Earth Hour ...

May I direct your attention to the shiny new web badge in the margin. Go ahead, click on it. It will take you to the website for Earth Hour 2009. Once there you can learn all about Earth Hour, register, and find ways that you can support this eco-initiative.

If you haven't heard of Earth Hour before it's a pretty simple concept. On Saturday, March 28 the organizers ask that you turn off your lights for one hour starting at 8:30 pm local time. Why? To show our politicians that we care about global warming. The goal this year is one billion participants world wide. The statistics from Earth Hour will then be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. If you plan on participating it's important to register!!!

While the rules don't explicitly state it, I think it doesn't really count if you just turn off the lights and continue to blast the stereo, run the dishwasher and lay on the couch in front of the tv. Now I know it might be extremely painful in many Canadian households to switch off Hockey Night In Canada for a full hour, but it is for a good cause. And besides, by 8:30 the kids should be in bed. I'm sure you can find something else to occupy your time ; )

Officially in print ...

Today my first column appeared in our local newspaper. It's a few weeks later than I thought, but better late than never! Unfortunately I don't have a link. They don't post all of the articles to the website every week and my column hasn't been uploaded yet (so likely won't make it this time). You'll just have to take my word for it that it's a fantastic read. LOL ... And I must give a shout out to one of my bloggy bff's, Miss Sarah J. Clark for the tip about the "family cloth". It was the inspiration for the piece. So, thank you Sarah! Mwah!

*ETA: the link is up. You can read my column here.

The most important book I will ever write ...

While I do have a badly neglected WIP it will have to remain neglected for a little while longer. Lately I find myself compelled to tackle an even more important project, our youngest daughter's "life book." This book is intended to chronical all of the information about an adopted child's life before they came to live with their forever family. It is especially important for internationally adopted children since there is usually very little information available to them regarding the beginnings of their lives. So now I sit my computer and cobble together the scant details, information about her homeland and the sparse photos with the hope that I can create a narrative that will help our daughter understand as much as she can about who she is and where she's come from. As she grows we wish for her to be as proud of herself as we are that she is our wonderful child. This book will hopefully be a valuable tool in that process.

And The Winner Is ...

A few months ago I wrote a post about CBC's annual literary smackdown, Canada Reads. Today the winner was revealed ...

The Book of Negroes By Lawrence Hill

I am currently reading this book and so far I have to say it is a fantastic read. I highly recommend it. Actually, based on the discussions of the panelists I would recommend any of the contenders. They all sound like interesting, compelling books (you can find the list and their descriptions in my original post).

Well, it looks like my article didn't make it into this week's paper after all, so sorry, no link. Hopefully next week. So this leaves me with a question about what to post. hmmm ...

I could rant about the hell that is the passport office, but many of you already know of what I speak, so that would be redundant. Although I will at least vent about the fact that you would think an office of the federal government would have a friggin' parking lot! What's with all the "no passport office parking" signs?!! I had to walk two blocks in the subarctic winds with my little babushka in a stroller. Not fun. Nor was the hour and a half wait. Or having to listen to the rednecks in the back of the room talking about "uneducated losers" who are now working as armed border guards and how they targeted the lead redneck as a terrorist (interestingly enough, because he looked somewhat like a demented Santa). Then they took a turn bashing Quebec ... Then, lucky us, demented redneck Santa zeroed in on me and the babuska and started quizzing me about her hearing aids. Weird. And uncomfortable. At least we made it out of there before I ended up with a parking ticket. The high point of my afternoon.

Coming to a paper near you ...

Actually, it's only to a paper near me, so if you don't live in my area I guess you're outta luck. Starting next week (I think) I will be writing a monthly column for one of our local papers. While it's just something small, it's a start. I'm excited to be committing to doing some writing on a regular basis. Now I just need to make the same commitment to my WIP.

Obama envy ...

Tomorrow Barak Obama makes his first official visit to our beautiful country and the Canadian media is acting like a giddy school girl. But can you blame them? This man has made history. This man is hope incarnate on so many levels for so many people. This man inspires. Is it any wonder that it's not just the American people who are enamoured with him? Don't we all wish we had an Obama?!

I think this envy is felt not just for the man himself. As a Canadian I feel envious that our southern neighbours have found a leader that excites his people. He aspires for a better country and leads his citizens to follow that dream. He is someone that his people trust. While I wish Obama was born in Halifax rather than Hawaii, I have to accept reality. He's already taken. In the mean time we are left pushing our noses against the glass and dreaming about what our neighbours are so lucky to have found. Of course there is that guy named Trudeau ... I guess we'll just have to see what ten years or so bring ...

