Adoption Bookshelf

Don't Call It A Comeback...

After being asked many, many times in the last few weeks, "do you keep a blog?", I am contemplating resurrecting "Adoption Bookshelf." For many, many reasons, I had let it fall to the wayside, kept quiet in the adoption blog world because I wasn't sure if (or when) I would have anything to say.

I now have something to say.

Still trying to figure out how to say it, though, and how much of it to discuss. While I'm mulling over things, enjoy the new layout, whoever stumbles across this. Hopefully there soon will be new words to accompany the new look.

Happy Election Day!

Wishing you an enjoyable election day, no matter who wins!

And if you haven't done it already, please vote and make your voice heard.

Links That Are Worth Your Time

Once again, links to random adoption-related blog posts and websites that have caught my attention lately. I don't know any of these folks, but they're definitely all engaging in some interesting conversations!

Worthwhile Discussion

--Anita at Banku, Pho, and Fried Spiders posted a thoughtful discussion about handling gender identity issues in young children. (Apparently, Dr. Phil weighed in on this same subject during his television show sometime this week.)

--Spontaneous Delight wrote a lovely tribute to her son, "Raising a Super Hero."

Worthy Cause

--Earlier this week, I'm "Ghana" Adopt posted a very moving account of a 15-year-old Russian boy named Misha and the family that is trying to raise funds to adopt him. Here is part of that story:

"I received an email from a friend a few days ago, letting me know about a young orphan boy who needs our help. I know ... there are hundreds of thousands of orphans who need our help ... but, this story touched me deeply.

Misha is a 15 year old from Russia. Several weeks ago he was flown to the U.S. for life-changing surgery ... the amputation of both legs. Misha was born with a severe deformity of his legs and arms. In Russia, it is known as the 'throw-away' disease. Despite the deformities, Misha is a very well-adjusted and intelligent young man, with much hope for the future.

A wonderful, large, homeschooling family on the East Coast welcomed Misha into their home for the surgery, and immediately fell so in love with him that it was determined that he should become part of their forever family. However ... next May Misha will turn 16 ... an age where he is no longer able to be adopted into the U.S. ... also an age where he will be turned out of his orphanage in Russia, and moved to an insane asylum. Seriously ... this boy is not insane, but he will be 'thrown away'.

This wonderful family believes with all their heart that Misha is to become their son. However, they have no idea how the Lord will raise up the $27,000 needed in the next few months. The funds must be raised before February, so that the adoption can be completed before Misha's birthday in May.

I hope you will visit their family blog http://helpmisha.blogspot.com to find out how you can best support this precious family, and Misha. As Melissa, the mom, says ... 'If 2,700 people donated just $10, the money would be raised.'"

For more information about Misha or to contribute to this family, please visit their blog.

Also, to learn more about International Guardian Angels Outreach (IGAO) and their Project HOPE program (the program that brought Misha to the U.S. for surgery), please visit their website. There are many opportunities to volunteer, including sponsoring a child or serving as a foster family for a child who's receiving medical treatment.

Tips Worth Their Weight in Gold

--Rachel at Instantly Mama offers great ideas for entertaining a toddler on the cheap.

--Brandi at LivingFreely describes a free, fun outing for kids that I've never thought of--picnic at the airport! Read about her original idea here.

--My own personal tip for sourcing inexpensive, kid-friendly ideas: subscribe to Family Fun magazine.

Right now you may be wondering, So where does the inexpensive part come in?! I can't afford a magazine subscription! True, but while Family Fun is normally $10 for a 10-issue subscription (not too bad), I found an even better deal. There's a person on ioffer.com who sells discount Family Fun subscriptions for only $1.49.

Yep--that's a whole year's subscription--all costs included, no strings attached--for $1.49.

And even though this deal seems too good to be true, I think it's really true! Or at least it's worked for me so far. I subscribed a few months ago and have been receiving Family Fun (and Wonder Time, which I bought for $2.89/year) with no problems thus far. Plus, I used PayPal, so there's no way to add extra charges to my credit card. All in all, a great deal.

And Finally, A Picture Worth A Thousand Words...

Have a beary happy Halloween!

(Hehe...terrible pun but it was irresistible!) And for more mind-blowing pumpkin carvings to get you in the spooky spirit, visit PumpkinGutter.com.

Something Old, Something New...

The theme for today's link round-up: something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.

Something Old

Voting continues for CNN's Heroes contest. And I still haven't tired of plugging Yohannes Gebregeorgis and Ethiopia Reads. Keep voting for him. Why not make it a daily destination when you're catching up on blogs? After all, who wouldn't want to promote an organization making such a positive, tangible difference in the world?

