No words...just sad.I guess maybe just a few more words like miserable, bitter and fed up, because if I see my Lilypie baby falls off the end of my tracker (AGAIN), I just might have to shove it where the sun don't shine...no offence Lilypie.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
I just...
I just want to see his face.
I just want to know his name.
I just want to know how old he is.
I just want to buy him something special.
I just want to know he is healthy.
I just want to know he is thriving.
I just want to know he is being loved.
I just want to know that he is OK.
I just want to see him in my dreams.
Is that too much to ask?
I just want to know his name.
I just want to know how old he is.
I just want to buy him something special.
I just want to know he is healthy.
I just want to know he is thriving.
I just want to know he is being loved.
I just want to know that he is OK.
I just want to see him in my dreams.
Is that too much to ask?
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
If you read my blog...PLEASE do me this favor.
THIS LITERALLY TAKES LESS THAN TWO MINUTES TO COMPLETE - JUST COPY AND PASTE!
For those of you who read my blog and are not familiar with the process of adopting from Ethiopia here is a bit of a background for my plea - After a family receives a referral, they will wait anywhere from 1-3 months for a court date. Only after a successful court hearing can the travel documents be prepared for children - and families are ONLY able to bring their children home once they have received confirmation that the travel documents are ready. In the past, these travel documents have fluctuated in processing time, anywhere from 2 weeks to over six months!! Currently, these travel documents are taking an EXTREMELY long time - in fact, NO families who have gotten their referral since the bankruptcy (the first referral occurred in mid December 2009) have received their travel documents for their children. That means no family has yet to travel to pick up their children and have been given no indication whatsoever of when this might happen. For our family, this would mean that IF we received our referral this month (HA), we would not be travelling until 2011!!!!!
This issue is completely unacceptable and, even more so, unnecessary and could easily be solved.
In comparison to other countries, like the USA, families receive these travel documents within as little as two weeks after their successful court hearing. Also, in comparison to other Canadian High Commission locations around world that process travel documents, the office in Nairobi (in which Ethiopian adoption travel documents are prepared) takes over double the amount of time as these other locations and has gotten significantly longer over time.
This issue does not only affect Ethiopian children being adopted by Canadian families, but on a much larger scale, it also affects refugees coming to Canada. The Canadian Council for Refugees’ wrote a report describing the current problems in Nairobi and called for better resourcing at the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi. You can read more background on this issue here http://ccrweb.ca/en/bulletin/09/11/02 and the full report here http://www.ccrweb.ca/documents/Nairobireport.pdf
Here are the steps to follow to help us take action on this issue:
1) Cut and paste the letter at the end of this post into an email.
2) Send the email to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, at Minister@cic.gc.ca.
3) Copy your own Member of Parliament on the email. Using your postal code, you can find her/his email address at the following website: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC
4) At this time, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration is studying the issue of immigration application process wait times, specifically the long visa wait times of the High Commission in Nairobi. Telling this committee what we are asking for is a key step. We also want to let the Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign Affairs critics know that we are doing this. Please copy the following Members of Parliament on the email to the Minister as well:
tilson.d@parl.gc.ca, BevilM@parl.gc.ca, chowo@parl.gc.ca, StcyrT@parl.gc.ca, Calandra.P@parl.gc.ca, GrewaN@parl.gc.ca, ThilaE@parl.gc.ca, karygj@parl.gc.ca, Wong.A@parl.gc.ca, DykstR@parl.gc.ca, Coderre.D@parl.gc.ca, Young.T@parl.gc.ca, pm@pm.gc.ca, Cannon.L@parl.gc.ca, rae.b@parl.gc.ca, DewarP@parl.gc.ca, lalonf@parl.gc.ca
Here is the letter for copying and pasting:
Subject line: Application processing times at the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi
Dear Minister Kenney,
I have read of the Canadian Council for Refugee's report on the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi. I am distressed to learn of the High Commission's processing times for its most vulnerable applicants. I am embarrassed as a Canadian to read in the report some of the personal stories of refugees and their dependants who are enduring significant hardships, and in some cases tragedy, as they wait years for their applications to be reviewed by your clearly overburdened visa officers in Nairobi. Furthermore, this issue also affects children being adopted by Canadian families.
CIC-Nairobi' s processing times for refugees, refugee dependants, and internationally adopted children are approximately double the average for all of Canada's overseas missions. In fact, CIC-Nairobi' s processing times for almost all other immigration categories lag dramatically behind the global average for Canada's overseas missions. This situation is hardly fair or just, especially given that it impacts some of the most at-risk people Canada's overseas missions serve.
I want my voice heard and to encouraging the Government of Canada to stop the neglect of this overseas mission and the many very vulnerable individuals and families it serves. I would like to strongly encourage Citizenship and Immigration Canada to act on the following recommendations from the Canadian Council for Refugee's report:
- increase resources (both human and material) at Nairobi;
- increase processing targets allocated to Nairobi;
- reduce the number of countries served by Nairobi by using or creating other visa posts in the region to take on some of the burden of Nairobi; and
- review refugee and immigration programs to ensure that access is equitable and that Canadian anti-discrimination and anti-racism policies are fully respected.
