reaccrediting them only gradually. Like China, Russia has been trying to boost the number of domestic adoptions.

U.S. adoptions from South Korea and Haiti also declined significantly, although the overall drop was partially offset by large increases in adoptions from Guatemala (up from 4,135 to 4,728), Ethiopia (732 to 1,255) and Vietnam (163 to 626).

Tom DeFilipo, president of the Joint Council on International Children's Services, said adoptions from Guatemala could decline over the coming year as its government -- under intense international pressure -- tries to impose tough new regulations on an adoption industry that was widely viewed as susceptible to fraud and extortion.

The State Department has advised Americans not to initiate adoption applications for Guatemala while that overhaul is under way. The proposed reforms are required under an international adoption treaty, the Hague Convention, which both Guatemala and the United States have agreed to adhere to starting next year.

Overall, DeFilipo -- whose council represents many international adoption agencies -- found reason for optimism in the new statistics.

"What you're seeing is fewer countries sending very large numbers of children and a broader range of countries participating," he said. "Over the long term, I think this is a healthy trend."

He mentioned Kenya, Peru and Brazil as countries not now among the major sources of children, but which might increase international adoptions in coming years.

Michele Bond, deputy assistant secretary of state for overseas citizen services, also viewed the new figures positively.

"Interest in intercountry adoption remains very strong," she said in a telephone interview. "People are increasingly well-informed. They're more likely to look at new countries instead of always looking at the same small number of countries."

By contrast, another adoption expert, Harvard law professor Elizabeth Bartholet, depicted the new numbers as "totally depressing."

She said China and Russia reflected a trend in which countries opened themselves up to international adoption, then scaled back. She attributed this in part to UNICEF and other international organizations encouraging countries to care for children within their homeland, even when domestic programs such as foster care might be inadequate.

[This is interesting; I'd never heard this about UNICEF before. - ed.]

"UNICEF is a major force," Bartholet said. "They've played a major role in jumping on any country sending large number of kids abroad, identifying it as a problem rather than a good thing."

UNICEF's child protection spokesman, Geoffrey Keele, said the U.N. agency does believe it is preferable to care for orphaned or abandoned children in their own countries if good homes could be found for them.

"The best interests of the child must be the guiding principle," he said. "We don't go about discouraging international adoption. We just want to be sure it's done properly."

Thomas Atwood, of the National Council for Adoption, said there should be no competition between domestic and international adoption. With an estimated 143 million orphans worldwide, he said, there was enough need to go around.

[Amen to that. - ed.]

For U.S.-based adoption agencies, the biggest impact has been on those specializing in placing children from China.

The president of one of the largest such groups, Joshua Zhong of Colorado-based Chinese Children Adoption International, said the agency had placed about 620 children this year, down from about 1,200 in 2005, while average waiting times had increased from nine months to two years.

Some clients are so committed to adopting a Chinese child that they are willing to wait, Zhong said. "Others say forget about it."

WARNING: This Post Contains Emetological Material; Update: Culprit?

2008-03-03T16:57:00.007-05:00

Mark this day: As far as we know, Ally threw up for the first time. Or, as James Lileks so deftly put it in today's Bleat, she had a "barftacular evacuation", thus adding to the ever-growing list of metaphors in the English lexicon for vomiting. Part of the essential knowledge at university is to know them all.

It happened at pre-school, about fifteen minutes before Lauren picked her up. She seemed otherwise all right and gave no indication of illness when she was dropped off. Her teacher changed her shirt (note to self: give her an extra special end-of-year gift) and didn't bother to call Lauren, since she was on her way.

I imagine it must have been pretty unsettling for Ally, poor thing. She's sleeping right now. That's one childhood rite of passage that we hope never comes, but eventually it does.

UPDATE: Apparently, today was Read Across America Day at school, in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday. For snack, the kids were served green eggs and ham. Don't know if this caused any adverse reaction, but I'm sure she won't be eating them again soon. Not on a plane. Not on a train.

I also found out that some My Little Ponys were among the collateral damage. Ally said her teacher took them to the bathroom to wash them off. Why do I have a feeling they're going to be sent to live on a farm in Connecticut?

Gotcha Day + 4 Years

2008-02-28T20:13:00.004-05:00

Actually, it's Saturday, but we've got a busy next couple of days, so I thought I'd post early.

Hard to believe she'll be starting kindergarten in the fall. Tempus fugit.

The video is from our first few minutes with Ally. The music is "Swept Away" by Geoff Moore.

Previously:

Gotcha Day + 2 Years
Gotcha Day + 3 Years

Chinese New Year in Australia

2008-02-12T05:45:00.000-05:00

[Sorry for the cringe-inducing headline; you can blame ABC Sydney for that. Of course they don't adopt dolls out of China, they adopt children.]

W elcome cheers for these adopted China dolls
Taking part in the Chinese New Year parade was a big thrill for Liu Kang Yi and her family.

She was born in central China, but was adopted by parents Grant Simmons and Antoinette Lee eleven months ago.

Kang Yi and her family were among the two and a half thousand participants in the 2008 Chinese New year parade, and she certainly looked the part being dressed in traditional qi pao (cheong sam in Cantonese) and a useful parasol, she seemed to epitomise the growing relationship between China and Australia.

What We Already Knew

2008-02-11T05:54:00.000-05:00

As this article from USA Today says, it appears the pendulum is swinging from foreign to domestic adoptions in the US:

Fewer foreign children adopted
A decline in foreign adoptions since restrictions imposed by Russia and China is prompting greater interest in U.S.-born kids, including those in foster care.

A USA TODAY survey of a dozen large adoption agencies found an increase from 2006 to 2007 in inquiries, home studies or placements of U.S.-born children.

Pessimistic Outlook for China's Adoption Program

2008-02-09T05:53:00.000-05:00

Is adoption door closing?
The number of couples hoping for a baby now so dramatically exceeds the available abandoned infants that it could take at least three years, if not more, to adopt. Officials for the China Centre of Adoption Affairs said there were an almost insurmountable 25,000 files - including 600 Canadians - waiting to be matched with Chinese orphans.

With each passing week, China matches fewer babies to foreign couples. Some months only 400 referrals are sent out worldwide - compared to 1,000 just a year before. And it seems likely it could take five years or longer to match waiting couples with infants. Growing wait times are reflected in the operations of the world's adoption agencies, some of which no longer accept files from people wishing to adopt from China.

Georgia Adoption Story

2008-02-09T05:38:00.000-05:00

Family Adopts 4 International Children
Stefanie Leist knows well the challenges of motherhood. She has two grown children and, each morning, she wakes up sons Dalton and Asher to gets them ready to head off to school...

Then one day her husband came to her with an idea that would change everything."God had just really put on his heart that there was a little girl in China and I thought he was crazy! I mean really," she said. "We have 4 kids, a full house, we're busy."

In the summer of 2004, Leist and her husband began the process of international adoption. A year later they came home from China with little Isabelle and a year after that with Sophie, both orphaned special needs children...

Then in June 2007, they brought home little Jude. The boy's clubbed feet were so severe at the time that he couldn't even stand. The adoption process wasn't seamless but Leist will tell you that no addition to the family is. ...

Stefanie wears a pendant around her neck of Shepard, the little boy she will bring home from China this summer.

Celebrating Chinese New Year

2008-02-08T05:34:00.000-05:00

In Tennessee:

Jackson rings in the Chinese New Year
Adoptive parents and their kids gather to celebrate holiday

The year of the rat was ushered in with style Thursday by families gathered at the China Pan restaurant to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The group included about a dozen families from West Tennessee Adopted Families, a group of parents who have adopted children internationally...

The group meets annually to celebrate the Chinese New Year, Easter and around Halloween, said member Stephanie Coleman.

In Virginia:

Adoptive families join together
International Adoptive Families of the Shenandoah includes 12 families from Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County. The group provides support for potential parents and a place where the children can learn about their Chinese heritage. Since many of these children have no knowledge of their biological history, Wine and Arritt said it's important to teach them about their culture.

In addition to an upcoming Chinese New Year celebration, the group plans to celebrate the Lunar Moon Festival, and both Wine and Arritt expect to enroll Will and Xinru in a Mandarin Chinese class come fall.

"I want to give Xinru as broad a spectrum of knowledge as I can find for her regarding her birth heritage," Arritt said. "I don't want to push her into it, but at this point, I do want to expose her to it."

Happy New Year

2008-02-07T05:57:00.000-05:00

We're keeping it pretty low key this year, just dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. To all of you gathering with your various FCC groups, we hope you have a very happy celebration.

Lunar New Year Event Raises Funds for Adoption

2008-02-06T06:16:00.000-05:00

Lunar New Year
For the Johnsens, Sunday's Lunar New Year celebration is as much a celebration of family as a cultural festivity.

In March 2005, Greg and Debbie Johnsen adopted their daughter Alyssa from China. Two years later, they returned to finalize adoption on their youngest child, Alaina...

Debbie Johnsen, a former pediatrician, is in her second year on the planning committee for Dillon International Inc.'s Lunar New Year Celebration, and this year, Alyssa, 3, will join the procession of children at the event.

Kentucky Family Shares Their Story

2008-02-05T07:54:00.000-05:00

Local adoptive parents sharing their stories
ALEXANDRIA - Jackie Egan of Alexandria realizes she can't adopt every child who needs a home, but that's not stopping her from trying to convince others to consider adopting.

Egan has adopted three children from China, and is one of several organizers of an adoption information fair at her church Sunday, Feb. 10.

It's the first outreach effort by Main Street Baptist Church's new adoption ministry that's focused on spreading awareness of available adoption options, Egan said.

"I just felt there were so many children out there that needed homes that I couldn't bring them all home," she said.

NY Giants 17, NE Patriots 14

2008-02-03T22:15:00.000-05:00

Giants Stun Patriots in Super Bowl XLII

Wow. That had to be the best Super Bowl ever. Congratulations to my team, the New York football Giants.

Chinese New Year in Lancaster County, PA

2008-02-03T08:57:00.000-05:00

It's a rattling New Year
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa - Groundhog? What groundhog?

Saturday, the rat, not the groundhog, was the relevant rodent at festivities kicking off Chinese New Year in Lancaster County.

