Politics: Obama

Prior to the Democratic National Convention, I already supported Obama because I agree with most of his policies and the things he wants to do in office. But his acceptance speech... that really "did" it for me.



This link has the speech with its transcript.

I am totally in awe of this man's incredible intelligence, superior leadership qualities (surrounding himself with the best and brightest in every area as well as understanding the necessity and brilliance of compromise to reach the best solution possible) and his ability to see and admit to the realities of a situation. I broke the bad news to Mike - I am in love. ;-)

Staycation

This year, Mike and I decided to have our family vacation at home the week of August 18th. We opted for the local vacation because we have toddlers. Driving or any other version of travel with them is miserable for everyone. Better to keep any travel to one hour or less. Plus, we aren't exactly flush with cash these days so staying and eating at home is much more economical then traveling anywhere. So, we decided this was the way to go back in March/April… sometime BEFORE hurricane season. Our plans were to go to the zoo, the water park, the beach, and boating - typical Florida vacation plans. All beach and boating activities were cancelled due to not a single meteorologist knowing where or when Tropical Storm Fay was going to reach the states. Tampa was in the middle of the "cone" at one point meaning that several of our plans instantly became non-options - the beaches were unsafe, boating was impossible, the zoo was closed. How fun! It was nice to be home and spend some great family time together but sometimes hurricane season can really be a drag. We did make it to the zoo on the 20th which was a lot of fun. Here are my favorite pictures from the day.

Feeding the giraffes crackers was really memorable for the boys. If you mention giraffes now, the boys normally respond "crackers."


The camel ride was very intense. At first Connor was NOT going to do it and Cameron only did it with me reluctantly.


However, after seeing Cameron and I ride the huge animal safely, Connor (and Daddy) wanted to go too!


The animals were most memorable for the boys but they sure had a LOT of fun in the water fountains.



The looks of pure joy just make me smile. :-D

We did make it to the water park as planned on Thursday with Nana, Titi and Kaylie which was a lot of fun. It was overcast almost the entire day and sprinkled on us a few times but at least it wasn't blazing hot in usual August fashion and no one burnt so it was a perfect day. All the babes really enjoyed it even when Kaylie and Cameron ended up going under water with Titi and me at the end of one of the slides - we both lost our footing and went under with our children. Oops! They still wanted to do it again. Of course none of us brought a camera so there are no pictures to share but that's probably a good idea with my history of vacations with water and cameras. At least mine is still working right now!

The rest of the staycation we just hung out, ran errands, went shopping - like an extended weekend. Oh well! Next year we will be out of town so at least the hurricanes shouldn't be too much of an issue for us!

Mommy's bed

The boys' new favorite toy is our bed. I think they call it Mommy's bed bacause I'm the one they are always asking to get into it. They like anytime they can be in the bed. On the weekends, they will drink their morning bottles with us in bed. On any given day, they love to climb up on the bed and jump and play. Here's a little clip showing one of those times.

So sad... so many reasons

I haven't posted in ages. This is due to the fact that the boys literally stop me from being on a computer in their presence. Then, when I went to upload some pictures to our desktop about a week ago, I discovered it had erased all of the pictures I had there, which was all of them. I have completely lost all of June and July (I had previously downloaded the other pictures to the web). This is sad. But I just read a post on APV (a Yahoo discussion group for anyone involved in Vietnamese adoptions) and saw this posted. This disturbs me for so many reasons:
* Cameron & Connor were born in and adopted from Vung Tau, one of the six counties in which arrests have occurred
* We received falsified documentation at referral (their initial medical reports were incorrectly translated - "positif" as "negative" - which was not discovered by us until after the G&R; we actually were not allowed to see the original French medical reports until after we received their visas and were on the way to the airport to come home)
* We have several reasons to believe other paperwork surrounding their abondonment was less than truthful
* The agency we used, FHSA, works with a known criminal previously found guilty of visa fraud charges, My Linh Soland
* FHSA was denied Hague accreditation in May. For those not involved in intercountry adoption, the Hague is a treaty that governs intercountry adoptions between the United States and nearly 75 other nations. As stated on the U.S. Dept of State's site, "The Hague Adoption Convention protects children and their families against the risks of unregulated adoptions abroad, and ensures that intercountry adoptions are in the best interests of children. The Convention also serves to prevent the abduction, sale of, or traffic in children." Vietnam has not adopted these rules yet.
* Just as a strange coincidence, the boys were named Hoa and Binh by their orphanage director (no longer at the orphanage as of Dec-07 when the Goods went to visit). Hoa Binh is another one of the six counties in which arrests have occurred.

