The African Children's Choir

The African Children's Choir assists in the well-being and education of Uganda's poorest children.  I cannot WAIT to bring our little Ethiopian light home!  

Tagged...again

I don't usually continue tags when people tag me, but I am at a complete loss of what to write about this week, so I'll do this one.  It's a Favorites survey for the artistic type.  I cut out some of the questions, as not to bore you too much, but here's a dozen or so.  I won't tag anyone, but feel free to steal the survey and post it for yourself if you feel so moved!

Favorite Instrument: Cello, of course.

Favorite Piece of classical music: Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings-some say it's sad, but I think it's the most climactic, passionate piece ever written.  It's so enthralling to play that it's hard not to fall into a deep trance...gorgeous.

Favorite Movie: Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful, in Italian, subtitled in English.  One of the few times I've felt truly patriotic is whenever I watch this movie and that tank comes around the corner.  I won't give it away, but if you've seen the movie, you know the scene to which I'm referring.  I bawled like a baby the first time I saw this movie!  It was the only movie I've been to where the entire audience-in the theatre-gave a standing ovation at the end. 

Trailer Here: http://www.moviesbox.us/drama/la-vita-e-bella 1997.html

Favorite Novel Old: How old is old?  Does East of Eden count as old?  Older than that?  Chopin's The Awakening, maybe.  Favorites are hard for me, especially when it comes to artsy things!  VERY much depends upon the season of life I'm in.

Favorite Novel New: How New is New? Too many to list...how about Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, or Graham

 Greene's Travels with my Aunt.

Favorite Short Story: Anything by Jumpa Lahiri in Interpreter of Maladies, or the classic The Lady or the Tiger by Stockton.  You can read it here: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml

Favorite Memory that influences your artistic work: Too personal to put on a public blog, but it has to do with love and freedom.

Favorite Literary Theme: Person vs. self

Favorite Childhood Tale: "In which Pooh invents a new game, and Eeyore joins in", from The House at Pooh Corner, Milne.  Absolutely hilarious!

Favorite Shakespearean Play:  Romeo and Juliet.  Trite, I know, but it's perfection.  A Mid-Summer Night's Dream is a close second.

Favorite Painting: The Dance Class by Degas, or Caillebotte's Floor Scrapers.  Definately something Impressionistic since I spent so many hours sitting on the floor of the Musee d'Orsay studying it for so long, and one can only

 really love a painting that one understands.

Favorite Artist: The Impressionists as a whole.  If I had to pick one...Gaugain?  Or Renoir?  Then there's Degas...  Not Monet.  Let's go with Gaugain.  He's the most intriguing.

Favorite Poem: Ode to a Chair, Pablo Neruda

Key lines: War is as vast as the shadowy jungle.

                   A single chair

                   is

                   the first sign

                   of

                   peace.

Though it loses the literary tools in English, especially the alliteration.  Here it is in Spanish:

                   La guerra es ancha como selva oscura

                   La paz

                 comienza

                   en

                   una sola

                   silla.

Favorite Poet: Robert Frost

Favorite Literary Tool to use: Assonance

Favorite Literary Tool to read: Symbolism

Favorite Artistic Error to Criticize: Lack of parallel structure.  That drives me nuts.  Or just bad writing in general.

Favorite line in a novel: "I'm watchin' God," Miss Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Favorite Setting: Anywhere exotic and relatively unknown.

Favorite  character: Jael, from the Bible (odd for a pacifist...).  Or Celeste in The Known World.  When she said, "I wonder if Moses done ate yet," my heart crushed.  Amazing.  Then there's Teacake, of course in Their Eyes Were Watching God...  

Oh this survey is way too difficult for someone like me!  Feel free to share some of your favorites with me.  That'll be the redeeming value of this post; I'll learn about you!   

Ethiopian Adoption Update

(ethiopian children photo courtesy of the UN)

It's been awhile since I've posted, but we're still here!  Here is the latest on our journey to baby #3:

Our original placing agency, Love Basket, after taking a month or so to evaluate the situation, informed us last week that they are not able to place children right now and the program is on hold indefinitely.  Therefore, we are obligated to find a new agency.   Fortunately, we were aware of this as a possibility during the month of wait, so I researched and chose two other agencies as possibilities for Plan B (Plan C, really, if you count Nepal).  Children's Home and Family Services was one, and Celebrate Children International is the other.

Children's Home is a large agency with a well established Ethiopia program.  The application process is extensive, a case worker isn't even assigned until several steps have been accomplished.  The wait times are 6-9 months-ish for a healthy baby.  They have successfully brought home hundreds of babies and have a guest house for families to stay in near their orphanage in Addis Ababa.  I recommend them highly if you are considering an Ethiopian adoption.

Celebrate Children is also a licensed agency, though their Ethiopia program is very new.  They have not yet brought home an Ethiopian child, though they are very close to having done so. The Ethiopian program director is a good friend of family-hi, Debbie!- and I am able to talk to her directly with any questions I have.  She is wonderful!  Their wait times are closer to the 3 month range for a healthy baby.  The orphanage they work through, Blessing the Children, is in the Kamashi region of Ethiopia.  You can view it, mostly the boys home-not the baby house-at this link:

http://www.blessingthechildren.org/kamashi.html

and the Celebrate Children link is

www.celebratechildren.org

Tim and I prefer the small agency.  The fees are about the same between these two options, and personally knowing a program director goes a long way in the trust department when considering an intercountry adoption.  So....we sent in our application to Celebrate Children last week.  We already have confirmation from them that they are checking our references.  We should have a contract this week or next, and then its the mad race to get the dossier completed so that we don't lose any more time.  Though we have some concern about the newness of CCI's program, Tim and I have a huge peace about this decision.  On the surface, it isn't very logical.  But after prayer and fasting, we KNEW that CCI was the agency for us.  And since their wait times are so short, our wait to bring baby home shouldn't be much different that we originally planned with Love Basket-around this summer.

Please pray as we embark on this third attempt to find the baby God has planned for us.  We aren't complaining because we don't want to bring home a child that isn't meant to be.  If our child is in Kamashi, as opposed to Addis Ababa, then  we will go to Kamashi-gladly!  Please pray that there are no more glitches, that the referrals that CCI has made already make it through court easily, that the children are well cared for in the orphanage while they wait to come home, and that God puts together the family He has intended for us.  Blessings,

What We're Doing in 2008

1. NOT replacing all of the screens in our windows that C. and Moon the dog have broken through in order to spend more time together. Why not? Because we would just have to do it again two days later. Maybe when all of our children, especially the boys, turn fifteen...no, make it twenty-five...we'll fix screens, windows, re-paint, buy new furniture and replace the carpet. It hardly seems like a good investment now!

2. Bringing home baby #3! (Lord willing)

3. Transforming our screened-in porch, which is now pretty much screen-less, into a room so that I can move my study there, and we'll have a nursery for the new baby. The contractor is supposed to start that in two weeks. Our first experience with a hired contractor... hmmmm...praying THAT goes well!

4. Doing our taxes, and taking advantage of the adoption $10,900 Federal tax credit per child, and using that return to pay for the room addition and the fees to new baby. God always provides!

5. Tim will graduate from graduate school with his masters.

*We'll all prayerfully grow closer to God in fear, faith and wisdom. And since fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs), we're already on the right track! By the way, I noticed that my verse of the day in the sidebar from Heartlight started at Gen 1:1 today, the first day of the year. I imagine it will continue to walk through the Bible, so if you are interested in a journey through the Bible this year, though only one verse at at time, check the sidebar each day. One verse at a time is a resolution I can keep! ;) What are your big plans for 2008? We pray it's a blessed year for you!