The Year of the Rat got off to an early start, as more than 200 people gathered at the Lancaster campus of Harrisburg Area Community College for a celebration that included Chinese dance performances, karaoke singing and violin music, and traditional Chinese New Year treats.

An Update on Zhien Liu

2008-02-02T08:52:00.000-05:00

The Austrailian government is going to review the case:

Deborra-lee Furness' adoption success
AT night, in the confines of her small room in China, orphan Zhen Liu frets for her adoptive mother, who is thousands of kilometres away.

"She said to me on the phone yesterday: `Mamma, when are you coming to get me?','' Diana Liu says.

Ms Liu hopes it will be very soon, after Deborra-lee Furness and The Sunday Telegraph won another victory in a campaign to overhaul Australia's adoption procedures...

Furness, who has two adopted children with husband Hugh Jackman after enduring their own bureaucratic nightmare, applauded the move.

"I'm hugely supportive of the new leadership having the sense to look at individual cases such as this,'' she said.

China: Making Girls Disappear

2008-02-01T06:25:00.000-05:00

An unsettling story about the ramifications of China's one-child policy:

China’s Population and Adoption Policies may Result in Skewed Sex Ratio

Year in Pictures - 2007

2008-01-09T20:26:00.000-05:00

In the past, I've put these on You Tube, but since Blogger allows up to 100 MB files (as opposed to 25 MB for You Tube), I figured I'd give it a try on Blogger this year. Enjoy.

Parents Finding Olympics Are Expensive

2008-01-02T20:23:00.000-05:00

Cost puts damper on this Olympic event
It seemed like a good idea. Bring your adopted Chinese daughters (and they're almost all daughters) back to Beijing to experience the glories of the 2008 Summer Olympics, connect with the homeland and watch the Middle Kingdom at a key moment in its history.

Then parents started checking the prices, which can run to $15,000 per person or more, including airfare, inflated hotel bills and tickets.

Budding Photographer

2007-12-28T20:14:00.000-05:00

Ally got a Vtech Kidizoom camera from ~~Santa~~ us for Christmas, so what does she do with it? Takes four pictures of her foot, of course:

Must've had the camera upside down for the last one. After a while, she got the hang of it. Now she needs work in picking better subjects:

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T13:36:00.001-05:00

From our house to yours.

Yes, Ally, There is a Santa Claus, But...

2007-12-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

I don't know how old I was when my belief in an all-knowing, all-seeing bearded man in a red suit, able to discern who's been naughty or nice, went up in smoke. I don't remember it being especially traumatic, it just seemed like another rite of passage. I still got gifts at Christmas time, and that's all that mattered.

When I became a parent, I knew old St. Nick would have to be dealt with. At the same time, I didn't want to be dogmatic about it. At least I'm not as radical about it as this guy.

Here's my problem with the whole Santa thing: As a Christian, I don't want to imbue the guy in the red suit with attributes that rightly belong to God. I don't have an issue with my daughter thinking of Santa as a fictional character who shows up in stories around Christmas time. What I don't want her thinking is that he's a real person, because later on, the result might be disappointment and confusion. She may wonder what else we've been lying to her about. I distinctly remember a comedian recalling this time in his life by remarking that when he found out Santa didn't exist, God and Jesus didn't stand much of a chance.

So what do we do? Well, unless we went to live in a cave, we knew we couldn't shield Ally from Santa all throughout her childhood. I knew Ally would have friends and family who took Santa Claus very seriously. We simply choose not to put too much emphasis on Santa's gift-giving qualities, his omniscience and his ability to violate physical laws of space and time. Instead, we try to portray him as a fictional character who symbolizes a giving spirit, the spirit we're supposed to have as Christians. I like the way the author of the article below from Christianity Today puts it: an attitude of "benign neglect".

We also try to focus on what we're really celebrating at Christmas. Not the fact that we can be hyper-consumers who contribute to the retailers' bottom line but that God Himself became incarnate as a baby, grew up and lived among us.

The following article was published in Christianity Today in 1999. It neatly summarizes how we feel about the Santa Question. I commend it to you, dear reader, along with our wishes for a happy and blessed Christmas.

The Santa Question

Well "DUH"!

2007-12-23T11:38:00.001-05:00

64% Say Holiday Season Should Focus More on Birth of Jesus
Sixty-four percent (64%) of adults say this holiday season should focus more on the birth of Jesus. A recent Rasmussen Reports survey found that 27% disagree, believing there should be less Christian emphasis. That’s up from 17% in our survey conducted this time last year.

Overall, most Americans (91%) celebrate Christmas with their family. Of those who observe Christmas, three-fourths (75%) celebrate it as a religious holiday. A fifth (20%) commemorate a secular Christmas.

Eighty-five percent (85%) believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God sent to Earth to die for our sins. Just 10% disagree and 5% aren’t sure. An interesting partisan divide occurs in this question.

Most (77%) Christian celebrants also believe that Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary. Thirteen percent (13%) don’t think the miracle occurred. More women (81%) believe Jesus was born to a virgin than men (73%).

Meanwhile, 84% think that the person known to history as Jesus Christ actually walked the earth two-thousand years ago. Only 5% disagree.

Of course, even among those who focus their holiday celebration on the birth of Christ, many caught up in the shopping frenzy associated with the season. With just one week to go, 29% of Americans say they’ve already finished their shopping this year. Twenty-eight percent (28%) have yet to begin.

A separate Rasmussen Reports survey revealed that 57% of Americans say they will attend a Christian service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day this year. The same survey also found that 67% prefer stores to use the phrase “Merry Christmas” in season advertising rather than “Happy Holidays.” And when it comes to Christmas traditions, 67% will decorate their homes for the holidays, 25% will be traveling out of town and just 13% plan to go Christmas caroling this year.

Most Disappointing E-mail Ever

2007-12-23T11:33:00.000-05:00

From Amazon.com:

I'm sorry, but it appears that your order has been lost in shipping.

Lovely.

They did make it right by sending a duplicate order via UPS overnight, but it didn't get here on Saturday, so it looks like Ally's Jungle Book DVD, Jesus Storybook Bible and Moonbeams, Dumplings and Dragon Boats books are going to arrive just in the nick of time.

We Interrupt This Hiatus to Bring You an Important Message

2007-12-19T05:57:00.000-05:00

I’m breaking my self-imposed month of slackdom to, first of all, let you know that I’m on a self-imposed month of slackdom and to comment on a couple of stories making the news. Oh, and because I’m feeling snarky today.

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

Starring Pete Rose as the pot:

NEW YORK -- Pete Rose thinks players who use steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are "making a mockery" of baseball.

The career hits leader, banned by the sport for gambling, weighed in on the Mitchell report in an interview with Dennis Miller that was slated to air Wednesday night on VERSUS.

Uh huh. Kind of like betting on baseball games in which you were managing one of the teams. Don’t worry Pete, the juicers will get their due, if not now in the court of public opinion, then when it comes time for Hall of Fame selections. Ask Shoeless Joe Jackson how that’s working out. It could be that we may never see elected to the Hall of Fame: 1) the player with the third highest career batting average (Jackson), 2) the player with the most hits in a lifetime and 3) the player with the most career home runs. That’s because the Hall of Fame has certain standards. Unlike show business…

As if One Train Wreck Wasn’t Enough.

Britney Spears’s sixteen-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn, is “shocked” to find herself pregnant:

The star of the TV comedy series Zoey 101 told the magazine she was pregnant to her longtime boyfriend Casey Aldridge. "It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected,'' she said. "I was in complete and total shock and so was he.''

Sounds like Miss Spears, whose TV show will be added to the list of those my daughter won’t be allowed to watch, should probably have someone explain to her the birds and the bees. It probably shouldn’t be her mom, who thinks she’s only fertile outside of curfew:

Lynne Spears, already grandmother to Britney's young sons, said: "I didn't believe it because Jamie Lynn's always been so conscientious. She's never late for her curfew. I was in shock. I mean, this is my 16-year-old baby.''

No word on how this will affect Lynne Spears’s contract with book publisher Thomas Nelson to write a Christian parenting book. Doubtless she will emphasize what not to do in bringing up girls.

UPDATE: Thomas Nelson, realizing she’s not an expert in the topic she has chosen to write about, has wisely put the publication of Lynne Spears’s book on hold. Smart move.

--------------------------

Part of the reason I’m taking this time off, aside from being really busy with other things, is to think about where I want to go with this blog, if anywhere at all. As part of the re-tooling, I’m considering adding more sarcasm. It comes easy to me and I’m really good at it. What do you think?

China Adoptions to U.S. Down by Over 1000

2007-12-01T08:29:00.000-05:00

Not a real surprise, but now the numbers are out for FY 2007:

Foreign Adoptions in U.S. Drop
NEW YORK (AP) — The number of foreign children adopted by Americans has dropped for the third year in a row, a consequence of tougher policies in the two countries — China and Russia — that over the past decade have supplied the most children to U.S. families.

Figures for the 2007 fiscal year, provided by the State Department on Friday, showed that adoptions from abroad have fallen to 19,411, down about 15 percent in just the past two years.

It's a dramatic change. The number of foreign adoptions had more than tripled since the early 1990s, reaching a peak of 22,884 in 2004 before dipping slightly in 2005, then falling to 20,679 in 2006.

"A drop in international adoptions is sad for children," said Thomas Atwood, president of the National Council for Adoption. "National boundaries and national pride shouldn't get in the way of children having families."

Adoptions from China, the No. 1 source country since 2000, fell to 5,453. That's down by 1,040 from last year and well off the peak of 7,906 in 2005. Two main factors lie behind this: an increase in domestic adoptions as China prospers and tighter restrictions on foreign adoptions that give priority to stable married couples between 30 and 50 and exclude single people, the obese and others with financial or health problems.

The tighter restrictions didn't take effect until May 2007, but those dossiers haven't even been reviewed yet, much less referred a child.

Back from the Land of Enchantment

2007-11-30T05:55:00.000-05:00

I’m back from my trip to New Mexico. I don’t travel much for my job (thank God), so Ally isn’t used to having me gone for a few nights in a row. Since it’s my job to tuck her in at night, that part of her routine got perturbed and she wasn’t too happy about it. I left a Mickey Mouse card on her pillow, telling her I missed her and couldn’t wait to get back and see her. The first night she woke up crying and Lauren said she came downstairs holding the card.

