Prayers for Mohammed

This is one of those things where I ask you to do whatever it is you do-- pray, exert positive energy, cross your fingers-- whatever, for the sake of someone really special.

Mohammed was featured on 60 minutes, and later, after he was adopted and brought here to America, on dateline.

Cheryl adopted him.

She saw a rerun of the sixty-minute episode, and as she watched, she suddenly had a strong feeling that this boy was her son.

It was a pioneer effort. She wrote to senators and congressman, tried talking to agencies, and they all told her to give up. Finally, one Senator agreed to help her. One of his aides brought Cheryl's letter to his attention. Later, the aide told Cheryl that the letter had made her cry.

Cheryl adopted Mohammed and brought him to America. He underwent several surgeries to fix the significant physical problems that he had. Among them,hip and spine deformities, a club foot that he tried to treat himself, and several forms of malaria. He never complained during recovery. He said that having food in his stomach and water to drink was enough to be grateful for.


Cheryl didn't stop there, and neither did Mohammed.

This is the agency I am working with. I have talked on the phone with Mohammed a few times. Talking with him, you can just feel what a person he is. And having read about his life, I know that his patience and his kindness, and his intelligence, his maturity (no doubt gained at a young age) make him a very special person, someone who is meant to do something in this world.

Right now he is struggling for health. His weight has dropped to a dangerous level, he is feverish, and his heart is giving out on him. They don't know what's wrong.

He was admitted to the hospital yesterday.

And so, if you could say a prayer for him and his family. Cheryl, of course, could use some comfort and peace during this difficult time, too.

The monster forum of the internet

So, I'm on an adoption yahoo group. Specific to Ethiopian adoption. Someone just wrote in asking everyone to support a bill that is now apparently going through congress. This was her email:

There is a bill in the House of Representatives right now, known as H.R. 2003, The Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007, that needs our support. The bill would state that it is United States policy to:

(1) support human rights, democracy, independence of the judiciary,
freedom of the press, peacekeeping capacity building, and economic
development in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia;
(2) collaborate with Ethiopia in the Global War on Terror;
(3) seek the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of
conscience in Ethiopia;
(4) foster stability, democracy, and economic development in
the region; and
(5) strengthen U.S.-Ethiopian relations


Now, I posted a while back about speaking up or shutting up, and how sometimes you have to speak up, but sometimes speaking up isn't fun because of responses you might get. But...

I really disagree with this bill. This is the response I posted (to her, and to the yahoo group which includes, like 800 adoptive families):

I feel kind of divided on this issue... I'd love it if Ethiopia were able to step up on human rights and have a real democracy... but I"m not sure it's America's place to interfere in another country's processes. Especially a country like Ethiopia, where the independence and self-governing power has always been prized, and relatively uninterrupted for thousands of years.

It's really awful, the things that the people of Ethiopia have gone through in all the different stages of the government since the occupation by italy in the 1940's, but I can't help but think it's best to allow them to continue to adapt, learn, make mistakes, and gain a democracy that they can call their own accomplishment. It seems right to me, to allow them that privilege. :)


Soooo... the cool thing was, nobody wrote in and trashed me for what I said. I even had someone write me with a "right on!" kind of note...
but speaking up (though I can be loudspoken at times) always scares the crud out of me. To tell you the truth, I don't like being the one who expresses the dissenting opinion. I really want people to like me and feel comfortable around me. But then, I'm also someone who really feels a need to speak her feelings, especially when there are moral issues invovled.

So I email the 800 person list. And 800 people read it. The question is:

if it were a podium in front of 800 live people, would I be able to do the same thing? And yet, essentially, that is the internet. I think about thirty people read this blog every day. (not many comparatively, lol) but it's thirty people! In a room with thirty people, would I have the courage to be as openly wierd and freaked out, as well as irreverent and revealing as I feel I"m being? (I'm probably not... I tend to overanalyze myself).

How strange a phenomenon is the monster forum on the internet.

lost in the neighborhood

Today I took a walk with my kids, took them to a little playground several blocks from my house. I ended up trying a short cut on the way back, wound myself around several little side streets, and ended up back on the same road that we took going out. The playground is maybe five blocks from my house. It took us 45 minutes to get back home.

My poor little 5 year old has flip-flop blisters.

Seriously. What would my pioneer ancestors think of me if they knew I got lost in my own neighborhood?

*whew*

This is good news.

Unfortunately, she still mentioned having kids in the article, but, well... we'll see, Paris. You have to have a certain percentage of body fat in order to be able to achieve this sort of thing. So, maybe Darwin's theory is true in your case. I sure hope it is.


(gosh, I can be mean sometimes!!!) (But babies aren't dogs, that's all there is to it.)

I am in love

with this blog.

I have to get my temple reccomend updated with that new barcode thingie... do you think they'd let me go to bishop higgins?