Your spokesman's comments in November regarding the High Commission's processing times seemed to indicate that the Government of Canada feels no sense of urgency to address this situation. While acknowledging that this region is beset with many special obstacles, Canada is clearly failing to meet these unique challenges with unique solutions. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that those with the power in Ottawa to address this situation simply do not care to make resourcing decisions that would better support and protect vulnerable children and families.
I urge you to extend our Canadian values of fairness and compassion to vulnerable waiting families and to search for solutions to the issues currently facing the High Commission in Nairobi.
Sincerely,
Your name
Your address
-----------------
Please also complete the poll, so I know that our voice is being heard loud and clear!
---------------
UPDATED - 22 wonderful people helped by sending an email - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
For those of you who read my blog and are not familiar with the process of adopting from Ethiopia here is a bit of a background for my plea - After a family receives a referral, they will wait anywhere from 1-3 months for a court date. Only after a successful court hearing can the travel documents be prepared for children - and families are ONLY able to bring their children home once they have received confirmation that the travel documents are ready. In the past, these travel documents have fluctuated in processing time, anywhere from 2 weeks to over six months!! Currently, these travel documents are taking an EXTREMELY long time - in fact, NO families who have gotten their referral since the bankruptcy (the first referral occurred in mid December 2009) have received their travel documents for their children. That means no family has yet to travel to pick up their children and have been given no indication whatsoever of when this might happen. For our family, this would mean that IF we received our referral this month (HA), we would not be travelling until 2011!!!!!
This issue is completely unacceptable and, even more so, unnecessary and could easily be solved.
In comparison to other countries, like the USA, families receive these travel documents within as little as two weeks after their successful court hearing. Also, in comparison to other Canadian High Commission locations around world that process travel documents, the office in Nairobi (in which Ethiopian adoption travel documents are prepared) takes over double the amount of time as these other locations and has gotten significantly longer over time.
This issue does not only affect Ethiopian children being adopted by Canadian families, but on a much larger scale, it also affects refugees coming to Canada. The Canadian Council for Refugees’ wrote a report describing the current problems in Nairobi and called for better resourcing at the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi. You can read more background on this issue here http://ccrweb.ca/en/bulletin/09/11/02 and the full report here http://www.ccrweb.ca/documents/Nairobireport.pdf
Here are the steps to follow to help us take action on this issue:
1) Cut and paste the letter at the end of this post into an email.
2) Send the email to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, at Minister@cic.gc.ca.
3) Copy your own Member of Parliament on the email. Using your postal code, you can find her/his email address at the following website: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC
4) At this time, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration is studying the issue of immigration application process wait times, specifically the long visa wait times of the High Commission in Nairobi. Telling this committee what we are asking for is a key step. We also want to let the Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign Affairs critics know that we are doing this. Please copy the following Members of Parliament on the email to the Minister as well:
tilson.d@parl.gc.ca, BevilM@parl.gc.ca, chowo@parl.gc.ca, StcyrT@parl.gc.ca, Calandra.P@parl.gc.ca, GrewaN@parl.gc.ca, ThilaE@parl.gc.ca, karygj@parl.gc.ca, Wong.A@parl.gc.ca, DykstR@parl.gc.ca, Coderre.D@parl.gc.ca, Young.T@parl.gc.ca, pm@pm.gc.ca, Cannon.L@parl.gc.ca, rae.b@parl.gc.ca, DewarP@parl.gc.ca, lalonf@parl.gc.ca
Here is the letter for copying and pasting:
Subject line: Application processing times at the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi
Dear Minister Kenney,
I have read of the Canadian Council for Refugee's report on the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi. I am distressed to learn of the High Commission's processing times for its most vulnerable applicants. I am embarrassed as a Canadian to read in the report some of the personal stories of refugees and their dependants who are enduring significant hardships, and in some cases tragedy, as they wait years for their applications to be reviewed by your clearly overburdened visa officers in Nairobi. Furthermore, this issue also affects children being adopted by Canadian families.
CIC-Nairobi' s processing times for refugees, refugee dependants, and internationally adopted children are approximately double the average for all of Canada's overseas missions. In fact, CIC-Nairobi' s processing times for almost all other immigration categories lag dramatically behind the global average for Canada's overseas missions. This situation is hardly fair or just, especially given that it impacts some of the most at-risk people Canada's overseas missions serve.
I want my voice heard and to encouraging the Government of Canada to stop the neglect of this overseas mission and the many very vulnerable individuals and families it serves. I would like to strongly encourage Citizenship and Immigration Canada to act on the following recommendations from the Canadian Council for Refugee's report:
- increase resources (both human and material) at Nairobi;
- increase processing targets allocated to Nairobi;
- reduce the number of countries served by Nairobi by using or creating other visa posts in the region to take on some of the burden of Nairobi; and
- review refugee and immigration programs to ensure that access is equitable and that Canadian anti-discrimination and anti-racism policies are fully respected.