Awwww.

You don’t want them to be sad, but it’s nice to be missed. All was well when I produced a small stuffed bear, with a strong resemblance to Winnie the Pooh, which I bought at the Albuquerque airport. Another for her collection.

Bizzaro: When Celebrities Adopt

2007-11-25T18:12:00.000-05:00

Oh God, please let this be a joke:

Unlikely Britney Rumors: Star To Adopt Chinese Twins & Is Planning Own Funeral
Having been deemed unfit to care for her own children, News of the World is claiming that Britney Spears is so desperate to have children in her life that she's been telling friends that she is in the final stages of adopting Chinese twins.

According to NOTW, friends feel that Britney decided to adopt the two six-year-old twins from China in a frantic bid to fill the void left by losing her sons to ex-hubby Kevin Federline.

Umm, couple of things:

1) At 25, Britney is too young to adopt from China, not to mention the fact that...

2) She's single, which is verboten under the new regulations and...

3) What about all that legal trouble, which would also scuttle any chance of adopting from China?

Texas A&M 38, Texas 30

2007-11-23T19:39:00.000-05:00

Saw 'em off.

Try as they might, A&M couldn't find a way to lose this game.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T08:06:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving at the Preschool

2007-11-20T15:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Ally’s preschool held their annual Thanksgiving program, complete with songs and food. I took a half day off from work (which, for me, meant I got to leave at 10 AM) and met Lauren at the church sanctuary for the music portion. I got there about ten minutes early and positioned myself in the second row, right behind two sets of parents armed with video cameras. I still managed a clear shot of the stage between them, but I wasn’t as prepared as the guy who brought a tripod (really) and set it up at the end of our row.

Ally performed two songs with her class, which was a remarkable achievement. Usually, she gets inexplicably overcome by stage fright and she just stands there, not singing, not moving. This time she did fine, and I caught it all. Even the part at the end, when they started heading out and she yelled “That’s my Mom and Dad!”, and pointed in our direction. Golden.

We withdrew to her classroom, which became much smaller with eleven kids and most of their parents. We dined on Chick Fil A nuggets, meatballs, fruit (which Lauren brought) and pumpkin muffins, which the kids made. I assume that means they added ingredients to the batter and mixed it, but that their contribution to the project ended at the 350 degree oven. I hope. And of course, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a styrofoam turkey:

Sandi and Hannah Come Home

2007-11-17T06:41:00.000-05:00

Below is an article from today's Lansing State Journal:

Red tape cut, Lansing mom to return home with daughter
Adoption complicated by husband's death in China

Mike Hughes
Lansing State Journal

A Lansing woman's bureaucratic tangle has been resolved.

Sandi Sheldon is expected home from China today with her new daughter, Hannah, and the cremated remains of her husband, Dennis.

U.S. officials held up Hannah's visa for several days after Dennis Sheldon died while in China. But pressure from the public and congressional leaders forced the government to expedite the process.

"Everyone has been on the phone to make this happen," said Darlene Hill, Sandi Sheldon's mother.

That included the adoption agency, Bethany Christian Services, and the offices of U.S. representatives Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, and Vern Ehlers, R-Grand Rapids.

"We've dealt with a number of complicated issues involving immigration," said Sylvia Warner, Rogers' spokeswoman. "But never one this complicated - or this heart-rending."

Dennis Sheldon, 46, was head custodian at Pleasant View Elementary Magnet School in Lansing and was a natural for parenthood, said the school's principal, Madeline Shanahan.

"There were a number of children ... he went to extra trouble to bond with," she said. "He was absolutely thrilled when the adoption came through."

The school staff surprised him shortly before the couple left for China with a breakfast and an all-diapers baby shower. On Oct. 30, the Sheldons went to Guangzhou (formerly Canton), finalizing their adoption of Hannah, who is about 18 months old.

Dennis Sheldon died there. Hill said he died Nov. 12 apparently from heart failure, possibly aggravated by diabetes.

The complication that delayed Sandi Sheldon's return to the United States came from the U.S. Citizen Immigration Service, said John VanValkenburg of Bethany.

Hannah's papers were no longer accurate, he said, because they listed both Sandi and Dennis. "In a situation where circumstances change, that requires a change in everything else."

Friends and other adoptive parents flooded officials with phone calls. Rogers' office worked with the Immigration Service.

"We were able to persuade them to expedite the process," Warner said.

Late Thursday night, there was word that it soon would be worked out. Hill received news shortly after midnight that her daughter was coming home; Rogers received an official fax at about 4 a.m.

During that time, Hill said, false rumors developed. There were no complications from Chinese officials, and the cremation was not required.

"That was something that Dennis and Sandi always said they wanted," Hill said.

Dennis and Sandi Sheldon were married for 19 years, and Hannah is their first child, said Hill, who lives in Lansing with her husband, Herbert, and is now the grandmother of 13 children.

Sandi, 42, works part time at a Wal-Mart store, and Hill granted that money could be tight. Donations may be sent by check to Hope For Hannah, Fifth Third Bank, 6446 S. Cedar St., Lansing, MI 48911.

"Hope For Hannah"

2007-11-16T15:38:00.000-05:00

Our agency has set up a fund to help Sandi and Hannah Sheldon. Here are the particulars from the web site:

Bethany Christian Services are pleased to announce the Sheldon family has received their visas and are returning home from China this weekend. “We will continue to work with the family to make sure all their needs are met,” said John VanValkenburg, Public Relations Specialist for Bethany Christian Services. “This has been a difficult situation for the Sheldon family and Bethany would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support for this family, including the efforts of Michigan Congressmen, Vern Ehlers and Mike Rogers.”

Due to these special circumstances, Bethany is accepting contributions to support the family until December 31, 2007. Checks can be made payable to Bethany Christian Services and please indicate the Sheldon family on the memo line. Checks can be sent to Bethany's Donor Records at 901 Eastern Ave NE, PO Box 294 Grand Rapids Michigan 49501. Bethany Christian Services will give all donations to the family for their “Hope for Hannah” fund.

Pray for the Sheldon Family UPDATED

2007-11-15T20:08:00.000-05:00

Sandi and Dennis Sheldon, of Michigan, traveled to China to adopt Hannah, a 17-month old special needs child. Tragically, Dennis died from diabetic shock shortly after being united with his new daughter. To make matters worse, Sandi is not able to bring Hannah home because the family's status has changed and the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou is requiring a new I-171.

Appeals have gone out for people to contact the Sheldon's congressmen, but from what I've heard, that's no longer necessary. Now we need to pray for Sandi and Hannah to come home as quickly as possible so that they can begin to prepare for life without their husband and father.

I can't imagine what they are going through right now. This family is working through the same agency we're using, Bethany Christian Services, so I know they're getting lots of support from their travel group as well as the Bethany's personnel in China.

The following is a news story from one of the Michigan TV stations. The picture is not of the entire family, as is stated in the article, but rather appears to be Hannah's referral photo:

http://www.wilx.com/news/headlines/11384376.html

*Update: The link to the above news story now contains a video.

**Update #2: According to the Bethany discussion forum, Sandi and Hannah were present at their swearing-in ceremony and are on their way home. What an answer to prayer!

OT: Car-related Rant

2007-11-14T05:55:00.000-05:00

My car’s windshield attracts rocks like Britney Spears attracts bad publicity.

Also, I’ve found that the newer the windshield, the greater the attraction.

Against all laws of probability, I’m about ready to put a second new windshield on my 2-½ year old Subaru Forester. The first had to be replaced when, having bought the car a few months before, it was struck by a rock (I guess it was a rock; could have been a bolt or a hunk of plutonium for all I know) while we were on vacation in Myrtle Beach. Of course I waited until the inspection was due six months later, and I’ll probably wait this time as well.

My current windshield got dinged within a month but the resulting crack was less than an inch in size, so no need to worry about the inspection. A second similar rock/glass interaction soon followed, but it was still inspection-worthy, so, again, I didn’t worry about it. Then a couple of weeks ago, I was driving home from work and BAM. It sounded like someone dropped one of the Moai on the hood. I thought it had missed the windshield, but a crack was clearly visible at the site of impact. And it was already more than an inch long. And growing. By next morning, the crack had spanned almost the entire length along the bottom of the windshield.

*Sigh*

I really don’t know how to explain four crack-producing hits in two years. I don’t tailgate gravel-laden dump trucks in hopes that one of its payload/projectiles will get squeezed between a tire and the pavement like a watermelon seed and hurled in my general direction. I’m just driving around, minding my own business. Hopefully I’ve used my allotment of bad luck in this area.

Oh, and of course I have the windshield wiper deicers ($$$), which I use about as often as the heated side mirrors; i.e., never.

To those of you who own stock in companies that produce auto glass, you’re welcome.

"Mandy & Pandy" Author: Giving Back

2007-11-14T05:40:00.000-05:00

Author Announces Program As A Way To Give Back The Love From His Own Adoption Experience
Mandy and Pandy Announces 10% From Sales Will Be Donated to Gifts of Love

Ann Arbor, MI/November 13, 2007 - Chris Lin, author of the critically acclaimed book, Mandy and Pandy Say, 'Ni Hao Ma?- announces that he will be donating 10% from website and direct sales of the book to the Gifts of Love as a way to support the Anqing, Anhui orphanage in China.

Lin, an adoptive parent whose daughter, Mandy, served as the inspiration for the Mandy and Pandy book series, felt a need to support the orphanage community in China.

Lin wrote Mandy and Pandy Say, 'Ni Hao Ma?- as a way to help parents and children learn Chinese and appreciate the unique Chinese culture.

The Gifts of Love through the Great Wall China Adoption works with the government of the People's Republic of China to find homes for Chinese orphans....

Additional information on Chris Lin and Mandy and Pandy Say, 'Ni Hao Ma?- may be obtained at www.mandyandpandy.com.

Washington Adoption Story

2007-11-09T21:46:00.000-05:00

Kris and Jerry welcome newest family member home from China
Kris Crocker drove out to Spokane International Airport Friday morning to meet her husband Jerry and his dad as they come from a three week trip to Changsha, China.

