Dalan Chiut: June 2009

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Tuesday’s Freebies

Tuesday is officially my new favorite day of the week. It’s the day I get to see a new episode of True Blood :-) I usually watch every episode twice in a row. The first time I sit down and plain watch it, but the second time I just put it in the background and listen to the voices while I go freebie hunting. It makes me feel a bit homesick actually, but I love it. God I miss Louisiana. Some of you left comments saying the books were good too. My next amazon order is definitely going to include one. Thanks for the tip :-)

Templates:

http://www.christinabrowndesigns.com/
http://daniellecorbittdesigns.com/Starlets/
http://purpletulipdesigns.blogspot.com/
http://scrapanges.blogspot.com/ 2-page
http://www.scrappingwithliz.com/

Because they have faces.......

This bill affects kids like my Gabey and our Marta (below), just a reminder...

Ok, you all know I don't do the politics thing...not really. Not here.
However, this is a political issue that is worth breaking that habit.

This bill needs support, it needs you all to contact your reps and let them know that it means something to you. This bill makes a difference, finally. This bill would keep families from getting stuck in the protocol snare that we did. This bill would bring families together, sooner. This bill would bring children home, sooner. This bill supports families. This bill makes an actual difference in our world, for good, not just for some pork barrel agenda. This is what the political process should be used for. So, contact your Senators, contact your Congressmen and women. Let them know that this bill is important to YOU.

And, once again, go to to the EACH site and sign up. McLane Layton is doing great important work. Help her make it happen! Read this, below, and then go do something to help.

Here's the press release, below:

Bill Introduced to Provide Citizenship Rights
to Internationally Adoption Children
of American Families

June 29, 2009 (Washington, DC) -- The Families for Orphans Coalition announces its support for the Foreign Adopted Children Equality Act (FACE Act) which was introduced last week in the Senate and House of Representatives. The FACE Act will allow American families to bring their internationally adopted children home as American citizens instead of as immigrants. The bill is spearheaded by Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and James Inhofe (R-OK) and Representatives Diane Watson (D-CA) and John Boozman (R-AR). The FACE Act simplifies the acquisition of citizenship for internationally adopted children and removes these children of American citizens from the immigration process.

The Foreign Adopted Children Equality Act addresses needed changes to the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) which was enacted to provide automatic U.S. citizenship to internationally adopted children of American citizens. As it stands now, the internationally adopted child of a U.S. citizen receives U.S. citizenship once the child enters the U.S. to reside permanently. If enacted, the FACE Act would allow such children to acquire U.S. citizenship at the time their adoptions are finalized in the country of the child’s birth. The child would then enter the U.S. as a U.S. citizen with citizenship documentation in hand.

“Passage of the FACE Act will eliminate the need for an immigration visa for internationally adopted children and instead will treat these children as children of American citizens, not immigrants subject to immigration regulations,” said McLane Layton, President of Equality for Adopted Children (EACH) and a member of the Families for Orphans Coalition. “Additionally, the FACE Act classifies internationally adopted children as “citizens from birth” just like children born of Americans overseas, thus providing them with equal rights of citizenship, including the right to run for President of the United States.”

“Under current law, the type of immigration visa an adopted child is given to enter the United States determines whether the child receives U.S. citizenship upon entry. Those children who do not receive U.S. citizenship upon entry and whose parents overlook the bureaucratic steps necessary to secure citizenship for their children are often later denied scholarships, passports, and the right to serve in the U.S. military. Most tragically, some young adults who have lived in the United States with loving, American families their entire lives have been deported to their birth countries - places they have no knowledge or memory of – for committing minor juvenile offenses. Half the children adopted internationally each year currently enter the States on the visa that places them at risk,” said Chuck Johnson, a Coalition member and Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the National Council for Adoption. “The Face Act will resolve these issues and provide U.S. citizenship to all internationally adopted children of American citizens.”

The FACE Act also provides older orphans the ability to be adopted – children who were overlooked in the Hague Treaty on Intercountry adoption. “Prior to the Hague’s passage, children age 16 to 18 whose younger siblings had been adopted by an American were able to be adopted by the same American family,” said Terry Baugh, President of Kidsave. “The Hague eliminated all adoption opportunities for children 16 and over. The FACE Act will fix this oversight and expand the opportunity of a permanent family to all children up to age 18.”

