Sorry for the lack of blogging lately...yes, we're still alive. Between the craziness of the ice storm and Laura's grandma breaking her hip, we've been pretty busy.
Not much new in the adoption world right now, the next group of referrals should be arriving in the next week or so and we'll be able to tell if the wait time has gone up or stayed the same (or, dare I say, gone down).
Remember the cute twin girls we posted a video of a couple months ago (the ones singing "The Wheels on the Bus")? Well, here is another cute video of them, this time showing off their dance moves - a couple of them resembling Elaine from Seinfeld...
Fun Fact: The fortune cookie actually originated in San Francisco. And if you happen to be in Springfield and find yourself dining at a little place called Tasia, don't ask for one because they'll laugh at you. Apparently they like to keep it pretty authentic. :-\
Sorry for the delayed response...Laura's grandma took a spill and is in the hospital with a broken hip.
Well, Paula Zahn's second attempt wasn't much better. A clearly nervous and uncomfortable Paula began the show talking about the thousands of emails they had received from the previous show. The program started off great with David Youtz, president of the Greater New York Chapter of Families With Children From China, speaking on behalf of the adoption community. He and his wife have adopted four daughters from China, including triplets.
After David's part of the segment, two of the "stooges" from the last show once again made an appearance...this is where we wished we would have just stopped watching. One of them actually admitted he was wrong, however, Roland Martin continued to spew the same venom as the previous show and, of course, made sure he got in the last word. If you would like to read the transcripts, click here (you'll find it at the very top this time).
While at first we were glad CNN tried to re-address the fiasco that was caused last Friday, they have now dropped the ball, not once, but twice. We sent them another letter basically stating that it might be best if they just leave the topic of international and domestic adoption alone since clearly, they aren't capable of getting it right.
Unfortunately we've just heard that Paula will be airing yet another segment tonight. Here's the summary as listed on her website: She's a proud parent now, but if she wanted to do it again, she couldn't. Will strict overseas adoption standards rule you out too? Tune in Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on "Paula Zahn Now."
We've decided not to watch... we're ready to move on to better things.
Did any of you happen to watch the Paula Zahn Now show on CNN last Friday night (1/5/07)? We had heard they were going to be talking about China's new adoption guidelines, so we decided to tune in. It seemed to start off well, talking about the new regulations and how China is concerned about doing what is best for the children (as we've mentioned in previous posts).
Paula was then joined by a panel of "experts" to engage in a round table discussion about the new guidelines... or so it seemed. The discussion quickly turned ugly as the focus moved away from the changes being made by the CCAA and into the territory of "what's the big deal with Chinese children?" We couldn't believe our ears as we listened to these people arrogantly try to speculate as to why so many people choose to adopt from China. Basically what they were insinuating was that by adopting from China people think they will have children that are more lovable, like little porcelain dolls, and will be more intelligent, one day growing up to be doctors. These were their words.
Hard to believe anyone could say something so ignorant? Check it out for yourselves... Below is a clip of the part of the segment where Ms. Zahn and her "three stooges" panel weighed in on their opinions (you might have to click the play button twice). If you'd like to read the actual transcripts, click here and scroll about two-thirds of the way down.
Obviously this created quite an uproar in the Chinese adoption community. As soon as we finished watching, we started composing a letter that we ended up e-mailing to many CNN execs. along with all of the members of the panel. Click here if you would like to read what our letter said.
Fast forward to today (Monday) afternoon... we just found out through one of the online adoption forums that Paula Zahn will be doing a follow-up segment about last Friday's show tonight at 7:00pm central. Apparently CNN has received so many emails about this they've decided to re-address the issue tonight and have even been so kind as to invite an adoption professional to speak this time (Are you all picking up on the sarcasm?? Because we're laying it on pretty thick!). Hopefully there will be more accurate and appropriate information presented this time along with less racism and stereotyping. We'll see how well CNN can backpedal...
The December group of referrals have arrived and according to this info box from the CCAA website, the LID cut-off for this group was September 27, 2005. For those who don't remember, our LID is September 12, 2006.So, as you can see, we're now up to about a 15 month wait.
In other news, many of you have probably heard the reports regarding the new eligibility regulations to adopt from China. We found out that these won't go into effect until May 1, 2007 and received confirmation that we will be grandfathered in since we were logged in prior to this date. Basically these new regulations are much stricter on things like the health of the adoptive parents, age of parents, length of marriage, education, finances, criminal background, and singles are now ineligilble. While this might make it harder for some people to adopt from China in the future, people should keep in mind that the CCAA is trying only to think of the children, making sure that they're placed in the best possible homes.
To end on a more positive note, we have added a new link in the sidebar called "Words of Inspiration" with some of our favorite Bible verses, poems and other writings that we've come across. We'll continue to build on this collection, so check it out from time to time.