Jerry brought home quite a gift for her: Their newly adopted daughter Gabby.

Calendar Girl

2007-11-09T14:53:00.001-05:00

Giving adoption a face
Eight-year-old Aimee Rothschild is featured on the cover of a calendar that will raise funds to help orphanages in Yiyang, China.

Aimee Rothschild was born in Yiyang in the Hunan province of China. She found her home in Salem.

No more than 3 feet tall, Aimee is as gentle as a breeze. But the 8-year-old has a major role in a global movement to aid children in her home country.

She will become the face to represent tens of thousands of orphaned children in Yiyang after a 2008 fundraising calendar is released with her picture on the cover. The calendar, internationally distributed, will be used to fund educational projects, nurses and activities in Yiyang orphanages.

For more information, visit YiyangFund.org.

Pennsylvania Adoption Story

2007-11-09T05:40:00.000-05:00

A brother for Noah
A family is trying to adopt their adopted son's friend from China.

Noah, who has spina bifida, lived most of his life in a Chinese orphanage before the McClymont family, of Manchester Township, adopted him about two years ago.

Since then, Noah has talked of missing his best friend - a little boy who also has spina bifida and is wheelchair-bound - with whom he lived at the orphanage.

Donna McClymont, her husband, Lee, and their other three children have been trying for about the last year to adopt Noah's friend - a 9-year-old they plan to name David. Unfortunately, the process is slow and complicated in David's case.

More Orphanages for China

2007-11-07T20:03:00.000-05:00

China to build more orphanages
The Chinese government plans to build 83 new orphanages in 2008, as part of the effort to improve child welfare infrastructure, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Tuesday.

The State Development and Reform Commission plans to allocate 130 million yuan (US$17 million) for the construction, while the Ministry of Civil Affairs will use 200 million yuan (US$26 million) from the income of the Welfare Lottery.

The funds would mainly be spent in building the new orphanages, said Zhang Mingliang, director of the ministry's department of social welfare and social affairs.

Efforts would also focus on improving the facilities and functions of orphanages, so as to provide orphans with fostering, medical care, special education, rehabilitation, and vocational training, said Zhang.

By the end of 2006, China had 249 orphanages with 30,716 beds, which accommodates 72,000 orphans, or 13 percent of the country's total.

The government plans to set up orphanages or open orphan's departments in local welfare houses in all prefecture-level cities by 2010.

So just over 30,000 beds for 72,000 orphans? I guess they assume two children per bed. Also, if 72,000 orphans represents 13 percent of China's total, where are the rest? Some type of foster care, I hope. Or with relatives?

From the NYT "Relative Choices" Blog

2007-11-07T08:10:00.000-05:00

A very touching article by Jeff Gamage, author of "China Ghosts: My Daughter's Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood":

Finding Zhao Gu
At about 10 a.m. on June 19, 2003, in the western Chinese city of Wuwei, a man named Ma Guoxing was walking across town, intent on a pending business appointment.

But as he neared the Wei’an Health Center, he noticed a crowd of people at the front gate, and he interrupted his journey to go and see what had so captivated their interest.

On the ground was a newborn baby, a girl, crying loudly.

Ma Guoxing did what no one else would do: He reached down and picked up the child. Then he turned around and began to walk back the way he had come, the baby in his arms.

Read the whole thing.

Election Day 2007

2007-11-06T17:03:00.000-05:00

Yes, it was Election Day here in Virginia. Ally agreed to walk with me to the local high school to vote, but only after I told her she'd get a sticker if she did. I got to explain the democratic process to her and how we should all be informed citizens and vote in every election we can, etc.

In our precinct, we have the optically scanned ballots, where you fill in the appropriate oval with a felt pen.

"Can I do it?"

"No, I don't think that would be a good idea."

"Why not?"

I tried to tell her only one person can vote at a time. Unless you live in Chicago. Anyway, I flipped the card around to fill in the back half of the ballot, the part where it asks if you want the county to issue bonds for this, that or the other project.

"How come you're picking 'no'?", she asked in a voice loud enough to be heard by just about everybody in the room.

"Because, honey, I think they should just pay cash for everything they want, like they're supposed to."

So I voted "no" for all the proposals. Except for the library. I think I said "yes" to that one. Eh, they'll probably all pass anyway.

Our civic duty completed, we collected our "I Voted" stickers and walked back home. Or rather, I walked and she rode on my shoulders as the breeze seemed to drop the temperature a few degrees. It finally feels like fall is here.

Q&A with Beth Nonte Russell

2007-11-05T05:49:00.000-05:00

Trip to China alters lives
Beth Nonte Russell went to China in 1999, accompanying a friend who intended to adopt a baby girl. Through a totally unexpected chain of events detailed in Russell's book, "Forever Lily," she ended up adopting the girl herself.

The Jasper native's story was published earlier this year by Simon & Schuster. Russell, 44, an Indiana University graduate, lives in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband, Randy, and their daughters, Lily, 8, and Jaden, 3, both adopted from China.

Virginia Adoption Story

2007-11-04T08:13:00.000-05:00

Adopting a way of life
After close to 10 years of marriage, Mike and Melissa Hartzler still had not realized their hope of becoming parents.

For many couples, this would seem a harsh reality. For Melissa Hartzler, it was a push into a long-cherished dream.

“I had wanted to adopt well before we were even married,” explained the Waynesboro woman, recalling how the idea came to her while watching a program about the plight of girls in China. “I thought, ‘Gosh, I’ve got to get one of those girls. I’ve got to get one of those babies.’ Your whole thought is that these children need to be saved. It’s overwhelming, and that feeling just sticks with you.”

Halloween

2007-10-31T20:45:00.000-04:00

Try as we might, we couldn't get her to wear a "Mulan" costume. Minnie Mouse would have to do this year:

One Year DTC: Some Thoughts

2007-10-17T15:33:00.000-04:00

It was one year ago today that we were DTC for our second adoption from China. At that time, the most recent batch of referrals contained 18 days worth of log in dates (LIDs) and the wait was 14 months from LID to referral.

What I wouldn’t give to see that now. The seven most recent batches have contained single digits of LIDs and the wait is now about two years. All signs are pointing toward fewer Chinese children adopted into American families this year (FY 2007) than last, and 2006 was down about 1,500 from 2005. Factor in China’s booming economy, making it possible for more families to pay the fine for multiple children, and the prospect of adopting a second child by 2008 looks bleak. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing that more children are staying with their families or being adopted domestically in China. It’s not. It’s just that you plan on a certain time frame and when it looks like it will be pushed back by a number of years, you start to wonder: How long is too long?

I turn 44 this Saturday. I know plenty of folks who became parents in their 40s. I don’t feel old, but I haven’t kept up with my running and for the first time I am starting to feel my age (even if I don’t act it!). The pants are a little tighter, the wrinkles more numerous, the hair a bit grayer. It’s all there. End-of-life issues are starting to work their way into my thinking: Wills. Retirement. Early-bird specials. I know I shouldn’t worry about those things yet, but I do. I worry about depriving a child of a parent, a child who has already experienced abandonment once. Maybe it’s because my own mom and dad were in their 60s when they died. It definitely makes you think.

On the other hand, we are lucky to have the daughter we do have. Ally is growing into a beautiful, intelligent young lady and we couldn’t be more proud. She talks about getting a sister from China. We haven’t really emphasized the second adoption, but she knows. Recently, for the first time, I’ve begun wondering what would happen if we didn’t, or couldn’t, adopt again. It’s already been a year and it will, in all likelihood, take at least another year, probably more. Can we live with that? Perhaps, but I wouldn’t want to. Right now, we’re in it for as long as China will keep the door open. I just wish they’d open it a little wider.

P.S.: Sorry for the dearth of posts the past couple of weeks. It's been a busy October, but I expect a bunch of stories coming up in November for National Adoption Month.

"He followed me home, can I keep him?"

2007-10-14T16:53:00.000-04:00

We made our annual pilgrimage to Cox Farms yesterday, wherein many hay rides were taken, many animals were pet and many gourds observed. A perfect day to take in some Fall activities and secure some pumpkins for the front porch, soon to end up as orange mash in the middle of the street (darn kids). There were many slides featured this year, of varying heights and changes from potential to kinetic energy. We worked our way up to the taller ones.

And the pony rides! How can you not shell out the five spot for a couple of turns around the ring at a half mile an hour on a wild animal that may throw your precious, helmet-less little girl at any minute? No, really these were the most docile creatures on the planet, doubtless sedated with the equine equivalent of Valium for this gig. Of course it was Ally's first time on one, and not her last I suspect.

Missouri Adoption Story

2007-10-05T16:21:00.000-04:00

Wells learn adoption process while adding a new member to their family
Adopting a child from any country is difficult but it is something the Wells family is tackling with great pride and large smiles.

Andy and Angie Wells have two sons, six-year-old Jack and two-year-old Jude, but have decided to diversify and adopt a child from China to make their family complete.

The Wellses have a blog. You can check it out here.

More Child Abuse on a Chinese Girl By Her Dad

2007-10-05T15:12:00.000-04:00

Not to be outdone by this idiot, another Chinese dad got the bright idea of torturing his daughter for sport:

Girl swims river with hands, feet tied
BEIJING - A father tied his 10-year-old daughter's hands and feet and watched her swim in a chilly southern China river for three hours in a task he said Thursday would help the girl achieve her dream of swimming across the English Channel...

News photos showed Huang Li, wearing a skirted swimsuit, being picked up out of the water by her father. Her ankles were tied together with string and her hands were bound by a strip of cloth. A newspaper report said the girl was so cold her face had turned blue.

"It's not dangerous because, first, her swimming skills are really good and second, I was swimming with her, staying close to her," the father said. "I had her when I was 35, so she is my heart. I would never play around with her life."

Right.

Georgia Adoption Story

2007-10-05T15:07:00.000-04:00

Pair adopts child as an act of faith
Their years together were forever changing, but their dream never changed.

For 12 years, it was constant, rooted, like many of the couple's aspirations, in Scripture.

For Bill and Amanda Burke, their yearning to adopt a child was in keeping with James 1:27: "Pure and undefiled religion before God is this: to care for orphans."

