[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aojB6wBqyuU]

This is a great video, written, directed and edited by an eleven year old boy.  It’s interesting to see what his highlights are~ 

One of the major reasons I joined Rotary was because 1.2 million people can accomplish so much more together than any one person can.  Rotary is a non-religious, non-political group of professionals doing good work in their communities and internationally.  Learn more, or find a club in your community.

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Hiring an adoption agency is like retaining a lawyer… and the agreement is just as long! (5 pages.)

So following up on our application, we’ve signed a retainer with Kidslink, who will be our “federal” agency.  Because there are only 2 adoption agencies in Canada that are licenced to work in Ethiopia, we actually hire 2 agencies.  Kidslink will be the federal one.  They send our paperwork back and forth to Ethiopia and run the foster home where our kids will stay between when they are matched with us and when we pick them up. 

The second agency is the local agency.  These are the people who give you parenting counselling, and who have the social worker visit your house and write up the reports.  We know who we would like to hire, but we’re figuring out now if a 6 month residency rule will be getting in our way.  The rule is in the Adoption Act regulations, and it states that a child can’t be placed with us until we’ve lived in BC for 6 months.  Well, there is no way that the process will be all over and we’d have a kid home in 6 months from now, but the agency isn’t sure if they’re allowed to begin.  So we’ll see what happens there.  (I do NOT want to be set back 6 months, but rules are rules with this sort of thing.)

In any case, progress!  We’ll keep you posted.

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When’s the last time your wrote your MP (or federal government respresentative) and had your voice heard?

Jrock and I write a letter about twice a month, as we become aware of an issue (animal rights) or it’s decision-making time (ie, the budget.)  It’s actually so easy to do… just fire it off to your MP or the relevant minister.. and don’t forget to CC a copy off to the PM. You would be surprised at the answers you get back…

How to’s:

• Find your MP here.
• Get some help letter writing
  • Environmental issues
  • Human rights / poverty issues (sign up for updates – they’ll write the letter for you)
• Print 3 copies of your letter. 
  • Mail one to your MP at their local office (need to put a stamp on it) or drop it off
  • Mail one to them in Ottawa (postage free):
    Person’s Name, MP
    House of Commons
    Parliament Buildings
    Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6
  • Mail one to the PM:
    Prime Minister Stephen Harper
    Office of the Prime Minister
    80 Wellington Street
    Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A2

Of course, you can always email pm@pm.gc.ca but I think the emails don’t get as much attention as paper.  (But if you would never write a letter, for sure, send an email.)

Jrock and I took the dogs for a drive Sunday up to the sand beaches in Northern Alberta (rimmed with ice still, but sandy!) 

On the way home, we were talking about how, even though the most famous couple in Nth America have adopted a daughter from Ethiopia, and people think it’s a big trend, it actually isn’t.  Turns out people don’t make major life decisions based on celebrity watching! (Yes, that was a bit of a wry jab.)

Anyway, I decided to look it up.  Be prepared for the masses of people flocking to adopt from Africa:

Intercountry adoptions (from all countries) to Canada have been stable for eleven years, running between 1,800 and 2,200 a year:

2005: 1,871 / 2004: 1,955 / 2003: 2,180 / 2002: 1,926 / 2001: 1,874 / 2000: 1,866 / 1999: 2,019 / 1998: 2,222 / 1997: 1,800 / 1996: 2,061 / 1995: 2,010

So where do we adopt from?

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), in 2005, Ethiopian kids were adopted only in Saskatchewan and Alberta.  In 2003, only Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba. 

Another interesting fact… in 2005, Ethiopia had 4,414,000 orphans and only 1,400 of all these kids left to join their new families overseas that year. (US, Canada, Spain, Italy, etc.)

So two interesting conclusions to perhaps draw from these stats. 

1. We are not as trendy as some may have thought.
2. Parents who adopt from Ethiopia are pretty web-savvy!  Check out how many family blogs are linked on the right of this page, for not that many parents!