movin' on

This blog has moved to a more private place.

If you want to keep reading, please leave a comment here with your email address (must have that), and I will send you the information about where to find me. Please tell me who you are, and if you blog publicly, your URL.

I will not publish comments, so your information will be safe. :-)

Thanks for reading!!

going private *updated again*

PLEASE note: If you do not leave an email address (or email it to me) I cannot make you an authorized reader!

**ALSO, I'm happy to invite lurkers - please de-lurk and let me know who you are (and where you blog, if you do)**

I’m going to make this blog private for some period – at least until I get through court and my adoption of the Sprout is final and binding in Ethiopia.

So, if you would like to keep reading (and I hope you do!) I need you to send me your email address. I will use your email address to officially “invite” you to be an authorized reader. After you sign in once, you can read my blog just the same way you do know. And feed readers (like Bloglines) will still work… or so I’ve been told!!

So, please leave me a comment and give me your email address, or email your email address to me at yo porter at gmail dot com. (If you want me to delete your comment after I get your email address from it, I'll be happy to do that.)

I’ll make the switch in a week or so.

Thanks, and sorry for any inconvenience this causes any of you, my beloved readers!!!

(note: some comments have been removed at the request of the commenters)

Belated MLKJr. Day Post

"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

privacy and a rant and advice, please

So, most of you have heard the recent uproar about a family who was in the process of adopting from Ethiopia, and had their adoption terminated by the Ethiopian government because of their blog.

They had posted photos of their referred child (which is against Ethiopian law, as I now know) and were doing extensive fundraising, including lots of negative description of the conditions of orphans in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government took the position that if they had to do all this fundraising, they obviously could not afford the adoption. Very sad for the family, who did not know that their blog could possibly cost them their adoption.

{begin rant - feel free to skip} Frankly, I can kind of see the Ethiopians' point on this. I am not a big fan of public fundraising for an adoption - call me cranky, but I say if you can't afford it or finance it yourself (or with your family), you might want to wait until you can. Please note I'm just talking about PUBLIC fundraising. (Full disclosure: my mom has helped me financially with the travel expenses of my adoption - and I cannot begin to tell you how much that helps. It is HUGE. She gave me this as a gift, though, and I wouldn't have asked her for it. Gifts are great!) I've never heard of anyone doing a public fundraiser for a biological child. And I think SOME the big public fundraising efforts feed into the whole "rescue" thing which I find so distasteful. Yes, the child needs a home, but when the adopting family treats the adoption as a rescue mission, it negates all the losses that the child experiences, and sets up a weird dynamic - intentional or not - that the adopted child should now be grateful to his/her parents. I don't think any child deserves that. {end rant, stepping away from the soapbox}

ANYWAY, here's the thing - I'm now kind of nervous about this blog. Even though I've taken great care to keep it anonymous, I'm worried about the Ethiopian position on blogs, and I'm worried that I'm exposing myself (and the Sprout) here.

Should I password protect my blog? Make it invitation only?

Oh great blogger society, tell me what to do. (that is if you don't already hate me for my position about adoption fundraising)

First monthly update

Just got my very first monthly update on the Sprout.

This included two new photos, which I can't post (see this post for an explanation). But, rest assured, she continues to be shockingly beautiful.

In other exciting news, Sproutie has finally cracked the US growth charts on weight. Yay!

At almost 5 months:

• She is 12 pounds, 12 ounces, at the 6th percentile for weight.
• She is 24.75 inches, at the 27th percentile for height.
• She has a head circumference of 16.8 inches, at the 67th percentile for head circumference.

So, in sum, she's skinny, tall, and can do some serious head-butting. :-)

takedown alert

I've just found out that it is against Ethiopian policy/law (not sure which) to post pictures of orphans online. That means until she is officially mine (my case has passed court), it is not appropriate for me to post photos of the Sprout online.

Out of respect for the Ethiopian policy/law, I have removed her image - but don't you worry... the MINUTE she is legally my daughter, I will once again grace you with her beauty!!

In the meantime, just picture in your mind the sweetest, most adorable, most beautiful child you can imagine.

Got it? Yep, that's her.

Go Aretha

Now THIS test seemed to come up with the right answer!

My Signature Karaoke Song:
"Respect" by Aretha Franklin

Ooh, what you got sure is sweeter than honey — but you've also got a little bite too. Like your signature karaoke song, you're not afraid to spell out exactly what you're after. Gutsy and adventurous, you don't take lip from anyone. You know what you want and you go after it. Period.


A risk-taker with a sizable dose of common sense and street smarts, you're motivated and don't shy away from a little challenge. How else will you achieve your big dreams if you don't take some chances along the way? From the boardroom to the karaoke room, you're sure to command everyone's attention. So go ahead and sing it — you've more than earned a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

Take this test >

update - Molasses in January edition

I spoke to the adoption agency yesterday, and found out that my dossier and referral documents are still being translated.

This which means they haven't yet been legalized.

Which means they aren't close to being SUBMITTED to court for a court date yet.

So for those of you holding your breath, you can exhale. It's going to be a while. (Looky, I did that whole thing without using the words wa_t or sl_w.)

The one bright spot in the dim picture is that I should be getting update photos and info on the Sprout late this week or early next.