At Cornerstone Church of Christ, where the Lawrenceville couple are members, it has become part of the mission.

Chinese Housing Bubble?

2007-10-02T06:36:00.000-04:00

It's not only happening in the United States. Can subprime loans be far behind?

China blames local officials as housing prices keep soaring

The Chinese government has admitted to failing to curb soaring home prices, blaming local officials for not doing enough to ensure sufficient housing supply, state media said Tuesday.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning agency, will make lending and taxation policies more targeted in order to improve the situation, the China Daily reported, without elaborating on the new measures.

From January to August, sales of houses increased 30.9 percent from the same period last year, and supply has had problems keeping up with enormous demand, according to the paper.

"Some places have failed to act more actively to adjust the structure of house supply and stabilise house prices," the paper quoted the National Development and Reform Commission as saying in a statement.

The commission said the failure amounted to "dereliction of duty" on the part of some local officials, citing an offense punishable by lengthy jail terms in China.

Most importantly, local officials have not met targets for the construction of relatively small apartments of less than 90 square meters (970 square feet), the paper said.

Government policies dictate that 70 percent of all new homes being built must be of this modest size, but currently less than 25 percent falls into the category.

Land set aside for building houses has also not been developed in a timely manner, while some developers have hoarded land and houses to profit from rising prices, according to the paper.

As part of new measures unveiled last week, the downpayment requirement for people buying a second home was raised to 40 percent from 30 percent.

China has since 2005 taken a lengthy series of steps, including interest rate hikes and imposing taxes, to curb rapidly rising real estate prices amid concerns of a dangerous bubble in the sector.

But apparently to little avail. Property prices in 70 major cities across the country rose 8.2 percent in August from a year earlier, the fastest so far this year, according to official data.

Property prices in Beijing were up 12.1 percent in August year-on-year and 20.8 percent in southern Shenzhen, a booming city just across the border from Hong Kong.

Some Canadian "Waiting Child" Adoptions Stonewalled

2007-10-01T15:12:00.000-04:00

On P.E.I., the government has taken over facilitating the adoption of children from China's Waiting Child Program, with predictable results:

P.E.I. building obstacles to international adoption, families say
New polices on P.E.I. are blocking international adoption, some families are complaining, and they've formed a group to lobby for change.

They're urging the premier to step in and change his government's policies. They fear without a change, they will lose their chance to adopt.

"All of us feel that the province does not support international adoption. That's why we're coming forward," Tammy MacKinnon, spokeswoman for the P.E.I. Adoption Coalition, told CBC News Friday.

"We want to know why it's being made so difficult."

The issue is with China's Waiting Child Program, which places children with medical problems, sometimes very minor ones. Because of the difficulty of successfully placing these children, the Chinese program uses agencies in Canada to help select families. Four P.E.I. children have been adopted under China's Waiting Child Program.

But in 2005, China became part of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. The P.E.I. government believes this requires the province to take a more direct role in the adoptions, and it has cut the Canadian agencies from the process, causing lengthy delays.

The agencies are accredited provincially in Ontario and Quebec. P.E.I. is the only province in Canada that has stopped using the agencies for the Waiting Child Program, because it believes it is illegal to use them.

Autumn Moon Festival Celebrated in Upstate NY

2007-09-30T09:27:00.000-04:00

Chinese festival reinforces heritage
Roz Zatyko and her husband, Andrew, knew they wanted to adopt even after their first daughter, Katie, was born. They decided to open their home in Pittsford to Julia, who is from Hubei Province in China, four years ago.

"With the population problems that China has and the way that the second child is not valued, especially if it is a girl, we wanted to do something," said Zatyko.

The Zatyko family was on hand Saturday to help Julia continue to learn about her heritage as part of the Autumn Moon Festival. The festival, held at the YMCA Camp Arrowhead in Pittsford, takes place in mid- to late September every year and is similar to America's Thanksgiving Day tradition...

More than 200 people attended the event, sponsored by Families with Children from China, the international, volunteer organization that aids those interested or affected by adoption from China. The group's goal is to celebrate children's Chinese cultural heritage, share information and resources regarding the international adoption process and enhance local Chinese-American relationships.

Ladybug Picnic in Congers, NY

2007-09-29T08:29:00.000-04:00

Those New Yorkers know how to party:

Picnic to be held in Congers for adoptive families of Chinese children
Families who have adopted children from China will gather at Congers Memorial Park tomorrow for the 11th annual Ladybug Picnic.

Sponsored by the Homeland Children's Foundation and Homeland Adoption Services of Nyack, the event is being held around the time of a Chinese festival in which people honor friends and family, said Homeland Board of Directors president Pamela Thomas.

"It's an opportunity for all the families to celebrate together every year," said Thomas, who adopted her daughter from China 12 years ago. "Many of our children came from the same orphanages. Some of them may have shared cribs when they were babies. It's a nice chance for them to get to reconnect once a year."

Colorado Store Sells Dolls With Adoption Message

2007-09-28T11:42:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure how this doll "explains" adoption, but, oh well:

MollyCoddle dolls help explain adoption
The owner of a doll store at the Chapel Hills Mall is reaching out to parents and their adopted children, teaching them love is more important than heritage or hair color.

One year ago, Stephanie Younger opened MollyCoddles. "It's a newborn nursery for baby dolls," she said.

Younger has three biological daughters and one adopted son. "We just know how we felt when we brought him home and how excited we were to bring him into our family," she said.

Okinawa Adoption Support Group

2007-09-28T05:56:00.000-04:00

Adoptive parents open hearts, homes
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa (September 28, 2007) -- On Sunday afternoon, four families met at Dan and Nicole Kobs' house. For the adults, it was a time for friendly conversation. For the children, it was a time for play and fun. The children headed straight for the cookies sitting on the table while the parents sat down for what the kids called "boring talk."

This might seem typical in most American homes on a Sunday afternoon, but at the Kobs', things are a little unique.

These four families include adopted children from China, Vietnam and Kazakhstan, and the parents are members of the Okinawa Adoption Support Group. This unique situation tends to create unique conversations.

New Moon Festival Tradition

2007-09-27T19:17:00.000-04:00

We found out last year that moon cakes weren't such a big hit, so this year I decided we were going to try and find some Moon Pies instead. So, after work, I went to the Store That Has Everything to pick some up. Turns out they don't have everything. But they did have Half Moon cookies:

Close enough, I thought. A little whipped cream will turn those into full moons. Turns out Ally was more interested in the icing than the cookie beneath:

Your Cheatin' Agency

2007-09-27T05:55:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have stumbled upon this blog hoping to find out more about the agency getting early referrals, I'm afraid I can't help you out. If you do know who it is, feel free to leave a comment or drop an e-mail.

Starbucks in Forbidden City Replaced by McDonald's

2007-09-24T16:04:00.000-04:00

Just kidding; it's now a more traditional Chinese tea shop:

Forbidden City Starbucks replaced
A traditional Chinese cafe has opened up in Beijing's Forbidden City, replacing a Starbucks coffee shop that was forced to shut after protests.

The new cafe will serve both coffee and traditional Chinese tea, China's state media said.

Illinois Adoption Story

2007-09-24T06:21:00.000-04:00

Families open their hearts and homes to international additions
A tiny baby girl, with coal black hair and dark eyes, was abandoned in the night in Youxi City, China, at the gate of the city's welfare institute, where she would surely be found - as she was - early the next morning by an institute worker.

The infant was taken to the police station, but later returned to the welfare institute. She was placed with a foster mother with whom she stayed for 8Â½ months, until she was adopted by Jeff and Amy Maninfior of Mattoon.

Today, a month and a half later, Lily Maninfior is happily learning about her new home with her parents and doting big brothers, Blake, 19, and Nick, 16.

BBC: Who Can Have More Than One Child?

2007-09-21T17:26:00.000-04:00

Part three from the BBC series explains who can have more than one child, and under what circumstances:

Grey areas in China's one-child policy
"There are different guidelines and different government policies," he added.

Mr Wang explained that only 35.9% of the population is limited to having just one child. These people live mainly in urban areas.

Many rural couples, accounting for 52.9% of the population, are able to have two children if the first one is a girl, he said.

In other provinces, parents can have two children regardless of the sex of the first child, and in a few areas the rules are even more relaxed.

BBC: The "Perfect" Children

2007-09-20T15:57:00.000-04:00

Here's part 2 of the BBC series on China's one-child policy:

China's 'perfect child' generation

Anthropologist Susan Greenhalgh, a leading expert on China's family planning policy, says parents' rising expectations are not solely to blame for increased pressure on children - government policy also plays a part.

The family planning policy was never just about reducing the number of Chinese people, it was also about increasing the quality of those remaining, she says.

"What the government tried to do is ensure that this next generation of children is superior in education and health care," says Ms Greenhalgh, of the University of California, Irvine.

China's family planning policy, launched in 1979, was supposed to create a generation of fewer children with better prospects than the last.

"This was the generation that was supposed to be the perfect children," writes anthropologist Vanessa Fong, of Harvard Graduate School of Education.

BBC: Has China's One-Child Policy Worked?

2007-09-20T05:53:00.000-04:00

I guess, if you consider forced abortions, kidnapping of girls and a disproportionate number of boys in the population "working".

Has China's one-child policy worked?
In the first of a series of pieces on China's one-child policy, the BBC's Michael Bristow looks at whether the country's controversial regulations are working.

Pennsylvania Adoption Story

2007-09-19T16:30:00.000-04:00

South Hills rabbi couple adopts baby from China
A South Hills husband-wife team of rabbis has adopted a baby girl from the Guangdong province in southern China. Ellie Lian Greenbaum, daughter of Rabbis Alex and Amy Greenbaum, will come home to Mt. Lebanon, accompanied by her new mother, during the week of Sukkot.

"When you get to China, you get your child as soon as possible. Then you stay there for two weeks," said Alex, spiritual leader of Beth El Congregation of the South Hills. "That gives you time to bond with your child."

Death by Internet

2007-09-18T05:58:00.000-04:00

Chinese man dies from 3-day gaming binge
BEIJING - A man in southern China appears to have died of exhaustion after a three-day Internet gaming binge, state media said Monday.