And so it begins ... sigh

So tonight we're eating dinner. Our six year old comments about how skinny her little sister is (she is VERY thin - a tall, almost four year old with the waist size of a 24mth old). M says, "she's so skinny and I'm fat." Of course we immediately jump all over that. M is not fat at all, really, not parental bias talking here. She's small (go figure). In fact she is so small that she is the second smallest kid in a SK/grade 1 split class at school and she's in grade one. But she's not a petite, little elfin waif. She has a cute little compact muscular build. My husband likes to call her the "pocket rocket". A few hours later she said it again "I'm fat." Once more we reassured her that she is in no way fat and she replies that her friend "M" is skinny and she wants to be skinny like "M". My husband tells her skinny isn't pretty. She rolls her eyes and leaves the room.

Why oh why at six years old is my child now worried about her weight?! We're not sure if this requires further investigation (ie. has someone said something to her) or if she's just testing the waters and checking our reaction. In the mean time I'm left shaking my head. What a sad commentary on our society.

Making some noise and actually being heard!

You may recall my rambling posts a few weeks ago about the changes to Canada's Citizenship Act and how it will potentially affect the children of kids adopted internationally (you can scroll back and read if you missed it, I won't get into it again here). Well I am amazed to report that the Citizenship and Immigration Minister has apparently listened to the concerns of adoptive parents and is asking his officials to review the legislation. The issues that the new legislation have created for adopted children were allegedly an oversight (although I find it hard to believe that not one person involved in this whole process didn't catch it, especially when the Ministry's website contains a specific reference to adopted persons in it's explanation of the impending changes, however I digress ...). It is heartening to know that the outcry was heard. Let's just hope that it can affect some change.

Props to the girl in the shiny silver dress

So my hubby and I are watching the Grammys tonight. The announcer introduces Kanye West. He starts singing. I'm thinking "he doesn't sound that great. Obviously he's someone who benefits from a little post-production ." Then this girl joins him on stage. She starts singing. Now I recognize the song. She's good. In fact, she carries the song, does most of the singing. I figure Mr. West will introduce her at the end. The applause fades. He acknowledges someone else and then introduces the next segment. There is obsolutely no mention of the girl with the voice standing next to him. I found this odd, and insulting for the singer. Out of curiousity I looked it up. It turns out the song isn't even Kanye West's. It's the girl's! Her name is Estelle. The single is "American Boy" featuring Kanye West. Bizarre. I think Miss Estelle needs to get herself a better manager or contract or something.

Congrats Hedley - love this song - kinda touches a cord right now.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Happy Lunar New Year!

No, we're not Chinese, but one of our daughters is, and this leads us down a tricky path. It is important for us to recognize and honour her heritage. To deny it would be denying who she is and where she came from. At the same time we don't foster any delusions that we are a Chinese family celebrating in the way a "normal" Chinese family would. That would be impossible. So in the mean time we cobble together a modest celebration to acknowledge the event without, hopefully, bastardizing the whole thing and throwing at our daughter some funky white westernized version of the real thing. Fortunately I've had some tips from our daughter's former foster mother. We are also lucky that our girl is still young enough that as long as the festivities involve authentic Chinese noodles it's good enough for her.

Don't mess with my papaya!

What's this?


It's a karate belt. A white stripe belt to be precise (though to me it looks more like a black stripe, but that's beside the point). What is the point is that my sweet little Maiapapaya was just graded for the first time in karate and earned this nice little number. Tonight I'm a very proud mamma to a very proud little (and I mean 43" little) peanut.

Oh, it gets even better ...

This morning I received an excerpt from a transcript from a meeting of the Parliamentary subcommittee for Citizenship and Immigration. The following quote was an example being put forward by the Honourable Andrew Telegdi who was one of the vice-chairs of the committee (a Citizenship and Immigration subcommittee is currently not sitting because our chicken-a$$ Prime Minister suspended parliament) Mr. Telegdi was apparently expressing his concern with the impending changes to the Citizenship Act:

"Suppose, for example, a Canadian couple are spending a few years working abroad and give birth outside Canada to a baby. Let's call her Anna. It could actually be a soldier. She is a Canadian citizen through her parents. The family returns to Canada when Anna is six months old and she grows up in Canada. And we heard from Mr. Teichroeb, who had a similar situation. As a young adult, she chooses to study abroad and finds herself pregnant. If she gives birth to her child outside Canada, the child is not a Canadian citizen under the terms of Bill C-37.

