Sunday, November 16, 2008

Blogging for the Severely Stupid or I Was Severed in the Military -- WHAT?!?!

Against my better judgement I made a comment on this douchenozzle's blog:

http://sfokc6125.wordpress.com/

He's just your typical knuckle dragging idiot who claims that Obama did not win the election. He blathers on about electoral college voting, how that has not happened yet, bla bla bla. Apparently, his understanding of the Twelfth Amendment is hampered by his inability to read above a second grade level. So I made a comment on his blog ( he deleted it since I pointed out his idiocy ), and his response to me? Two rather disturbing emails:


Email #1, entitled "JERK"

Amendment 12

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;

The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;

As I see you must be as dumb as a rock. The above is the base on which the vote is to be counted. You don’t get to change this as it is the Constitution of the UNTIED STATES OF AMERICA .If you don’t like it go live somewhere else.
What is funny is the fact that it has nothing to do with who claims they won it is the foundation of this country.
LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU HAVE SEVERED IN THE MILITARY AND DONE ANYTHING TO UPHOLD THE FREEDOMS THAT YOU HAVE.
I hold two degrees and run my own company which is very successful. You must be a bitter time card puncher for someone else.
And last but not least I have filed with a large group for this to be addressed. If there was nothing to it they would have blocked any filling as to the facts.
God Bless America
And protect us from ignorant jerks like you


and the scary Email #2, some content I have changed to protect myself.

And I am smart enough to trace and track you . And that is funny because people like you who instead of discussing they attack that which they disagree with.
There is the real shame. You will never learn as you have shown that your eyes are closed.

then follows a bunch of technical stuff which, I suppose, shows my ip address and various things about me. Funny because the internet provider listed is not mine, I suppose it belongs to the fucktard who emailed me.

When a comment is made on a blog, a valid email is usually requested and I have no problem providing one, but now I'm faced with this idiot.

I'm glad the election is over and just hope bloggers like these crawl back under their respective rocks soon.

Oh, and Frank/SFOKC6125? What exactly, was severed in your military service?

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Well put, Keith

I've been wanting to say something about Prop 8 and the reaction to it. I could never come up with something as eloquent as Keith Olberman did.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Raising a Little Tajik

So my son is at least 1/2 ethnically Tajik and we think it's more like 100% ( there's a big old helping of uncertain paternity there ) Tajik. Tajiks make up a huge part of the population of Central Asia, from Uzbekistan to Tajikstan, Pakistan and Iran and the language is closely related to Farsi.
One of the things that I think is important in including in an internationally adopted child's life is some kind of tie to their other heritage. All Rhys needs to do is look in the mirror and he can see that his skin is darker than mom and dads and eventually he's going to ask why.
I'm lucky to have a copy of his first mother's passport with her full name and address, and the same information about her husband, who is legally recognized as his birth father. Circumstances around the timing of their marriage, its registration and his birth leave some doubt to parentage but the point here is that someday my son might want to meet these people and I feel an obligation to respect and honor their traditions, in as much as some of them can be incorporated into his life. I joined a Tajik group on Facebook and have already received some suggestions as to how to recognize holidays like Navruz, prepare ethnic dishes ( one of which involves a bunch of stones and constant stirring for 15 hours?!?! ) and learn about important Tajik historical figures.
I'm working on it...

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Caribou Barbie...haul your ass back to Alaska

I am thrilled beyond words at the sweeping victory of Barack Obama and so proud that Americans looked beyond race in electing him president. I'm filled with almost as much glee that we are done hearing about Sarah Palin ( I hope ) and that she takes TODDDDDDDDDDD, the knocked up teenager and her deer in headlights fiance, the poster child for pro-life and special needs, and the rest of the dysfunctional family she's been parading in front of the nation back to Alaska and we are done with her. Also.
As the mom to a child of color, I can tell him with certainty that he absolutely could be president someday. Except that he was born in Uzbekistan, so he couldn't.
Speaking of my son, he suddenly has become a meat eater. It started with pot roast last week, stuffed peppers on Monday night and steak enchiladas this evening. We'll work on vegetables next.
My grand plan for the future is to somehow find a company that is willing to donate some playground equipment to his former orphanage. Several kids were adopted from there in the last year, and the four moms involved are all in this together. So if anyone reading this knows someone who can get us a huge, kidsafe, durable playground set, please let me know.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

