Saturday, January 20, 2007

Nobody is Safe

So, we've made fun of MN's Fourth Judicial Branch, Ohio, North Carolina, My Dad, Smudge ... It's all been in good fun. For the next roasting I am not sure if we should be ripping on the Pope (GASP! - HAS SHE NO LIMITS??) or, the Peoria, IL pundits.

See this headline: (click for link to story)

"Pope Benedict Says Hunger is Bad"

Well .... if *HE* said it, it must be true.


The story is interesting to read, the headline needs a little work.

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I don't want you to hate me ... no, it's fine ... go ahead and hate me. Phoebe sleeps through the night people! All three nights, to bed around 8pm or 9pm --- not waking until 5am. Is it too soon to call that a pattern? I think not.

The mornings are so cute. After she is cleaned up and fed when the three other little ones wake up they come straight to her and gather round and discuss how she is doing, if she is happy, if she wants anything ... and on and on. They just sit around and stare at her. Hope seems to know it all. "Mom, she is cold." "Mom, she is hot." "Mom, I think she's hungry." It is so wonderful, I can't stop smiling.

All the birth-mother discussion and adoption discussion and just making sure Hope and Isaac are understanding things has been interesting and cute. Isaac said "No body can take me away from this family, I am a Livesay." To which we said, "THAT IS RIGHT BUDDY!" Then, later we were talking about Beanne and then Ike's birthmother, Joceline. We used her name and Isaac said, "I know who Joceline is -- she is my "FAIRY GODMOTHER." The terminology is getting mixed up with Cinderella, but we think it works.

We are taking Ike to visit his birthmom in a few weeks, at her request. Open adoption was something that freaked us out and much of the reason we chose to adopt internationally. It is kind of funny that we are where we are now. The God kind of funny.

I will be honest and say, I am kind of glad that Isaac and Hope have not picked up Creole quite yet, it makes the birth-parent meetings feel safer to me. I want their biological moms to be able to see them. I just like the safety net of knowing that if they say something a five year old cannot handle, we can just choose to not translate it. Culturally, what we would say to our young children does not necessarily match up with what they might say.

We just don't want anybody telling them "Please come save us and everyone in our gene pool from poverty when you get big." If they choose to help their Haitian families we will cheer and support them, but we are not putting that on them at such tender ages. If they choose to live in America and never come back to Haiti, we will support that too. Those are their choices to make.

Happy Saturday! :)