If the baby--let's call her Mary Ann--happens to be not entitled to any other citizenship, she will be stateless. Bill C-37 does have provisions to allow Mary Ann, and others like her, to apply for Canadian citizenship if they are stateless; however, there are a number of conditions that must be met, including the requirement that the stateless child of a Canadian citizen should have resided for three or four years preceding their application. This means the child will have to remain stateless for at least three years.

This bill also fails to explain on what basis Mary Ann would be allowed to enter Canada in order to meet the three-year residency requirement. Even if Anna attempts to sponsor her child as an immigrant under family class, she will face a challenge in finding travel documents for Mary Ann so she can travel to Canada as a stateless person. She is not entitled to a passport."

Our adopted daughter is caught up by the same problem with the legislation as the fictional girl "Anna" in the example above (having been born abroad, but the child, in our case adopted, of Canadian parents). The plight her child "Mary Ann" faces could be the same as that of a future grandchild for us. While it's unlikely that our daughter will give birth abroad, it's not an impossibility and our own government has just set up the mechanism by which our grandchild could be a stateless individual caught in limbo with no means by which to even enter Canada and attempt to obtain her citizenship.

I have sent some letters, but I am doubtful they will change anything. This garbage has already received royal ascent and comes into affect in April, just in time for our daughter's birthday. Nice gift.

Not really equal ...

(warning: long, somewhat complicated rant about the rights or lack thereof of our adopted daughter. But, ya, it is important)

When I became the adoptive mother of a child from a different country I was prepared for the inevitability that at some point I would have to crawl out of my cocoon of white privilege and advocate for her. I just didn't realize it would have to be against my own government.

At the time when we adopted our daughter we had to apply to sponsor her to immigrate to Canada. When she landed in a Canadian port of entry she was granted permanent resident status (by virtue of being the legal child of Canadian parents) and then we had to apply for her Canadian citizenship. While adopted children's applications were expedited (and the normal three year wait was waived) it was added stress and bureaucracy that many adoptive parents felt that they shouldn't have to endure (heavens know we'd already been through enough). If we had received government approval to adopt these children and they are legally ours in every sense why would they not be afforded the same rights as our biological children and given automatic citizenship? Many other countries, such as the United States, were already recognizing this right for their internationally adopted children. Finally in January of last year a great deal of lobbying paid off and the government began granting automatic citizenship to the internationally adopted children of Canadian citizens.

Unfortunately it seems the equality of rights for our biological daughter and our adopted daughter will be short lived. As of April the federal government will be enacting new citizenship legislation. A major part of this legislation addresses Canadians who were born in another country.

Up until now, children born to Canadian citizens, regardless where these children were born, were granted automatic citizenship. This has become problematic for the government. There are those who have abused this privilege. They will immigrate here, obtain citizenship and all of the rights and benefits that it affords, but then return to their country of birth. They will have children, who are automatically Canadians. These people may never reside in our country again, but will demand assistance in times of crisis. They may come here for free health care if they have a serious medical situation. This is taking advantage of the system and I understand the government's desire to quash this type of abuse. This is the impetus behind the legislative changes that are about to come into effect. But the careless, lazy way the new law has been written will impact upon our youngest daughter.

The new law states that if someone is a Canadian citizen, but was born outside of Canada any children that are born to them outside of our borders or adopted from a birth country outside of Canada will not be granted citizenship. The legislation even goes so far as to specifically mention that this applies to children born in other countries who are adopted by Canadians. In other words, if in the future our biological daughter gives birth while outside of Canada or adopts a child born outside of Canada her child will automatically be a Canadian. If, on the other hand, our legally adopted, supposedly equal in every way, daughter gives birth while outside of Canada or adopts a child born outside of Canada her child will not be granted citizenship. This is ridiculous. Our children are being raised side by side within the borders of our country. They will both hopefully become contributiging members of Canadian society. But, because our adopted daughter happened to be born somewhere else she does not share the same rights as her sister.

There are absolutely no provisions in this legislation regarding residency or ties to Canada (ie. having Canadian parents). The government will not take into consideration the fact that my daughter is living here and is in every way a member of Candian society. She will be classed the same as the system abuser who has obtained citizenship and returned to their country of origin.