The 30-year-old man fainted at a cybercafe in the city of Guangzhou on Saturday afternoon after he ha been playing games online for three days, the Beijing News reported.

Paramedics tried to revive him but failed and he was declared dead at the cafe, it said. The paper said that he may have died from exhaustion brought on by too many hours on the Internet...

The report said that about 100 other Web surfers "left the cafe in fear after witnessing the man's death."

Ohio Families Organize Benefit to Support Adoption

2007-09-17T05:29:00.000-04:00

Kent event to aid Chinese children For Love of Lily sets benefit show
In the past 12 years, more foreign orphans have entered the United States from China than from any other country around the globe.

The process for adopting orphaned Chinese children has become expensive, so two Portage County families are organizing a benefit show at The Kent Stage to support adopting U.S. families and help fund a school about 30 miles south of the Chinese capital of Beijing.

Gregg Driggs and Dr. Mike Kline established the For the Love of Lily foundation earlier this year. Both families have adopted children from China. Each has an adopted daughter, Lily and Lilly.

If You Though the One-child Policy Was Going Away Anytime Soon...

2007-09-15T08:12:00.000-04:00

...think again:

China cracks down on one-child violators

China to crack down on rich flouting one-child rule

WSJ: The Expat Life

2007-09-14T05:58:00.000-04:00

Expat Parents in China KeepAdopted Babies Close to Home
The Lattas were matched with Tian Hui, a smiley six-month-old girl who had had surgery on a cleft lip and needed a few months of recuperation before she could have a second operation, to repair a cleft palate. After about three months, they returned her to Ping An and picked up a different baby. When he had health problems necessitating hospitalization, Ms. Woo asked the Lattas if they could take Tian Hui again. She had been unable to have her second surgery due to health complications, leaving her classified as special needs and therefore eligible for fostering.

None of the Lattas had realized quite how attached they had grown to the little girl until she returned to spend Christmas with them. When family friends said they wanted to adopt Tian Hui, Cheryl felt alarmed rather than excited and realized that she wanted to adopt the baby herself. After everyone concurred in a family meeting, they began the adoption process.

Mississippi Boy Visits China

2007-09-12T05:55:00.000-04:00

LEE COUNTY NEIGHBORS: Return to China
SALTILLO - Daniel Clark has lived the life of an American youth since coming here 13 years ago as an adopted toddler from China.

Daniel has been an honor roll student involved in school activities. He's participated in 4-H and park-and-rec soccer, plus he's active in church. And in his recreation time at home, he enjoys playing video games against his two younger siblings.

At the same time, Daniel remains close to his Chinese heritage. This summer, his native country beckoned Daniel and others like him to visit their homeland and learn about its culture, history and art.

Repost: Remembering Jeff Mladenik

2007-09-11T15:36:00.000-04:00

[A reposting from one year ago today.]

The Fort Worth Star Telegram has a tribute to the 11 crew and 76 passengers that were aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center five years ago today. Among the stories was this one:
Jeffrey P. Mladenik, 43, Hinsdale, Ill. He was an interim CEO for eLogic, traveling on business. An associate pastor, he often read the Bible aboard the airplane and was in the process of adopting a second daughter from China.
The Mladeniks have a web page here. Jeff's widow, Sue, went through with adopting a second (and a third) daughter from China.

You can also read Jeffrey's New York Times tribute page here.

Grandparents Try to Kill Girl Because She's Not a Boy

2007-09-10T05:57:00.000-04:00

Doctors to Remove Needles From Woman
BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese surgeons will try to remove 23 needles from a woman that doctors believe may have been imbedded under her skin by grandparents trying to kill her so that a baby boy might take her place.

The needles - about an inch in length - were discovered by X-ray after Luo Cuifen, 29, went to doctors complaining of blood in her urine.

Many of the needles have worked their way into Luo's vital organs including her lungs, liver, bladder and kidneys, making their removal difficult, said Qu Rui, a spokesman for the Richland International Hospital in Yunnan province's capital, Kunming...

Qu said doctors believe the woman's grandparents may have inserted the needles long ago, hoping she would die and her parents might have a boy in her place. China limits most families to just one child, although rural Chinese may be allowed to have a second if their first is a girl, subject to the payment of fines.

It wasn't clear whether further investigations into the case were planned, with media reports saying Luo's grandparents had already died.

In many parts of China, baby boys are still heavily favored over girls because they are bound by tradition to support their parents in their old age, and because they carry on the family name.

Infanticide and abortions of female fetuses have created a skewed ratio between the genders, with 119 boys reported born for every 100 girls, according to official figures. By comparison, the ratio in industrialized countries between 104 and 107 boys for every 100 girls.

North Carolina Family Revisits China

2007-09-09T07:56:00.000-04:00

Daughter journeys to land of her birth
Sydney Carpenter kneels on her living room floor, flipping through a photo album.

"Those children are all wearing the same outfits because they're going to school," she says, pointing. "And over here was when we went to the fish market."...

Eric Carpenter, Sydney's dad, grew up in Gastonia. He worked for a textile company that sent him to live in China for two years. There he learned of the plight of abandoned infant girls through friends who adopted one.He returned to the United States and met his future wife, Marilyn, in 1995.

"When we started to get serious about our relationship, Eric brought up the idea of adopting from China, and I was impressed by the passion he expressed," she says.

Wisconsin Adoption Story

2007-09-08T07:45:00.000-04:00

Couples realize their dreams through adoption
Kim and Scott Scheer of Appleton built their family through international adoption. Their daughters, Stephanie, 6, and Katie, 4, came from China.

"We tried locally for the first year, and we got nowhere," Kim said of their decision to adopt internationally. "After talking with friends, we decided it was hard, but it was best to go international. It's more expensive but definitely worth it."

First Day of Preschool

2007-09-07T16:26:00.000-04:00

Today was Ally's first full day of preschool. She goes three days a week in the mornings. On Wednesday, we got to meet her teachers, who seemed nice enough. Here she is ready to head out the door:

The teachers put her to work right away:

Another hard day at the office:

That's a spider on her head, the fruit of her creative efforts for the day.

Baby Trafficking in China

2007-09-07T15:16:00.000-04:00

This appears to be a case of babies abducted with the intent of being sent to other families in China.

China Cracks Suspected Baby Trafficking Gang
Chinese police have detained 47 people accused of trafficking babies, rescuing dozens of infants from a trade driven by rural families' desire for children, state media reported on Friday.

The arrests resulted from a months-long inquiry after police grew suspicious of four women carrying babies on a train from the poor southwest province Yunnan to richer east China in May, Xinhua news agency reported.

The women confessed the babies had been bought in Yunnan's capital Kunming and were headed for sale in Shandong, a rural province in the east. A police probe revealed the network that had traded dozens of new-born babies.

"Forty out of more than 60 babies who were trafficked by the gang have been rescued by police so far, while police were trying to find the others," Xinhua said.

There was no suggestion that any of the babies were meant for foreign adoption.

The report did not say whether the natural parents had sold the children or were victims of abductions. Child-trafficking cases in the past have involved both payment and abduction.

China's problem with child-trafficking reflects poverty, regional economic imbalances and population control policies that restrict family size -- often to two children in the countryside.

The restrictions have bolstered a traditional bias for male offspring, seen as the mainstay for elderly parents, and have resulted in abortions, killings or abandonment of girls.

China has about 119 boys born for every 100 girls, an imbalance that has grown since it introduced the policies aiming for one-child per family more than 25 years ago.

The imbalance has created criminal demand for abducted or bought baby boys, but also for baby girls destined to be future brides attracting rich dowries.

Foreign Adoptions Down in Canada

2007-09-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

Obligatory Madonna and Angelina reference at no extra charge:

Sharp drop in international adoptions by Canadians last year
While Madonna and Angelina Jolie have grabbed headlines by adopting young children from overseas, fewer Canadians adopted internationally last year.

There were 1,535 children adopted from abroad in 2006, 18 per cent less than the year before and 30 per cent less than in 2003, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada figures.

The sharp decline is attributed to adoptions from China falling nearly 37.5 per cent to 608 last year from 973 in 2005.

Urban Chinese Professionals Embrace Christianity

2007-09-06T06:09:00.000-04:00

China's Urban Christians an Unknown Quantity For Beijing
HONG KONG—Christianity is gaining new converts in Chinese cities and towns, especially among the newly emerging and assertive professional class, and the trend is causing the ruling Communist Party some concern, experts say.

A prominent example of this phenomenon is rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has been detained, kept under surveillance and sentenced to a jail term after he represented the underdogs in sensitive political cases. Gao is also a committed Christian, whose Beijing-based church has been raided by police on more than one occasion.

Gao’s commitment to using the nascent Chinese legal system to fight unpopular civil rights cases—such as representing villagers who wish to indict local officials for graft, or representing members of the banned Falun Gong movement—are underpinned by his strong emphasis on morality and compassion, and bound up with the lawyer’s Christian identity.

Crooked Chinese Official Steals Apology From Another Crooked Chinese Official

2007-09-05T15:06:00.000-04:00

Sincerity:

Corrupt Chinese official plagiarizes trial apology
BEIJING (Reuters) - Music, books and Hollywood films... China can now add testimonies of regret by corrupt officials to its exhaustive list of copyright violations.

Zhang Shaocang, former Communist Party chief of state-owned power company Anhui Province Energy Group Co Ltd, wept as he read a four-page "letter of apology" during his corruption trial at a court in Fuyang, Anhui, according to a Procuratorial Daily report reproduced in Wednesday's Beijing News.

But Zhang's sentiments were later found to be strikingly similar to those of Zhu Fuzhong, a disgraced former party chief of Tongan village in southwestern Sichuan province, whose apology letter was printed in the Procuratorial Daily less than two weeks before.

"Before working, I never gave much thought to money and regarded achievement as the starting point and end result of my work," the paper quoted both of the letters as saying.

"I gradually lost my bearings and the scope of my position," Zhang said at his trial, an exact copy of Zhu's own wording.

Apart from using whole sentences word for word, Zhang also -- more craftily -- made "slight changes" in other areas.

The Procuratorial Daily, the official paper of China's top prosecutions office, is distributed as reading material at many "supervision venues," the paper said, referring to the often secret locations where Communist Party officials are held for questioning.

