The Day at the Museum...

We ventured into the city for a day at the museum. The kids really loved it especially the dinosaurs. I must say this was a great day. In front of one of the exhibits there were two moms with their daughters. Their daughters were probably adopted in China. John and I both saw them at the same time. He turned to me and said that that would be me, Michelle, and Joanne in about 3 years..... Except we would have a whole slew of boys running around us. It is funny because there are 8 boys between the three families and then there will be the 3 "princesses".

WE HAVE A LOG IN DATE!!!!!!!!

FEBRUARY 9, 2007
FEBRUARY 9, 2007
FEBRUARY 9, 2007

The One Child Rule still applies.....

I thought this would be interesting. Especially because we are hearing so much about rules changing for adoption and because I have often been asked by others "..do they still have that one baby rule?"



China to name those who skirt child policy Thu Feb 8, 1:07 AM ET (From a news story recently reported by the AP PRess)



Officials in eastern China plan to name and shame rich families who ignore the country's strict one-child policy and simply pay the fine for having a second or third baby, state media said.

Zhang Wenbiao, head of the family planning commission in Zhejiang province, announced Wednesday that his agency plans to expose a few such cases in the near future, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

"The public is very much aware that some celebrities simply pay money to have two or more children," Zhang was quoted as saying, without mentioning any names. "This kind of behavior must be stopped."

Xinhua said the province also has raised the amount of the fines for violators. In some cases, families will have to pay more than $130,000 for violating the policy, it said without giving details.

Different Chinese provinces and cities have their own methods of punishing family planning violators, including fines and work demotions. Fines are sometimes calculated based on a family's income.

China's family planning policy — implemented in the late 1970's — limits urban couples to one child and rural families to two to control the population and conserve natural resources.

The government said last month that although a recent survey showed that about 60 percent of Chinese people would prefer to have two children, there were no plans to relax the policy.

China has about 1.3 billion people — 20 percent of the global total. The government has pledged to keep the population under 1.36 billion by 2010 and under 1.45 billion by 2020.

This is for all of you from Long Island. I thought it was cute and worth a post and of course so appropriate to those that have lived here foreva.

LONG ISLAND
You live in the shadow of the greatest city in the world, but you
almost never go there.
When you're away from Long Island, you love it and when you're there,
you don't.
You think if you're not from Long Island or NYC, you're not really
from New York.
You know the exact point at which Queens turns into Nassau simply on
intuition.
You don't go to Manhattan, you go to "The City".
You never realize you have an accent till you leave.
Everything north of the Bronx is "upstate." New Jersey sucks.
At some point in your life you've gone clamming.
Either your parents or your grandparents lived in the city.
You'd pay $11.50 for a movie.
You don't live in Long Island. You live ON Long Island.
Your distant future might involve the state of Florida.
You can correctly pronounce places like
Ronkonkoma, Hauppauge, Wantagh, Mineola, Islandia, Massapequa.
You know the location of 6 malls and a dozen McDonalds and 36 7-11's.
You never, ever want to "change at Jamaica..."
You've tried to find the Amityville Horror house.
No, you don't want mustard on that burger!!
You can't understand why a diner would ever close.
You've had a seagull crap on your car.>
You have or someone you know has fallen asleep on the LIRR and ended up
in one of these three places; Babylon, Port Washington or Hicksville.
You went to an elementary school that promoted dodge ball as the
number1 game among children 7-13
You know White Castle is terrible for you and the food sucks but you
periodically "Get the Crave".

You want the Yankees to stay in the Bronx, but would probably go to
more games if they moved to Manhattan.
You think that somehow, the Jets and giants still play in New York.
You've missed that "Drunk Train", the 2:42 out of Penn and had the
dreaded wait until 5:30.
You or someone you know has owned an animal that came from North Shore
Animal League.
Quick! Who's your county Executive? Don't know do you?!
You've never taken an MTA bus.