"Ethiopia Reads believes that those who read bloom…and that literacy is the key to improving the lives of this generation of Ethiopians. Our mission is to build a reading culture in Ethiopia by connecting children with books. We do this by planting libraries for children, publishing books in English as well as local Ethiopian languages, and training teachers and librarians to cultivate a love of reading among children."
--from the Ethiopia Reads website

"The salvation of our country Ethiopia, we have repeatedly stated to you, lies primarily in education. As Ethiopia is one, all Ethiopians are also one and education is the only way to maintain the condition....
We believe that from truth alone is born liberty and only an educated people can consider itself as really free and master of its fate."
--Haile Selassie I,
from his first speech on education

Something New

How about a new cookbook? The Riggs Family, who's adopted children from Guatemala (Abby and Landis) and Ethiopia (Sami), are now offering a cookbook for sale.

And the proceeds go to a very worthy cause. Earlier this summer, three-year-old Abby was diagnosed with leukemia. All money raised from cookbook sales will go toward paying for her treatment (as the family describes below).

When we were adopting Abby, Landis and Sami one of the ways we raised money was by creating the adoption cookbook.

We compiled dozens of recipes from the countries and families of adopted children. Salads, appetizers, main dishes, soups, desserts... over 150 pages of great recipes.

We have several cases of the cookbooks leftover from that fundraising effort. We would like to offer them again to do some fundraising for the expenses related to Abby's leukemia. Gas, food, prescriptions, hospitals, doctors, tests... at a time when our income was unexpectedly and dramatically cut, our expenses went up.

But, we don't simply want to ask for money. We want to sell this fantastic recipe book for a price you would happily pay at a book store. The recipes are wonderful, and the pictures of the adopted kids heartwarming.

To purchase the Riggs Family cookbook, click here.

And if you can't afford it (although it's only $20, so it's a great deal!), you can still support Abby and the Riggs family by praying for them. I'm sure that's the kind of support they value above all others.

Something Borrowed

As seen at The Road To Our Own, a link to an insightful interview of a transracial family (a white mother and her now-adult African-American son). This clip is brief, yet touches upon many important points about race, adoption, and the necessity of "see[ing] the world in color."

Something Blue

(What follows are largely non-adoption-related thoughts, including some thoughts about religion/Christianity. If that sort of thing is not your cup of tea, you may want to stop reading here.)

This week, when I think of "blue," my thoughts tend to be less in terms of color and more in terms of melancholy. In particular, a lot of folks in the adoption blogosphere seem dismayed by a post I linked to a couple days ago, wherein one adoptive mother (a Christian) made an argument for the morality of gay couples adopting...and was promptly lambasted by other Christians in her comments section.

This reaction was saddening, no matter what your stance on this issue might be. I'm trying to stay nonpolitical here, so I'm not going to delve so much into the issue of same-sex adoption rights but rather into an auxiliary reaction I had to it--one that I think both sides can (and should!) agree with.

Namely this--that the beauty of Christianity (and the concept that seems to be missing in some of this back-and-forth blog commenting) is the concept of grace. Freely given and unmerited love from God. While we can never match the perfect grace God extends to us, we should aspire to as much--which includes showing grace to those whom we disagree with, even to those we think are sinning.

Reading these posts has reminded me of a song by one of my very favorite musicians, Sufjan Stevens. Sufjan has the honor of writing the most beautiful song ever penned about a serial killer. Strange plaudits, no doubt, but well deserved! (To download and listen to this song, click here.)

The song--entitled "John Wayne Gacy, Jr."--sets up a most uncomfortable scenario, one wherein the listener not only sympathizes with Gacy to an extent ("His father was a drinker / And his mother cried in bed / Folding John Wayne's T-shirts / When the swingset hit his head") but also identifies with him.

How could one identify with such a horrendous criminal? Sufjan, a Christian, concludes the song by posing an uncomfortable idea: "And in my best behavior / I am really just like him / Look beneath the floorboards / For the secrets I have hid."

But for grace, we are all irredeemable sinners. We all have ugly secrets hidden beneath our floorboards. Thank God that He can look beyond all our faults.

May we all learn to be more like Him.

Other People's Interesting Posts

Here is my newest post, wherein I try to convince you that I am, in fact, posting something new (when, in fact, I'm merely linking to other people's interesting stories).

Before the links, though, a brief reminder: go vote for Ethiopia Reads in the CNN Heroes contest.

But Kimberly, you might be saying to yourself, I already voted.

But Dear Reader, I might be saying in reply, why not go vote again?

For whatever reason, CNN's contest allows you to vote multiple times. (Seems to defeat the purpose of the whole contest concept, but oh well.) So go kill some time over there while helping out a good cause. It's fast, "warm fuzzy"-inducing, and easier than playing the FreeRice game and struggling to remember for the umpteenth time whether a "bulbul" means an "idler" or a "thief." *

Now, onward to other people's scintillating insights...

From The Adoption Blogs

--Cripes! Not sure if something is in the air this week or what, but ever since I've started reading adoption blogs again (post-surgery), there seems to be an awful lot of controversy stirring in people's posts (and in their comments sections!). And really, I read these posts and think, why all the ruckus? But it is the Internet, after all, so I suppose the ol' saying about mountains and molehills applies. For a peek at the controversy, check out this post, or this one, or this one.