Your spokesman's comments in November regarding the High Commission's processing times seemed to indicate that the Government of Canada feels no sense of urgency to address this situation. While acknowledging that this region is beset with many special obstacles, Canada is clearly failing to meet these unique challenges with unique solutions. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that those with the power in Ottawa to address this situation simply do not care to make resourcing decisions that would better support and protect vulnerable children and families.
I urge you to extend our Canadian values of fairness and compassion to vulnerable waiting families and to search for solutions to the issues currently facing the High Commission in Nairobi.
Sincerely,
Your name
Your address
-----------------
Please also complete the poll, so I know that our voice is being heard loud and clear!
---------------
UPDATED - 22 wonderful people helped by sending an email - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Perfect pictures
My mom and dad proudly display pictures of all their grandchildren in their living room (as most grandparents do). And since my new nephew was born in January, my mom has been looking for new matching frames to display all her pictures. Chad and I went over for a visit the other day and my mom had finally found the perfect frames to show off ALL her grandchildren...
Monday, May 10, 2010
Exclusive Record Breakers
Only a small few can be place in such an exclusive club...
Tallest and shortest man
Largest igloo 
Tallest dog 
Biggest bubble 
Largest Diamond 
Longest ears 
Biggest pinata 
Most tattoos 
Biggest rubber band ball 
Longest hair
Oldest male stripper
AND...
Longest waiting family for a single child referral from Ethiopia
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone (from the bottom of a monkey's ass) who played a part in making this possible. Reaching this title is something I NEVER thought could ever happen to us - to break this record leaves me speechless and is truly indescribable (unless you count throwing up a little in my mouth as a good description?). And I truly hope nobody ever breaks this record!
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Are people really that ignorant?
I was in a course last week and my instructor was telling a story about his family - I can't even remember the whole story or the point he was trying to make, because I became so overwhelmed with rage and shock at the beginning of the story that the rest became a blur.
His story started something like "I have all brothers. Well I have a sister too, but she is so much younger then me that she is more like a distant or adopted relative..."
WHAT??? I had to look at my friend beside me to see if she heard the same thing and by the look on her face, she had. Did he really say that?? Are people really that ignorant? After it happened, I looked around the room and no one even flinched, which made me second guess my judgement - was it only me that found this unacceptable? Was I the only crazy adoptive parent that found it offensive? Was I overreacting, considering I really have not been in a good place with our adoption lately - maybe I was being too hypersensitive?
I debated saying something after class, I should have reacted - but I was stunned. I wondered whether he would have even remembered saying it. I am sure that he really did not mean to offend and said it without thinking, but it is still not right. I even tried rationalizing what he said to make it OK, but I could not come up with one logical example.
I try so hard to send a positive message about adoption whenever I can, then in moments like this I realize how much work still needs to be done.
His story started something like "I have all brothers. Well I have a sister too, but she is so much younger then me that she is more like a distant or adopted relative..."
WHAT??? I had to look at my friend beside me to see if she heard the same thing and by the look on her face, she had. Did he really say that?? Are people really that ignorant? After it happened, I looked around the room and no one even flinched, which made me second guess my judgement - was it only me that found this unacceptable? Was I the only crazy adoptive parent that found it offensive? Was I overreacting, considering I really have not been in a good place with our adoption lately - maybe I was being too hypersensitive?
I debated saying something after class, I should have reacted - but I was stunned. I wondered whether he would have even remembered saying it. I am sure that he really did not mean to offend and said it without thinking, but it is still not right. I even tried rationalizing what he said to make it OK, but I could not come up with one logical example.
I try so hard to send a positive message about adoption whenever I can, then in moments like this I realize how much work still needs to be done.
Monday, May 03, 2010
To Be Guinea Pigs - That is the Answer...
We found out late last week that we will in deed be travelling for court. I enquired with our agency on whether they thought we might still be able to make the court deadline of May 9th if we got our referral within the next week and we were told, in no uncertain terms that "it will not be possible to beat the deadline".
I have been holding onto so much hope lately, trying not to let things get to me too much. But when I got this news, I just lost it - literally, I was in the middle of a course and tears started welling up and I had to bolt for the door, I found an empty classroom and began "the ugly cry" and cried and cried and cried and cried. It's not like I didn't think that travelling for court was not going to be a possibility - it was hearing it so matter-of-fact. There have been many things piling up lately, and this news (as unsurprising as it may have seemed) was the straw that broke my emotions - and I have not cried like that in a very long time.
We will also be starting our homestudy update this week and that has been a very hard pill to swallow - but I have had my big cry and pity party and now we move forward...we really have no other choice, do we?
I have been holding onto so much hope lately, trying not to let things get to me too much. But when I got this news, I just lost it - literally, I was in the middle of a course and tears started welling up and I had to bolt for the door, I found an empty classroom and began "the ugly cry" and cried and cried and cried and cried. It's not like I didn't think that travelling for court was not going to be a possibility - it was hearing it so matter-of-fact. There have been many things piling up lately, and this news (as unsurprising as it may have seemed) was the straw that broke my emotions - and I have not cried like that in a very long time.
We will also be starting our homestudy update this week and that has been a very hard pill to swallow - but I have had my big cry and pity party and now we move forward...we really have no other choice, do we?
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