It was possible that Zhang, while being investigated for charges of bribe-taking, had drawn inspiration from Zhu's apology in the hope of gaining leniency from the court, the paper said.

"Because of this, Zhang's apology was dismissed as 'show-boating,"' the paper said.

Sorry means never having to say you're sorry.

China Says We're the Ones With a Problem

2007-09-05T05:58:00.000-04:00

Hyping safety problem is a sickness, China says
BEIJING (Reuters) - Hyping China's food and product safety problem is a sickness in itself, the country's new health minister said on Wednesday, a day after Mattel announced a third global recall of Chinese-made toys...

"I must remind some friends that we are certainly extremely sensitive towards this problem, but over-sensitivity caused by only seeing part of the picture, in medical terms, is called an allergy," Health Minister Chen Zhu said.

Good thing most of us are allergic to BS.

Fertility Rates

2007-09-05T05:54:00.000-04:00

From Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia:

Did you know…
China’s one child policy has slowed down world population growth more than World Wars I and II, the global influenza epidemic of 1918, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic put together. The one child policy adopted in the late 1970’s halved China’s fertility rate from about 3.3 children per couple to about 1.7 children per couple.

Did you know that other nations have attained a similar, or lower, fertility rate without having to resort to a draconian one child policy or forced abortions? Apparently, the most important indicator of a declining fertility rate is economic development.

U.S. Navy Supports Adoption

2007-09-03T07:51:00.000-04:00

Navy touting merits of military-family adoptions
Jo-Ann Reale is within days of having a new son.

She’s not pregnant. She and her husband, Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Reale, are adopting a son, Josiah, 3, from China.

It took a little digging for the Reales to find an adoption agency willing to work with a military family living overseas, said the soon-to-be-mother-of-five, who lives in Gaeta, Italy. “We kept hitting a brick wall. Finally, like, the sixth agency on our list was able to help.”

OT: Man Hangs Self at "Burning Man"; Nobody Cares

2007-09-02T08:58:00.000-04:00

The revelers at the annual celebration of postmodern hedonism can't distinguish between art and tragedy:

Suicide suspected in death at Burning Man
A possible suicide was reported at the Burning Man arts festival in the Black Rock Desert on Thursday morning, according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.

A man was found hanged in a two-story tent and was there for two hours before anyone found him, according to information attributed to the Bureau of Land Management.

"His friends thought he was doing an art piece," BLM special agent Mark Pirtle told the Chronicle. The apparent suicide would be the festival's first in its 21 year history, Pirtle said.

The Pershing County Sheriff's Office had no information.
[My emphases.]

Chinese Toddler in the Middle of Ugly Tug-of-War

2007-09-02T08:32:00.000-04:00

I'm posting the whole article from the Salt Lake Tribune. I really feel sorry for the poor girl in the middle of all this.

Two couples fight for right to claim child as their own
LOGAN - In Utah, hopeful adoptive parents call the toddler from China Amanda. In Kansas, another pair of longing parents know her as Amelya.

As she approaches her third birthday, both couples are battling to make the girl their own.

On one side are Scott and Karen Banks, Wellsville residents who are accused in an unrelated federal indictment of tricking parents in Samoa into placing their children for adoption through their agency.

On the other side are Mary Frances and Curry Kirkpatrick, of Overland Park, Kan., who claim they were pressured by the Bankses into placing their adopted daughter outside their home in what they believed would be a temporary arrangement.

"They have our baby," Mary Frances Kirkpatrick said. "They want her for themselves."

The Bankses and their attorney, Ann Wassermann, have declined to comment.

Mary Frances Kirkpatrick now flies to Utah each week to see the girl for about four hours. Her husband sometimes remains behind to take care of their four children in Kansas. Other times, they arrange for around-the-clock care of the kids, youngsters who are ages 6 and 4 and twins almost 2 years old.

The newest member of the family, named after Mary Frances' mother, came into their lives in 2005. The Kirkpatricks had their two older children when they began the adoption arrangements through Focus on Children, an agency operated by the Bankses.

Before the process was completed, Mary Frances became pregnant with the twins. Curry flew to China in December 2005 to pick up their new daughter while his wife remained at their suburban Kansas City home nursing the newborns.

Curry Kirkpatrick describes the 10 days he spent in China with the girl, then 14 months old, as "a magical time." The adoption was finalized before they flew back home, he says.

At first, life in Overland Park was going well, but then the toddler began exhibiting "destructive behavior" toward the twins, according to the Kirkpatricks. After six months of dealing with the situation, they decided - allegedly on the recommendation of the Bankses - that a temporary separation would be best.

The Wellsville couple came and took the girl to Utah in June 2006, the Kirkpatricks say, and refused to give her back at their request a few weeks later.

Instead, the Bankses filed two petitions in 1st District Court: one to adopt the girl they named Amanda and another alleging the Kirkpatricks should not get her back because they abandoned her.

The couple denies the allegation. Their Salt Lake City attorney, Steven Kuhnhausen, says the voluntary guardianship agreement expired as soon as the Kirkpatricks said they wanted the toddler back.

In addition, the Bankses, whose Focus on Children agency has ceased operations in Utah, lacked a child placement license permitting them to take the girl out of Kansas, Kuhnhausen said.

At a hearing last week, 1st District Judge Gordon Low, who was assigned the adoption case, expressed hope that the matter can be settled quickly. A home study is under way.

The adoption petition is on hold until the abandonment claim, which is before 1st District Juvenile Court Judge Jeffrey Burbank, is settled. In the meantime, Low - who retired from the bench Friday and will pass along the adoption matter to another jurist - laid down the law to the litigants.

For now, the girl will remain with the Bankses and the Kirkpatricks will continue to have once-a-week visitation. The parties are prohibited from talking about each other to the child "except in glowing terms."

Low also ordered everyone to call the girl Amanda to keep her from getting confused. The judge stressed that the arrangements are meant to minimize any trauma for her.

"My focus is on the welfare of the child," Low said. "This child's in a difficult situation."

It's What's For Dinner

2007-08-31T15:33:00.000-04:00

In some places I've eaten, this would be called "truth in advertising":

No more 'virgin chicken' or 'burnt lion's head': Beijing improves menu names for Olympics
BEIJING: Hungry visitors to next summer's Beijing Olympics won't have to struggle to decipher bizarre English translations on restaurant menus, state media said Friday.

The Beijing Tourism Bureau has released a list with 2,753 proposed names for dishes and drinks, designed to replace confusing and sometimes ridiculous translations on menus, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Foreigners are often stumped by dish names such as "virgin chicken" (a young chicken dish) or "burnt lion's head" (Chinese-style pork meatballs). Other garbled names include "The temple explodes the chicken cube" (kung pao chicken) or "steamed crap" (steamed carp).

When reached for comment, Anthony Bourdain said "The steamed is OK, but the fried crap garnished with warthog testicles I had in Malaysia blows this stuff away."

Washington Families Travel Back to China

2007-08-31T06:37:00.000-04:00

The Pauleys, mentioned in the previous post, were one of several familes from the D.C. area who went back to visit China:

The Dawn Of Their Bond
Five American Families Who Adopted Chinese Infants a Dozen Years Ago Journey Back To the Very Beginning

CHANGZHOU, China --Twelve years ago, five families from the Washington area came to this city in China's eastern Jiangsu province to adopt children. They found little girls to welcome into their worlds and, in doing so, joined a new generation of American families that had only recently begun to adopt from this country.

Maryland Mom and Daughter Return to China

2007-08-31T06:19:00.000-04:00

Coming full circle
Minna and her mother travel to China to trace her roots

She was found by a gate to the entrance of a police station. Abandoned by her parents, the baby girl wound up in a nearby orphanage.

And there she might have remained if Kristin Pauly, a then-51-year-old single woman, hadn't traveled more than 8,000 miles to Changzhou, China, to adopt her.

"It was one of those instant inspirations I felt drawn to do," said Ms. Pauly, an Annapolis resident who is managing director for a charitable family trust in Washington, D.C.

Fast forward 11 years, and her daughter, Minna, is about to start seventh grade at The Key School. Minna, now 12, takes private Chinese language classes and her mother has made it a priority to teach her about her birthplace. The real lessons, though, came this summer, when the Paulys returned to China. They spent three weeks investigating life there and tracing Minna's roots, even returning to the police station and the orphanage.

Michigan Adoption Story

2007-08-30T21:05:00.000-04:00

Lahser coach lands his best recruit
STERLING HEIGHTS -- The thoughts and images Dan and Kelly Loria have when they look at their two young daughters must be astounding.

Whether Katie and Addison are playing outside, watching videos or eating breakfast, they seem inseparable -- as if they've been together forever.

Ten weeks ago Katie, 5, didn't have a baby sister.

That changed June 28, when the Lorias returned home from a two-week trip to China tired, disoriented and, most of all, overjoyed. The couple welcomed home Addie, whom they adopted.

"Having a second child changes your life," said Dan Loria, in his seventh season as Bloomfield Hills Lahser's football coach. "Nothing prepares you for this."

More Families Looking to Vietnam to Adopt

2007-08-30T16:37:00.000-04:00

Adoption of Vietnamese Babies on the Rise
Jeff and Cerise Roth-Vinson arrived in Vietnam in late July to fulfill a longtime dream.

"We've been married for almost 13 years now, and we always knew that if we decided to have children, we would want to adopt," explained Cerise...

Single parents used to look to China to adopt. But China has instituted new regulations that bar foreign single parents from adopting, as well as obese people and couples with more than two divorces between them.

Chinese babies still make up the largest number of children adopted by foreigners, but the numbers have been falling. In 2005, Americans adopted nearly 8,000 Chinese children. In 2006, that fell to 6,500, and the waiting time to get a child stands at one and a half years.

It's approaching two years now, and increasing.

Families Not Given a Choice Fight Back

2007-08-30T12:44:00.000-04:00

Chinese victims of forced late-term abortion fight back
QIAN'AN, China — Yang Zhongchen, a small-town businessman, wined and dined three government officials for permission to become a father.