I would feel bad about even linking to these stories, except that I know only two or three people read this blog, and they're nice! (I trust you, my three friends!) But, if by some weird chance you're a random fussy person who stumbled upon these links, looking for someone to unleash vituperations on...save it! These folks have taken enough crap this week. Go show them some love, if you're so inclined. Otherwise, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!

From The World Of Ethiopian Music

--From the excellent music blog Chocoreve, a link to the Kuku Sebsebe album, Munaye.

--A hard-to-find gem, The Greatest Hits of Bezunesh Bekele, has been lovingly copied from tape to mp3 and posted online at the music blog, Decent Island Albums.

--John at Likembe continues his superlative explorations of obscure African music with his post of Mahmoud Ahmed's 1992 Live in Addis Ababa recording. Again, this is another instance of a blogger taking the time to transfer music from a scratchy old cassette to digital format. Wow--hooray for the Internet and the kind folks who work to provide access to these hard-to-find recordings.

--And finally, Voice Of America hosts a handful of songs recorded in 1960s Ethiopia and accompanied by an insightful article on "Ethiopia's Revolutionary Sixties." If you want to know more about the precursors to Ethiopia's "Golden Age" of 1970s music (as popularized in the

Ethiopiques series), check out VoA's story.

From The Files Of Things That Have Nothing To Do With Adoption, Ethiopia, Or The Stated Purpose Of This Blog

--To put you in the Halloween spirit: the brother of one of my bestest friends is a world-class pumpkin carver (who even knew there was such a thing?!) and has a website featuring his really cool creations. (I think he's also going to be on a Food Network special this weekend, maybe?) Anyway, for pumpkin carvings that will blow your mind, check out the Pumpkin Gutter.

* To clarify--I think the FreeRice site is rad. I'm merely encouraging you to spread the clicking love to other charitable causes, as well. And a "bulbul" is actually a songbird. ;)

Vote for Ethiopia Reads as CNN's
Hero Of The Year!

Got an extra minute? Then click over to CNN.com and vote in their CNN Hero Of The Year contest. Ten finalists have been selected for Hero Of The Year, among them Yohannes Gebregeorgis and his Ethiopia Reads project.

It takes only a moment to vote, and you don't even have to enter your email address. Best of all, the finalist with the most votes receives $100,000 for his/her work.

And if you're not familiar with the work of Ethiopia Reads, I encourage you to check out their website and this short video about them. This project, which strives to "develop a reading culture in Ethiopia by connecting children with books," is more than deserving of your vote.

**One minor awesome point about this video--my favorite children's book ever, Rabbit's New Rug, is featured in the background of the first shot! Awesome!

***And thanks, S, for the heads-up on this story!

Recovering From Surgery

So you thought my blog posts couldn't possibly get any less frequent? HA! Well, tell that to my appendix!

Or should I say, tell that to the right side of my abdomen that formerly held my appendix.

This past week, I had an emergency appendectomy, and after a few days in the hospital, I'm now at home recovering from surgery.

An unexpected blessing--my surgery recovery has coincided with the arrival of a Wii. Hooray for distractions, especially for a gal who does not tolerate pain medication very well (and thus isn't taking any).

One of these days, I'll be back in the blog action. In the meantime, I'll be saving the galaxies as an Italian plumber.

Wow...

If you don't already follow Carolyn's adoption/family blog (The Stitch That Makes The Sweater Perfect), you should start now! Her most recent post, which includes the "before" and "after" photos of her daughter, Selah, after coming home to her new family are just astonishing.

What an amazing testament of God's immense love for even the smallest among us.

Are not two sparrows sold for a cent?

And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:29-31 (NASB)

Wednesday's Web Wanderings

-- Want to know pretty much anything and everything about the history of adoption in the U.S.? Check out The Adoption History Project and be staggered at the depth of information featured there. (I know I was!)

Included is information about all kinds of aspects of adoption--for example, a history of the "orphan trains" of 19th- and 20th-century America (as advertised in the flier at left).

-- "Black Adoption Myths and Realities" from the North American Council on Adoptable Children.

-- A Birth Project explores an issue that I've been pondering lately--whether adopted children from Ethiopia (or any other African country, for that matter) will identify themselves as "African American" or will continue to view themselves exclusively through the lens of their homeland. I think this is more of an issue for older child adoptions, but this article offers good food for thought applicable to children of all ages.

-- "A Family Again, if Only for a Week"--a bittersweet article in the New York Times about a summer camp that reunites separated siblings in foster care.

-- And on a much less serious note, the satirical article "Brangelina to Accelerate Adoption Binge" made me smile, not so much for its Onion-esque take on celebrity adoption but for how frighteningly plausible the article seemed. Sadly, it doesn't seem like that much of a stretch to believe that "each [adopted child] will receive the Lamborghini of their choice on their 16th birthday and have a teaching hospital bearing their name in their country of origin."

An Apology...

To my grand total of three readers: sorry for not posting more lately. If you haven't already heard, I've been under the weather. I will try to post more frequently as I get on the mend.

In the meantime, check out my new Ethiopian music post on Gigi (just underneath this post).

Now, off to bed and that whole "getting on the mend" thing...