The Families for Orphans Coalition was established in 2008 to support both domestic and foreign efforts that ensure every child lives, grows and thrives in a safe, permanent and loving family.

Marta, last summer.
This bill, if it had been passed, would have changed so much.
It still can, for so many others....

Monday, June 29, 2009

Monday’s Freebies

Templates:

http://zigglescraps.com/mypeeps/
http://scrapbycolor.blogspot.com/
http://www.scrappingwithliz.com/ P365
http://scrappyweiss.blogspot.com/
http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/wordpress/
http://sunshinestudioscraps.com/blog/

http://scrappindigikreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.thedigichick.com/blog/
http://toutunscrap.blogspot.com/
http://vicki20.blogspot.com/
http://www.withlovebymushy.com/blog/
http://lorrisscrapsandmore.blogspot.com/

Quickpages:

http://aneczkaw.blogspot.com/
http://pennysmiscellany.com/blog/
http://sansans-paradise.blogspot.com/
http://scrapsangels.free.fr/
http://cyfisher.blogspot.com/
http://www.christielemmondesigns.com/

http://creativemundi.com.br/blog/

Alphas & Wordart:

http://krystalhartley.blogspot.com/
http://sjtowers.blogspot.com/
https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=22706&cat=287&page=1
https://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=22726&cat=287&page=1
http://thaliris.canalblog.com/

Kits & more:

http://nicoleyoungdesigns.blogspot.com/
http://mymy-sdigiscrap.over-blog.com/
http://mimiscrapdigital.com/blog/
http://redjuscrap.blogspot.com/
http://birgitkerr.blogspot.com/
http://www.scrappingwithliz.com/

http://tempusfug.blogspot.com/
http://wendys-craftycreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.happy-scrap.com/
http://pouyou.over-blog.fr/
http://kimbsdesigns.blogspot.com/
http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/blog/

Weeds & Wildflowers News:

Gina has some hot new stuff in the store. Check it out here. It’s 20% off right now :-)

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Final Countdown Approach; Second Edition

It is Sunday. It is my favorite time of day on the beach: that quiet time between afternoon and evening when the beach empties and the sun lowers and the sand still has the warmth of the day running between your toes. I look out to the waves and watch my Little Man and Miss M on the boogie boards, still. And I realize that I have loved this spot in the world best since I was a child, their age. And I know that they will bring their children here, or I hope they do...and they can love it as a home for their heart to rest too.

And then it crowds back in: we are at week nine. We are in the final countdown. The cultures are done. The final final (? yeah, it confuses us too) report is due at the embassy and doc on Wed.

And so once again, we are in a final countdown to launch.

We will soak up our last two days at the beach, gathering up the calm and the soothing of the waves and the sand.....packing it to overflowing as best we can in anticipation of the rocket launch of travel across the world to our new daughter and family.
A dear blog friend pointed out to me that this is our last time together as a family of nine.
Soon, we will be ten, together.

Officially we have to wait to Thursday (or God forbid, Friday, again) to get the all clear to go.
But, we all dare to believe that we are going.

And so, in my mind I have the checklist forming:
Donations: packed, still, in foyer.
Marta's suitcase: packed, still, in foyer.
And then the list of to do's before we go.....it can expand at warp speed in my brain.

But not yet.
For the next two days, I get to dig my toes in the sand and soak in the salty sun.
I am deeply grateful for the time here, in this special place.
I feel the countdown approach but I am going to push it back to enjoy this last sandy time on this beach before our world changes in my arms.
Or, I will pretend to.....because inside, I feel it.
The countdown, it's beginning.

Weekend Freebies

I’m back :-) And exhausted. Even though Paris is basically right around the corner (we live on the French border and Paris is only a 4hour drive), we go there way to seldom. And going there for a 24h roundtrip is too short. There is so much to do and see. This wasn’t my first trip to Paris (nor will it be my last), so I saw some things known and some unknown. This time we took a boot trip down the Seine which was not only beautiful, but also very relaxing. And I went down into the catacombs for the first time. Now that was an extraordinary experience. I don’t even know how to describe it. I have seen quite many cemeteries in my life (I make a point to visit one in each town I travel too), but nothing was like this. The atmosphere was truly eerie, and it is huge. You have the feeling you are walking forever past millions and millions of bones. Take a glimpse for yourself at wikipedia.
Credits: frame 5 from small packages frames 10 by [ksharonk] available at twolittlepixels.com

20 YEARS LATER & IT'S THE SAME OLD WORLD - IRAN & CHINA

Twenty years and a few weeks ago, June 4-5 1989, the Chinese government slaughtered a lot of protestors in the streets around Tiananmen Square in Beijing. That pretty much crushed the "democracy movement" in China. I was part of the crowd in the streets of Hong Kong, protesting that. I'd been in the crowds on several other occasions during the month before.