But the Peking duck and liquor weren't enough. One night, a couple of weeks before her date for giving birth, Yang's wife was dragged from her bed in a north China town and taken to a clinic, where, she says, her baby was killed by injection while still inside her.

"Several people held me down, they ripped my clothes aside and the doctor pushed a large syringe into my stomach," says Jin Yani, a shy, petite woman with a long ponytail. "It was very painful. ... It was all very rough."

International Adoption and Work

2007-08-30T09:15:00.000-04:00

From the Wall Street Journal:

For Some, Job Benefits EaseGrowing Hassles of Adoption
Flexibility at work has always been essential for adoptive parents. In anticipation of a Chinese adoption in 2004, Jean Walker, a marketing manager, shifted to a new job with her employer, Verizon Communications, New York, that required less travel. She laid plans with her boss for a substitute to cover her three-month adoption leave. Then, she waited -- for the call that a child was ready for her in a Chinese orphanage. It came within weeks, triggering a new flurry of paperwork, planning and leave-taking, Ms. Walker says. That adoption took about a year.

Oregon Adoption Story

2007-08-30T06:12:00.000-04:00

Bringing Emma home
David and Dena Dwyer knew they would adopt a child from China when they both had dreams about being parents of an Asian child

TUALATIN — For two and a half years, David and Dena Dwyer, of Tualatin, had worked, dreamed and prayed with one goal in mind — to adopt a baby from China.

So when the day came on May 14 for them to meet 20-month-old Emma, who was born in Chongquing, China, they were excited.

But that emotional meeting didn’t turn out exactly as they had pictured it — when Emma saw Dena, she started crying and didn’t want to be near her.

Hong Kong Woman Abandons Newborn...

2007-08-29T05:49:00.000-04:00

...and gets thrown in jail for it:

Hong Kong mother jailed for abandoning newborn on shop doorstep
Hong Kong - A 24-year-old Hong Kong mother was Wednesday beginning an eight month jail term for abandoning her newborn baby son on a grocery store doorstep six hours after giving birth. Yip Sze-wan put the infant in a box after delivering him in the bedroom of her parents' home and left him outside a nearby shop in the territory's Tuen Mun district, the South China Morning Post reported.

At a court case Tuesday, she admitted wilfully exposing a child and putting its life in danger and was branded "a liar and an irresponsible mother" by magistrate Kwok Wai-kin.

Kwok told unmarried Yip, who had given two previous babies up for adoption before abandoning her son, that she was "only a little better than mothers who strangle their babies."

Ouch.

Runner Girl

2007-08-27T20:13:00.000-04:00

I don't care what her father says, this is nothing short of child abuse:

China girl completes 3,500km run
A Chinese girl has arrived in Beijing after running more than 3,550km (2,200 miles) from the southern province of Hainan in less than two months.

Zhang Huimin, eight, rose each day at 0230 and ran about 1.5 marathons (64km, 40 miles), Xinhua news agency said. Her father accompanied her on a bicycle.

He said the feat was aimed at drawing attention to her Olympic potential ahead of the Beijing games next year.

He denied forcing her to run, but some experts have said it amounted to abuse.

The girl arrived in the Chinese capital on Sunday after starting out in Hainan on 3 July.

Zhang Huimin, who is 1.22m (4ft) tall and weighs 21kg (46lb), is too young to compete in the 2008 Olympics but her father, Zhang Jianmin, believes she can compete in the 2016 games, when she will be 17.

Domestic media and some experts have accused her father of abuse, saying running such long distances could damage the girl's body and affect her growth.

"I make the training fun for her. I don't push her," Mr Zhang told the Beijing News.

"She loves to run. Many people don't understand us," he said.

Zhang and his wife have separated, mainly because she opposed his way of training their daughter, the newspaper reported.

"Whether people oppose it or not, we will soldier on," Mr Zhang said.

Adoption in the Military

2007-08-27T15:45:00.000-04:00

Adoption no longer uncharted waters
Naval community in Naples offers support for growing families

Somewhere in China lives Marla and Matt Linton’s future daughter.

Her laugh is still silent to the Lintons. The girl’s touch still unfelt. Her name still unknown.

But the little girl one day will be chosen to become the Lintons’ adopted daughter.

China Planning New Laws Against Aborting Girls

2007-08-25T21:33:00.000-04:00

China plans tougher laws on sex-selective abortions
BEIJING (AFP) - Fearing the approach of a ticking "bachelor bomb," China is planning tougher laws against sex-selective abortions that have boosted the number of boys in recent years, state media said Saturday.

The State Council, or cabinet, is drafting special regulations that specify punishments for parents and doctors who abort foetuses after discovering they are female, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Abortions motivated merely by gender are already illegal in China but existing laws do not specify the punishment for such acts, according to Xinhua, which gave no timetable for the new rules...

In some parts of China, sex-selective abortions have created a situation where there are more than three boys for every two girls, Xinhua said in a separate report.

In a particularly striking example, there are 163.5 boys for every 100 girls in the city of Lianyungang in east China's Jiangsu province, according to Xinhua...

It is possible that part of the highly unusual sex ratio in China could reflect the practice of keeping girls secret from the authorities, allowing parents to try again in the hope of gaining a son.

Girls that are not registered will face severe problems in future as they are unlikely to attend school.

However, it is highly likely that a large proportion of the girls are dead, having fallen victim to the widespread use of ultra-sound equipment for determining the sex of unborn embryos...

Under the one-child policy, introduced in about 1980, China's urban dwellers are allowed one child, while rural families can have two if the first is a girl.

Ruthless enforcement has triggered widespread opposition, especially in the countryside where children are valued as additional economic muscle.

Riots have broken out against forced abortions and other measures, such as heavy fines, the destruction of homes and confiscation of property.

"Mom, was I supposed to be white?"

2007-08-24T08:28:00.000-04:00

Cross-cultural parenting
When Judy Stigger's daughter Kathy was 8, Stigger took out all the congratulatory cards she'd received when she adopted her. She wanted Kathy to get a sense of the outpouring of love there'd been.

Instead, she was staggered to see pain wash across Kathy's face as she asked, "Mom, was I supposed to be white?"

Until then, Stigger hadn't noticed that all the baby faces on the cards were white. Stigger's face was white, too. But Kathy's was black.

Christians Still Being Arrested in China

2007-08-24T07:39:00.000-04:00

Rights Group Reports Wave of China Arrests in New Drive Against Unregistered Churches
BEIJING (AP) -- Authorities have increased arrests on Christian groups operating outside China's sole official government church following a crackdown ordered last month, an overseas monitoring group reported Friday.

At least 15 leaders in the unofficial church have been detained in recent days across six provinces and regions, according to the China Aid Association, based in the U.S. city of Midland...

Those actions follow a crackdown on unauthorized religious activity ordered July 5 as part of a drive against crime and economic chaos at the village level.

"Strike hard against illegal religious and evil cult activity; eliminate elements that affect the stability of village governance," said the directive.
More like "Eliminate elements we don't understand, can't control and therefore threaten us".

Thugs.

The association said some of those arrested had been conducting worship services or vacation bible camps, including Kong Lingrong, who was running a Bible study class for young people on July 14 when it was interrupted by local officials.

Determined to make her stop, they cut water and electricity to her home, the association said.

Authorities have demanded Kong guarantee in writing that she would not conduct such classes in future, warning that until she does so, they would also cut power and water to the homes of anyone found meeting with her, it said.

How China ever got to host the Olympics is beyond me.

Red Threads: A China Adoption Blog

One more post...

Miss me?

TVs in the Kids' Rooms: Just Say No

Ally Turns Five

Fresh Prince to Adopt From China?

The State of IA

WARNING: This Post Contains Emetological Material; Update: Culprit?

Gotcha Day + 4 Years

Chinese New Year in Australia

What We Already Knew

Pessimistic Outlook for China's Adoption Program

Georgia Adoption Story

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Happy New Year

Lunar New Year Event Raises Funds for Adoption

Kentucky Family Shares Their Story

NY Giants 17, NE Patriots 14

Chinese New Year in Lancaster County, PA

An Update on Zhien Liu

China: Making Girls Disappear

Year in Pictures - 2007

Parents Finding Olympics Are Expensive

Budding Photographer

Merry Christmas

Yes, Ally, There is a Santa Claus, But...

Well "DUH"!

Most Disappointing E-mail Ever

We Interrupt This Hiatus to Bring You an Important Message

China Adoptions to U.S. Down by Over 1000

Back from the Land of Enchantment

Bizzaro: When Celebrities Adopt

Texas A&M 38, Texas 30

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at the Preschool

Sandi and Hannah Come Home

"Hope For Hannah"

Pray for the Sheldon Family *UPDATED*

OT: Car-related Rant

"Mandy & Pandy" Author: Giving Back

Washington Adoption Story

Calendar Girl

Pennsylvania Adoption Story

More Orphanages for China

From the NYT "Relative Choices" Blog

Election Day 2007

Q&A with Beth Nonte Russell

Virginia Adoption Story

Halloween

One Year DTC: Some Thoughts

"He followed me home, can I keep him?"

Missouri Adoption Story

More Child Abuse on a Chinese Girl By Her Dad

Georgia Adoption Story

Chinese Housing Bubble?

Some Canadian "Waiting Child" Adoptions Stonewalled

Autumn Moon Festival Celebrated in Upstate NY

Ladybug Picnic in Congers, NY

Colorado Store Sells Dolls With Adoption Message

Okinawa Adoption Support Group

New Moon Festival Tradition

Your Cheatin' Agency

Starbucks in Forbidden City Replaced by McDonald's

Illinois Adoption Story

BBC: Who Can Have More Than One Child?

BBC: The "Perfect" Children

BBC: Has China's One-Child Policy Worked?

Pennsylvania Adoption Story

Death by Internet

Ohio Families Organize Benefit to Support Adoption

If You Though the One-child Policy Was Going Away Anytime Soon...

WSJ: The Expat Life

Mississippi Boy Visits China

Repost: Remembering Jeff Mladenik

Grandparents Try to Kill Girl Because She's Not a Boy

North Carolina Family Revisits China

Wisconsin Adoption Story

First Day of Preschool

Baby Trafficking in China

Foreign Adoptions Down in Canada

Pray for the Sheldon Family UPDATED