A Little Rant about Raani Starnes and a Houston Racist

One of the many many assumptions I had at the begining of our adoption journey was that the world of international adoption was full of people who were open and welcoming to children and people of other races and cultures. I think that's a fair assumption, that someone who would open their home to a child from a distant land would welcome all nationalities and races to all aspects of their lives. Over the course of the last few days, and through a heated adoption on an international adoption message board, the truth has emerged loud and clear. Racists and bigots exist in the world of international adoption. A woman, K, posted about some issues her daughter was having at school. They included rough play, hitting and scratching of her daughter and other children by schoolmates. Now, the real issue should have been whether or not the school had the obligation to enforce a no bullying, no abuse policy ( of course they do ) and whether or not she should continue to send her child here. The problem was that the post contained some not too subtle suggestions that maybe the behavior was linked to the socio-economic status and/or ethicity of some parents , evidenced by their behavior at varying school events. Most responses ( rightly ) just overlooked this weird tangent and responded to the issue of the school policy about the behavior in questions.
Until the post by S ( who admittedly lives in a "Stepford"-esque gated community, for whom looks are very important as are money and class and matching little Gymboree outfits for her FOREIGN BORN adopted children, who just so happened to have arrived in this country with a dislike for ugly people and some sort of inherent pride in their own beauty and status which goes unchecked my mom and breast enhanced fellow beauty snob Grandma, who lives with this screwed up little family ) who proudly admitted that "like" belonged with "like" and was followed later by a post claiming that she simply "is not ready to embrace inter-racial relationships for herself or her children". There were more posts, in each one she proudly defended herself.
There was, as you would expect, some outcry. I was glad to see several long time members of this group pounce all over her words. What saddened me, though, was the support. Many posters did not share her views but felt that there was nothing wrong with respecting her opinion, and this is where it got me mad. See, the thing about racism is that when it rears its ugly head it needs to be addressed and yelled at and stomped on and changed. Then came the challenges from Stepford Barbie which was, basically, " Well, if you're so damned liberal, how many of you are married to someone of another race?" Many of us responded that we either WERE in this situation, or had dated or had long term relationships with people of other races, people with disabilities, etc. I hated responding to this because her question was just so stupid and certainly not a litmus test for racism. My response to her was that I felt that she was saying that somehow my child is somehow not up to the standards of her child ( keeping in mind that we are talking preschoolers here, who have plenty of years to form their own opinions ) and that I was offended. Out came the claws and suddenly I was accused of being angry and needed to get a life. Now, I'd like to quote more of what this self-righteous grown up high school diva said, but she's edited and/or deleted most of her posts. I did print out the text of the exchanges, I need to keep track of her fans , I want to remember who the racists are.
And speaking of fucktards, there's Raani Starnes and her equally completely wacked out wacko brother, Pastor Anderson. You can google and find texts of her now open by invite only blog, but she's some fundie douchenozzle who posted that she pretty much advocated the murder of children, saying that the proposed gay-friendly high school in Chicago could be blown up and she'd see it as just desserts.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Should I Adopt from Uzbekistan?

That's a question that we asked ourselves at the beginning of the process when we were SURE we'd be adopting from Guatemala. I still hold out hope that adoption #2 might be from there but right now, Guatemala is still pretty much a no go for new adoptions.
Many people are expressing interest in adopting from Uzbekistan even though it's a slow process and more agencies have pulled their program or put it on hold than continue to process adoptions.
So, if you are looking for a "healthy" infant referral and you are prepared to wait a year or more for a referral and many many months after for travel and completion , Uzbekistan might be an option. If you want an older child or a child with special needs, the process might be quicker.
Since we started, program fees have increased, the wait times are longer, there seem to be less children available to adopt and more kids with nightmarish paperwork problems.
I'm so glad we're home with our son, and pleased at how well the process went for us in comparison to others who are still waiting on referrals or trips to bring their waiting kids home.
I know of at least 3 kids with special needs waiting for families, people have contacted me about these kids but have not followed up with the agency representing them so they still remain in the orphanage system.

Friday, October 10, 2008

A New Blog


There were many factors that went in to my decision to mark my adoption blog private. It's sort of run its course now, and life has changed for my family. Instead of pursuing our adoption, we're now focusing on raising our son, an adorable three year old named Rhys.

Our house is crazy...two parents who work full time, two dogs, two cats, diapers, mac and cheese strewn around the kitchen table, bath time, fights over getting dressed in the morning, but it's really wonderful.

Welcome.