On May 20th, there was a typhoon eight signal hoisted in Hong Kong. That means a typhoon (hurricane) is approaching; go home, tape up your windows, batten down the hatches and prepare to wait out the onslaught. Instead, 40,000 or more of us were in Victoria Park, the winds and rains lashing at us, debris flying through the air, from where we marched to the headquarters of Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, in protest against the imposition of martial law in China.

A week later, on the 27th, 300,000 or more of us gathered at Happy Valley Racetrack to listen to musicians play songs of protest and hope. The anthem of the Chinese democracy movement, the song that really got the crowd worked up, was by Cui Jian, China's most famous rock and roller.

The song is called "Nothing to My Name." You can read the lyrics here.

You can see a You Tube video about him here.

He released another song, "A Piece of Red Cloth" in 1989, after the slaughter in Tiananmen Square. The lyrics are sadly appropriate today, in Iran:

A PIECE OF RED CLOTH
That day you took a piece of red cloth
Covered-up my eyes and covered-up the sky
You asked me what I saw
I said, "I see the happiness"
This feeling made me so tranquil
It made me forget I have no place to live
You asked me where I'm headed
I said, "I'm going your way"
Couldn't see you, couldn't see the road
My hand was clasped by yours
You asked what I was thinking
I said, "You decide"
I sense you are not cold like steel
Yet like steel you are strong and hard
I sense there is blood in your body
Because your hand is hot
This feeling made me so tranquil
It made me forget I have no place to live
You asked me where I'm headed
I said, "I'm going your way"
I feel this is not a wasteland
Yet can't see this land is already dry and cracked
I feel I want to drink a little water
But your mouth covered my mouth
I can't go and I can't cry
Because my body is already withered
I will be by your side forever
Because I know your pain so well
________________________________________
music and lyrics: Cui Jian
translation: kemaxiu

The next day, May 27 1989, an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people marched in support of democracy in China through the streets of Hong Kong. That was a quarter to a third of the entire population.

A week after that, anywhere from three or four hundred, to three or four thousand - the real figure will probably never be known - people were dead in Beijing, and the aspirations of the Chinese people for a government responsive to their desires and concerns were quashed, at least for a while. A long while as it has turned out.

The other night, a young woman from Suzhou, China was in the audience at my book event for SHANGHAIED at Mystery & Imagination Bookstore in Glendale, California. She's a student here, and despite the fact that the events of 1989 do not appear in China's history books and are not taught in the country's schools, knew plenty about them. I asked her how she knew. She smiled and said, "I'm just nosey."

Nosey is good. It's essential. Let's hope that things in Iran turn out differently than they did in China. But however they turn out, let's hope that there are always enough nosey people out there that dreams and hope never die, no matter how many people do.

Friday, June 26, 2009

No freebie hunting till Sunday

Hi Gals,
I’m off to Paris tonight with my team from work and won’t be back till midnight tomorrow. I’ll tell you all about it on Sunday. Take care
Cheers, Angie aka IkeaGoddess

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Thursday’s Freebies

Pop star Michael Jackson dead: report

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pop giant Michael Jackson, who took to the stage as a child star and went on to set the world dancing to the thumping rhythms of his music for decades, died Thursday, TMZ website reported. He was 50.

"We've just learned Michael Jackson has died," TMZ said.

"Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back," the entertainment site said.

There was no official confirmation of the reported death and spokespersons for Jackson could not be reached for comment.

Earlier, the Los Angeles Times said that the singer had been rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital by fire department paramedics who found him not breathing when they arrived at the singer's home.

The newspaper said paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the scene before taking him to the UCLA Medical Center hospital.

Jackson had been due to start a series of comeback concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010. The singer, whose hits include "Thriller" and "Billie Jean," had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months.

The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within hours of going on sale in March.

Jackson started out as a child star in the band "The Jackson 5" more than 40 years ago.