My memory is sketchy. It always has been. Some have said it's lacking selectively, as opposed to physiologically. Either way. If I remember your birthday, you are special indeed.
Therefore, I have a list many pages long on purple paper that I have kept for years hidden in a drawer of my desk. 
It is a list of many of the experiences I've had thus far in life, some good, some not so good. However, if an event makes the list, it's meant to be remembered for reasons that may only ever be known to me, though many of the lessons are obvious. For example, if I've seen the devil in a black cat sitting ominously on the top of a car, I learn to avoid cats. Remember that cat, mom? That was one evil cat.
It is a list of many of the experiences I've had thus far in life, some good, some not so good. However, if an event makes the list, it's meant to be remembered for reasons that may only ever be known to me, though many of the lessons are obvious. For example, if I've seen the devil in a black cat sitting ominously on the top of a car, I learn to avoid cats. Remember that cat, mom? That was one evil cat. I was adding to this list today, as I do every few months, and I couldn't help but to look back at old entries. I won't say that these are my favorite entries; they're quite random actually, and certainly less personal than many. But here are a dozen life events that struck me today-with a little bit of commentary:
1. I've watched the Millenium sunrise on the border of Mexico with my husband.
2. I've ridden a bamboo raft to the Golden Triangle.
3. I thought I was experiencing the second coming while sitting in a church alone in Japan reading my Bible. I wasn't. Just an earthquake. I did actually walk outside however, once the shaking stopped, and pondered how odd it was that in a land of Shintos, I was the one left behind. Oh you laugh, but if you were the one looking out into an empty street, you might have really regretted that time you cheated on a speed math test in third grade too.
4. I've held the cold hand of a dear friend in a coffin. Thank God that's only happened once.
5. I've kissed my husband at night on top of the Eiffel Tower. Everyone should do that once in their lifetime. Not kiss my husband, persay, but your own husband...or wife. Whatever.
6. I've thrown up into Lake Geneva in Switzerland with a friend after eating waaaaay too much Toblerone chocolate. Obvious lesson here: go easy on the chocolate, even if it is the best in the world.
7. I've been lost in the jungles of Thailand on a wayward elephant...and ended up getting very wet in the Mae Taeng River.
8. I learned how to cook from a dear French friend and our Vietnamese/Chinese housekeeper...in Cambodia. No, girls, I may not know what to do with cupcake wrappers, but I can make some yummy springrolls, mango shakes and poir belle helene for dessert! ;)9. I've won a little money pool sharking in a few shady places. (Steve, I'll never be as good as you. I like to actually give the other guy a chance to scratch before I clear the table. But you know what I do better than you? Ski. Yep. I don't puke my way down the mountain. ;) )
10. I "meowed" with an old man high on opium outside of a club in Rangoon. Really, he was "meowing", like a cat, and together we made cat harmony. We meowed John Denver's "Take Me Home" (or is it titled, "West Virginia"?) It was bizarre, and yes I was sober, though probably a little high on second hand contaminates. I think my name is on a brick outside of a little dive called Mr. Guitar down the road from the "Tooth Pagoda", just in case I ever wonder, "Did that really happen?" I can go back and check.11. I baptized a woman in a pig trough in South America after she came up to me and said, "I'm here for the free gift." My response? "Uhhhh...OK. Why, let me tell you about that free gift...I'm sure I have Romans 6 in your language here somewhere..." Funny how simple evangelism can be contrasted with how complicated we often make it.
12. I've pretended I was Princess Grace with a friend at the palace in Monaco, complete with haughty princess walking and British accents. Though, Princess Grace was American, and my friend and I both were fluent in French which would have been more realistic, but whatever. We were regal for an afternoon.
13. I've had a son come to me with an ouchie and ask me to kiss it because he really believed that if I did that, it would be all better.
OK, so that's a baker's dozen, and the python experience in Vietnam wasn't listed, but what are some of your stand-out memories? I know many of you have lived events that I could only dream of that I will want to add to my "Things to do before I die" list. Yes, I like lists. Speaking of great accomplishments, way to go on the ten miler this weekend, Kim and the lesson learned. You are amazing!