OK... this is getting bizarre.

http://fametastic.co.uk/archive/20070912/7600/paris-hilton-looking-to-adopt-mini-mes/

Paris Hilton is reportedly considering adopting children to start her family as per her desired schedule.

Paris said recently that she hopes to start a family next year but doesn’t have a potential father in mind just yet.

A source has now told Closer magazine: “Paris has been saying, ‘You don’t need a husband to have babies.’ There are babies in orphanages around the world, and she’s hoping to find four girls with blonde hair and pretty eyes to whom to give the Hilton name.”

In the same way her mum Kathy Hilton moulded her for fame, Paris will do the same with her offspring: “She’s been telling people, ‘I want a brood of little mini versions of me.’ I’ll raise them to be the most famous women in the world.”"

And just as she designed a line of dog coats for her collection of pets: “She’ll design a line of baby clothes. She sees her kids modelling from a young age.”

Ha ha-- fun trick

Soooo, Janell did this fun thing on her blog and I'm copying her. I type my first name followed by the word "needs" all together in quotes and see what the search engine comes up with. After paging through several pages of other blogs with women who share my name that have done this, I randomly chose page 17 of the search results because 17 is my lucky number. And here the list is, in all its glory (with my name replaced by my usual alias, of course):


1)The physiological tests proved beyond doubt that Nosurfgirl "needs" her carnitine. (Tour de France, here I come!)

2)Nosurfgirl needs to become self-dependent. We know what is going to happen when she mixes it up with Stillson. (Whoo hoo! Skywalker, are you reading this?)

3)Nosurfgirl needs to lighten up and dig deeper musically to keep me as a fan. (Hmm. Well I haven't blogged any social responsibility moments lately, does that count for something?)

4)Nosurfgirl needs to learn to deal with the small remnants of memories she has of another life. (I think I was Cleopatra. Or maybe Susan B Anthony.)

5)I think Nosurfgirl needs your prayers. (She does.)

6)Nosurfgirl) needs surgery in the morning (neutering) (AAAAck. There's something really wrong here, then.)

7)"Nosurfgirl needs to know about everything, and then has to know why everything is that way -- then she usually wants to change it," (Hmmm. Ok, well. Maybe.)

8)For now, Nosurfgirl's needs should be your focus. (That's right.)

9)Nosurfgirl needs your help to get elected to the Senate. (Vote for me in 2008.)

10) Nosurfgirl needs a belt because the dress is just hanging on her, without form. (It must be quite the tent, then... this basketball is not easily disguisable.)

You've got to be kidding

Holy Crap.

I seriously hope that this isn't true. Seriously. I'm not going to talk about this because it makes me too angry to be rational, so instead I have one word for you, Paris:

Tinkerbell.

Oh, and by the way, you can't put a rhinestone collar on a kid.

Cute Pic

Gotta love labor day. Here is Skywalker and Jaws enjoying a swingset moment, with Loli running rampant in the background.

Good Newses II

So, we found out that this next baby is a boy. Due January 18th. He's measuring big for his age, which is very cool. We're excited to have a boy in our girl family! Hooray!! So, we'll have three girls and two boys when this adoption process is over.

And...

I got an email today from Covenant, they asked for an electronic submission of my manuscript. They told me before that they had tabled it, so I moved on. But this request is a very, very good sign. Hooray!!

Onion article-- Rove leaves the white house

A little ascerbic, but definitely hilarious.

not all olives are equal

I have always loved black olives. My dad fed them to me as a baby. I would eat them like candy as a child. For Christmas one year, I requested a can of olives and found one in my stocking. I ate the entire thing by the end of the day.

I still love olives. I wait for sales, I buy in bulk-- olives and avocadoes (my husband's fetish) are our food budget luxuries.

But not every olive is alike for taste and quality. Here are some olive pointers:

Smaller olives are more delicious, most of the time. Don't buy the jumbo or large pitted, buy medium pitted. True, they won't fit on your fingers as well, but, well, we have to make some compromises if we want a truly delicious olive experience.

Be careful about generic brands. While some can produce a crisp, mildly salty, delicious olive, some are more inclined to the slightly winey, mushier type. If that's your preference, all the power in the world to you. As an olive connoseur, though, I have to say that I think I know what I'm talking about.

When you want to use only a few olives out of the can and save the rest, make sure you leave enough of that olive juice in the can to cover the remaining olives. Otherwise they get all rubbery and develop a distinctly winey aftertaste.

Unless you eat them on pizza or in mexican food, olives are much more delicious whole. (Olives in mexican food, you say? Oh, you need to try it.)

If any of you have bought yourself a can of olives that you are unsure of and would like advice, I am happy to inform you that my services as an olive tester are available. I'd give you my post office box, but then you would know where I live. So instead, I suggest that you post a picture of the olive in question and I will do my best to judge it on a purely visual basis.