Night Time Thoughts

11:04 PM Edit This 2 Comments »

It is 11:00 p.m. (my normal bedtime) and I am just getting back from going out on a crisis call for work. I went to see a 9 year old boy at his new foster placement. He has been there for almost two months. Although this is his first placement, his life has been challenging for a long time. His mother died from complications related to drug abuse, and his father is unknown. His grandfather, who he was living with, has gotten ill and can no longer care for him. This boy has significant behavior issues (as you might guess) and his foster parents have been stretched to the point of collapse. It is on nights like tonight that I find a little glimmer of hope in what I do. Nights like tonight force me to remember that sometimes it is just a little human contact that can get people through situations that they never thought they would be able to survive. Even though, by the time I arrived, this child was ready for bed and no longer in crisis, I'd like to think it is possible that because I came to their house, this placement can be preserved a little bit longer, the foster parents will be a little bit stronger, and I can have a little more faith in the goodness of people.

In other news: Greek Orthodox Easter= Pretty Darn Cool. J has been out of town in Iowa all weekend (since Thursday) and so both Friday and Saturday nights I stayed with my friend M's family. She and her husband have two kids that I LOVE. They are Greek and today was Easter for them. Friday and Saturday were spent preparing for the big party. Saturday night at 11:30 p.m. we piled in their van and drove to the Greek Orthodox Church which was packed. I mean... we literally parked half a mile or so away. (I had no idea there were so many Greek people that lived around here...) Everyone had candles (supposedly the flame came from Jerusalem), and the priest said somethings in Greek that I couldn't understand. The choir sang. And a little after midnight, the church bells began ringing and there were fireworks! It was beautiful. Then all the members of the church took their candles (still it) home to spread the light of the resurrection. Back at home, we ate traditional Easter soup made with egg, lemon, greens, dill, and chicken livers. It was actually pretty tasty. (I'm not really a liver girl.) Today, they cooked a lamb in their backyard. Yes, they bought a mechanical spit situation and roasted and entire lamb (head attached) in the backyard. 50 or so people came over. TONS OF FOOD. (Yes, gramma... greek salad, lemon potatoes, spinich pie, spiropita, tzasiki...) I felt pretty special to be there. Too bad J missed out... :)

PTI: Paper Turned In.

7:14 PM Edit This 8 Comments »
I turned in my final draft of my masters thesis today. If all goes well... I will graduate! I am feeling strangely anxious now that I have turned it in. This whole going to a big state school thing means that you are kind of on your own to get everything turned in (i's dotted, t's crossed) in order to graduate... so, I am mostly hoping that I haven't forgotten anything.

And--OF COURSE... my first free weekend without any paper stress hanging over me... J is going out of town. To Iowa. Conference/Paper Presentation. I opted out of traveling... to Iowa. Didn't think there would be much there for me to do while he was listening to papers on pop music.
Fun Fact: My friends are roasting a lamb in their yard this weekend... for Greek Orthodox Easter. Yes, just like in 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding.'

Adoption Update: No baby referrals this past week. Date is still holding strong in November. In other news, our CIS extension got SENT BACK to us... Come to find out it was just a clerical error and I will need to pay another $5 to priority mail it back to them. Geez... At least it isn't boring, right? I made a baby registry about a year ago... I revisited it this past week and now I am pretty sure that everything I registered for looks pretty boring. What would my mommy readers register for if they had it to do over again?

Personal Development

4:46 PM Edit This 8 Comments »
I am setting some 'personal development' goals. Otherwise known as... things to keep me busy while waiting.

1. Take 'personal training' classes at the Mac store to learn how to use iMovie and our .Mac site for bragging in style after Baby B arrives.

2. Clean out all the crap I have accumulated while writing my masters paper. I have basically had this AWESOME excuse not to do anything around the house for the past two semesters. But, alas... (most likely) I will be graduating in May and will thus lose my excuse for not keeping up with things around here.