The monks strongly urged civilians not to march with them this day, though it is estimated that about 5,000 members of the NLD did. So....it could have been worse? However, the condition of the "bloody monks" is unknown, the general public is outraged that force was used against the Sangha, and the country is still far from freedom. The links below will take you to reports about yesterday's events. There are no videos of this, only pictures. There are no reporters in country right now, apparently. For this reason, it is still unknown what happened in Mandalay yesterday, and several other smaller towns where marchers numbered in the 10,000's, and crack down was expected. Regime violence will certainly be the most brutal where there aren't video cameras.
So, why am I nervous? Well, I wonder if the regime will shoot at the monks too. It's doubtful; the militia is Buddhist as well, as is most of Burma. But everyday that these videos are released, more and more unrobed citizens are marching. There is more and more applause from civilians on the sidewalk. There are more ordinary people with children at their sides standing on their porches in protest like the monks asked them to do, more and more wearing yellow for Suu Kyi, more and more defiance in the streets. This in a country where groups of more than five are forbidden by the junta's law in order to prevent organized protest.
The Burmese people have never been as brave as now, so outspoken and defiant against the horrors they've endured. I'm tired of scanning lists of political prisoners online and finding the names of former students of mine. I'm tired of worrying about the safety of the members of the little house church. I'm tired of wondering why I didn't get a Christmas card from this or that student, like I usually do. Frankly, I'm tired of praying for compassion, peace, and humanity in Burma. But I will continue to do so until the regime's clenched fist lets go of my Buddhist friends and sisters and brothers in Christ who were blessed to be born in Myanmar at such a time as this.
Some of you are waiting a LONG time for God to bring your child home. His timing is the best timing, and that is easier to remember when we're busy. So, while you wait, start a Life Book for your new child. It is invaluable for him or her to have information about his or her past, choosing, purpose, and journey. He can look at the Life Book alone when he's ten years old if he doesn't feel up to having a face-to-face conversation yet. He can refer to it for school projects-yes, the dreaded Family Tree project.... He can pick it up when he's a teen-ager and read pages like "About My Homeland" when his normal identity crisis has reached new peaks, and he's searching for a sense of self. Life Books spur conversation, instill identity, and remind your child that he or she is here for a purpose. Not to mention, he can see that moments are, and always have been, treasured with that child, whenever they get to be celebrated, just as with any other child. 
Our most precious Life Book moment was when we were looking at a picture on the "My Life at the Orphanage" page. There is a picture of J. on a blanket in the orphanage nursery surrounded by 23 babies-all significantly younger than him. J. is turned to face the camera and look very sad. We were looking at this page a few weeks ago and J. said to me, "Mommy, J. sad. J. miss C." Though at the time of the photograph J. didn't know C. even existed, but they are so close now that J. just KNEW that's why he was sad then. He didn't have his brother with him. 
Here's some recent pics of Steve with the family this summer:
*The rest live a life expectancy of less than 50 years.
You probably have guessed by now that baby #3 will come from . . . . . . . da da DA.........................Ethiopia! 
Tim and I have always found the India/Tibet/Nepal region of the world fascinating. It's right in between where he and I have lived and worked, Afghanistan and SE Asia respectively, and combines the beauty, culture, and landscape of both worlds. It seeps of tales of Mt. Everest attempts, Shangri La, Bombay silk, bangle, and cardamom markets, and chanting Buddhist monks. We were actually planning on a trip there for our ten year wedding anniversary in 2009. It seemed natural to look here for our next child. Though Indian adoption laws require that either the father or mother be of Indian decent to adopt a child under four years old, and there are naturally no adoptions allowed through Tibet right now, we qualified to adopt from Nepal. 
However, literally the same week we made this decision, the new minister at the Ministry of Women and Children in Nepal decided to suspend international adoptions until he became more acquainted with his job. As a result of his examinations, a couple of weeks later, he decided to stop all international adoptions until Nepal conformed to the Hague requirements on international adoption. Such an undertaking, from one of the poorest places on earth, is quite time consuming. Since Nepal wasn't currently a part of the Hague Convention for international adoption, they weren't complying to the checks and balances within that system, and stories of children being stolen, persuaded, or bought from birthfamilies began clanging in our hearts. Tim and I cringe at the thought of unknowingly adopting a child who had been stolen from his or her birthfamily. And who knows if we'd even qualify for Nepal once it reopened, if it reopened, so why submit papers now-and the fees that go with them? Cambodia has been suspended for these reasons since what-2004? Still, children are sitting in orphanages there, stuck, waiting on the government to produce a transparent program.