The Long Island Expressway isn't really as bad as everybody thinks.
You don't associate Fire Island with gay men.
You know which parts of the godfather were filmed on Long Island.
You've paid a $10 cover charge to get into a bar, but got nothing forit.
You miss wiffle ball and running through sprinklers.
You think Islip MacArthur airport is cute and you enjoy watching it
growup.
Billy Joel said it best, "either you date a rich girl from The North
Shore, or a cool girl from the South Shore".
You don't really see the big deal about the Hamptons, unless you got
smashed at the Bordy Barn.
When people ask "where are you from?" you answer Long Guy Land and
automatically assume everyone in the world knows that answer means New
York.
You've always liked Billy Joel and you own several of his "records."
The Belt Parkway sucks! You've been stuck in a traffic jam for more
than 2 hours (without moving).
Your parents took you to All American, Nathan's or Carvel (on the way
home from the beach).
Regular gas - $3.29 and you still pay it!!!
You hate paying tolls. You don't have to go far to see your family.
You remember Grumman
You've gotten drunk on the bleachers of some high school.
You know the color of the water at Jones Beach is not BLUE!
You were upset when all the Roy Rogers turned into Wendy's and
Arby's closed for good.
You can spout off all the LIRR stops between Penn Station and
Ronkonkoma
Paying $35 for a haircut doesn't sound so crazy.
You think the people from Brooklyn are "da wunz dat tawk wit a
accent."
You went sledding in the sumps and on the golf courses. You've partied on a golf course in the middle of the night.
You knew of Massapequa before the Amy Fisher-Joey Buttafuoco
nightmare.
You think going to Queens is a hike. The first time you heard the term "Long Island Iced Tea" you were somewhere else and you laughed
When you live somewhere else and are astounded to see that people
actually stop at yellow lights.
When you just sort of presume that wherever you live, you'll be able to
find good delis, good pizza, and good bagels.
You can name at least three bands that came from Long Island.
When you walk in the city and you see two men holding hands...it becomes normalto you.
No word ends in an ER, just an AH.

REFERRALS ARE HERE

Update on us: no Log In Date (LID) yet. We are still waiting patiently.

But.. It is fun to watch as others recieve their referrals. My friend Michelle and her family will receive their daughter's referral next month.... they have been waiting since October 2005. I am so excited and nervous for her....

Well today is SUPERBOWL SUNDAY... Not that I am a football fan, but the little guy loves the game. I like all the goodies but not the calories.

I GUESS I NEED TO START MAKING THIS BLOG A LITTLE MORE EXCITING WHILE WE ARE WAITING:

SO I THOUGHT OF FEW THINGS.
I think I will put a new recipe on here FROM TIME TO TIME that I think is worth while,and if anyone has a suggestion of what other types of posts they would like that would be interesting...let me know...

RECIPE: FOR A LOWFAT TACO DIP: OR YOU CAN USE AS A SALAD FOR LUNCH OR FILLING IN A TACO OR WRAP.

INGREDIENTS:
1 8 0Z LITE CREAM CHEESE
1 160Z FAT FREE SOUR CREAM
1 BAG OF SHREDDED FAT FREE CHEDDAR
1 BAG OF ICE BERG LETTUCE
1 CAN OF VEGETARIAN STYLE REFRIED BEANS
1 PACKET OF TACO SEASONING
1 BUNCH OF SCALLIONS
1 JAR SALSA
RED AND GREEN BELL PEPPER
OLIVES (OPTIONAL)

IN BOWL MIX TACO SEASONING WITH REFRIED BEANS. MIX TOGETHER SOUR CREAM AND CREAM CHEESE. IN A BAKING DISH (I USE A 9INCH ROUND GLASS DISHOR SOME TIMES IF I AM TRAVELING WITH IT I PUT IT IN A LONG CASSERAOLE DISH SO THE LAYERS STAY IN PLACE) LAYER, BEAN MIXTURE, SOUR CREAM AND CREAM CHEESE, SCALLIONS, LETTUCE MIXED WITH THE PEPPERS AND OLIVES TO TOP. AND THEN I PUT THE SHREDDED CHEESE ON TOP SERVE CHILLED....



I am part of a book club...

Our JANUARY BOOK PICK IS "THE MEMORY KEEPERS' DAUGHTER" BY kim edwards

I only started to ready the first chapter... looks like a good one... I will comment when I am done.

The second book that I am currently reading, (I usually read more than one book at the same time) is
FROM CHINA WITH LOVE by Emily BUchanan. My friend Jo gave this one to me. Excellent, detailing someone from the UK on her adoption journey of not one but two children over a few years. Very realistic, and pretty current. I would recommend this to anyone waiting. If you have other books that you have read and would like to share please post in the comments section so that everyone can read it.