3. Pick a color for Baby B's room and paint it. I am not saying that I am ready to put together a 'nursery' or anything. There will be no baby things put in the room until the referral, but... regardless of baby status, the room needs a paint job and now would be a good time to do it.

4. Sew the bag I have been meaning to sew. I think sewing is cool, but I pretty much suck at it. So, I purchased a cool book with cool patterns, one of which is a bag that I would love to carry around--hence, sewing is on the 'personal development' list.

5. Practice some Ethiopian cooking. My lofty dream is to waltz into our local Ethiopian restaurant (yes! we have one of those.) and ask if the chef would give me a couple of lessons. However, I have been keeping my eyes peeled for recipes that would be do-able on my own and have run across a couple that I am going to try.

6. Think about parenting some more. I think I am ready to move past thinking about race and racial identity for at least a few weeks and think about parenting strategies and whatnot. Yes, af, included in this is ordering the Continuum Concept among other books.

7. Get fit. I would like to tone up a bit so that my back won't go out of whack when I am suddenly carrying an infant around someday. I would like to start some good manageable habits in the physical fitness area. Losing a couple of pounds would be a bonus mostly so that I don't have to buy new summer clothes this year on my already shoestring budget.

I think that's enough for now. Any personal development goals you all are setting for yourselves this summer?
Me and Auntie Mimi in Brooklyn this past weekend.

**BTW... MY FINGERPRINTS WERE ACCEPTED!!! WOO HOO.

Mom = Superhero

2:12 PM Edit This 3 Comments »
I know my mom is a superhero because:

1. She looks awesome in a billowy purple cape. Not all mom's can pull this look off.





















2. She cares intensely about kids--educating them, loving them, and reaching even the ones that other people think are weird. She has an old bathtub filled with pillows in her room for the kids to read in. She always knows the coolest kid books and can find a book that will jumpstart ANY kid reading.





















3. She's taken the vow of heroism. (She can also try really hard not to laugh and end up with a serious face like the one seen below...)














4. She'll read your thoughts--AND she has eyes in the back of her head. It is like mom-ESP. She can sense what you are feeling and respond in the blink of an eye.

5. She is practicing 'jumping' around the country at the speed of light in order to spend time with all three of her kids who are getting more and more geographically spread out. (Actually, now that I think about it... this may just involve my dad's bankcard and a bookmark at Northwest Airlines.com... But, this is still a superhero power.)













6. She is prepping for the position of transracially adoptive grandparent. GMA CC WILL CONQUER THE WORLD. (along with Gramma Diane, of course.)

7. She raised me. 'Nuff said. Not every mom can slyly pull a bar of soap out of her pocket in order to put an end to the talking back that came out of this mouth. Not every mom will just tell you to 'be careful' and not totally freak out when you make bad decisions. Not every mom will teach you the skills you need to make other people feel comfortable, to adapt to new situations wherever you land, and show you what it looks like to have faith that things will turn out just fine even when you have been 'pregnant' for 15 months now...

(We visited the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store which is a front for 826NYC. Check it out.)

In Remembrance.

9:01 AM Edit This 3 Comments »
Please take a moment today to reflect upon the life and death of Dr. King. Today marks the 40th anniversary of his assassination.

Dr. King went to Memphis 40 years ago to draw attention to the plight of the families of two sanitation workers. They had been making complaints about their truck to the city for years and then one day, after the two men climbed into the back of the truck to get out of the rain, the hydraulic pump that powered the compactor started on its own and the two men were crushed. The city offered each man's family one month's pay ($300) and $500 and considered it all even. Burial expenses alone were $900.

So, I ask you: Do we really take better care of our working poor today? Was Dr. King's trip to Memphis and subsequent death in vain? Or, do we like to simply remember the pretty parts of Dr. King's speeches while forgetting the reasons why he chose to put himself and his family in constant danger--the reasons why he went to Memphis in the first place.

(story taken from the field negro and Miami Herald.)