You might think "what's the big deal?" "What are the odds that she will have a baby while working or travelling abroad?" Probably not great. What are the odds she will adopt? Pretty reasonable. Many adult adoptees do. But the bigger issue is equal rights. It's the principle.

When we were granted approval from the province of Ontario to adopt our daughter we received a letter. In that letter there were two lines that struck me. They read:
"Once the adoption is finalized, Ontario legislation recognizes the child as a full member of the adopting family and as such the child is treated in the same manner as all other children of legally constituted families. Ontario welcomes the child from China ..." It is hurtful and maddening that our federal government does not seem to share the same sentiment towards our daughter.

For a lack of anything better ...

I've been kind of down for a few days, questioning what I'm doing in my life (nothing serious, you know, just one of those moods - so don't worry family members who I know are reading this, this funk excludes my husband and kids who I'm grateful to say are the best thing in my life). So, because I don't want to bore you with my pity party here's a little Saturday afternoon entertainment. I like these guys. Thought you might too.

Ah, just go google yourself!

So at the encouragement of Elise's last post I googled myself. Quite honestly not a terribly interesting read (though that might be a good thing), just some tags to a couple of articles I wrote for Root and Sprout and a five year old duathlon result. So, for a lack of anything better to write about (I'm actually working on a few new projects and am saving my scant brain power for that) here's some interesting things about myself that you won't find if you google my name:

1. By my formal education I am a Prosthetic/Orthotic technician. I am trained to make artificial limbs and orthopedic braces. Unfortunately where I currently live there are no clinics where I can ply my trade.
2. I used to fence competitively.
3. I once had a drink bought for me in a pub in a small Newfoundland town by a former Star Trek cast member.
4. I know how to weld.
5. I'm a step, bio and adoptive mother.

What interesting things will I not find out about you if I google your name?

Spam update:

So I contacted my email provider's IT department again. This time I went directly through the spam filter's techincal support link. I received a very prompt reply. Apparently it's my fault. They informed me that I should not have my own email addy listed as an approved sender. Of course! Now don't I feel like a silly bitch. But seriously. How stupid is that?! I have to block myself as a sender?!

Oh, and now I have the image of an extremely well-endowed Christmas elf smugly parading around in my head ("nine inches in 2009..." ). Thanks for that Ray.

Fargin' SPAM!

spam: n. Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail.

You've all heard of it. And I've got it. Applenty. What really has me ticked is that up until a month ago I NEVER had it. My email server's spam filter worked like a charm. Not anymore. Something has changed. SPAM is blasting into my inbox at an alarming rate. And the crazy part is, apparently it's all from me. Yep, I'm not sure how it works, but the spammers have got some sort of work around that is tricking my spam filter into thinking that the email is originating from my address. And even better, they all seem to be coming from folks offering to help me enlarge and enhance my male member, if I only had one. Yes, on a daily basis I get bombarded with such savoury subject lines as "**** her from behind", "nine inches in 2009". I could go on, but the rest aren't really appropriate to repeat. It's annoying as hell, but I'm not sure what to do about it. I report the content to SPAMCOP.com, but that doesn't stop it, it just rats on the senders, if their webhosts really give a crap what they're doing. I've complained to my email service provider and their IT department just gave me some "a lot of people have viruses lately" mumbo jumbo (I HATE when IT schmucks just spew back standarized boxed answers to complaints). I really don't think it's a virus. My sister (same provider) is having the exact same problem. I think their spam filter is on the fritz. The only thing it seems to be catching these days it legit stuff that I subscribe to and everything else just sails on through. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Happy 2009!

After my little holiday hiatus I am happy to finally be back in the blogosphere. I find it difficult to sit at the computer for any length of time with my husband and two kids hanging over me. It makes me all paranoid and defensive ... like they are watching me. And of course it's only a matter of time before someone is climbing on me (the kids I mean - my husband doesn't do that at the computer).

So finally with a little computer time to myself I would like to present my New Year's goals. That's right, goals, not resolutions. Resolutions sounds so stuffy and proper and impossible to honour, so I'm setting goals. Resolutions are to be broken. Goals are to be strived for and reached. So, my goals for 2009 ...

Get in better shape.

Be more positive.

Write more; set some goals and work towards them.

Teach my oldest daughter to play the piano.

Enjoy life more.

What are your goals for 2009?