I guess my crying is the only thing keeping the boys from tearing me away from the computer right now. To say I am devastated is an understatement. My heart is just breaking. My worst fears and suspicions have been further confirmed. Now we just wait to hear the details. So, so sad.

A toddler workout

To a toddler, everything is fun and anything can be a toy. Here the boys are playing on the exercise equipment. They get more exercise on it than anyone else in the house! And they ENJOY it! Amazing!







I have never seen anyone else on exercise equipment as happy as Connor is here.


Cameron seeing if he can crawl along this metal bar. He is dangerously daring!

Pool Fun

The boys have so much fun in their little pool. I think they like it best because they feel safe. It won't knock them over like waves at the beach. If they fall, they just sit up unlike in a big pool. They can move and play without assistance. They love it.

Pictures from the day

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Here is a little video I took of them being so funny doing a countdown and then throwing their water.


This is one of my new favorite pictures - I don't think my lap is going to be big enough to meet demand for much longer.

Politics: 'Tis the season

And I'm not referring to Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas. It's election time!!!

I do try to NOT discuss politics much, especially from where I sit. I grew up in Texas and am now in Florida - both are very red states. I also am a CPA which is traditionally a Republican crowd. I can't say "conservative" because not all accountants/professionals are evangelical Christians but they do tend to have conservative economic/tax philosophies of which many I share. However, I am a democrat. I was so excited that my first election had Gore on the ticket... as VP. I was really excited about him because of his environmental positions and I knew if Clinton could win and keep it for the second term, Gore would be a shoe in. I didn't sleep much that Tuesday, November 2, 2000. I was actually in class when CNN showed Gore winning the state of Florida. By the time I got home that night after class, Florida was red. WHAT??? Gore won the popular vote and lost the election. I was devastated. I had grown a bit embarrassed for my guy though as I watched him make the most ridiculous comments all brought up during the campaign (i.e. "I invented the internet"). There were many. It was embarrassing but I still had hope. And then he conceded and it was my state that lost it for him. It was sad but life goes on. The last election was unfortunately pretty boring. Nothing could be worse than George W. Bush but I don't think anything could be more boring and annoying to listen to than John Kerry. Seriously - how did he get the democratic nomination? Did people just vote for him so he'd stop talking? Anyway, that was a drag but this election is the most exciting one for me yet. I'm finally voting FOR a candidate again and not against one or for the hope of a future one.

Barack Obama has the most unlikely circumstances to have ever even dreamed of running for the highest post in this country. I love that he has risen to the occasion.

Obama is an extraordinarily talented speaker and a very positive one. He doesn't try to win people to his side by scaring them of the other. His is a message of hope and bringing people together. I love it!

Obama's economic policy is essentially that government should stay out except where it is needed. Businesses will respond to market pressures to produce better products cheaper. What they won't always do voluntarily is make sure they protect their employees and/or leave the Earth unhurt while making those products. Government needs to step in to make sure hazardous waste isn't dumped in our water; working conditions for workers are safe; etc. I totally agree!

Obama supports a woman's right to choose. He wants to invest in technology to replace our dependence on oil for energy. He is focused on making sure all Americans have health care - the poor, those with pre-existing health conditions, EVERYONE. He understands the need to join with the global community and not to try and force them into doing what he wants. I'm so excited about the possibility of him becoming our next president! It's official - I'm an Obama mama!

Meeting the Goods

I was so excited to finally get the chance to meet Laurie and her family this weekend. Laurie and Travis adopted their oldest son, Jackson, from Vung Tau a little more than a month before Mike and I traveled to pick up Cameron & Connor. I "met" Laurie through another FHSA family that was traveling with them to pick up their daughter. Laurie and Travis gave Mike and me one of the most special presents we will ever receive - pictures of our darling babies while we were DYING waiting to go and pick them up. Here is the link she sent me which I probably stared at for HOURS. When Laurie and Travis got back home with Jackson, they uploaded a video of their meeting Jackson which I must have watched a hundred times just to catch a glimpse of my baby, Cameron. When Laurie first walks into the baby room, you can see that Jackson and Cameron were lying together happily amusing themselves on the bed right before Jackson is picked up by one of the nannies to meet his parents.



I'm not sure where Connor is in the room. I know when Laurie and Travis were there, they said he was sleeping so he was probably in one of the many cribs pictured in the video.

Our boys have a unique shared history and it was so nice to finally meet the people I feel I know having followed their blog for so long. Laurie and Travis are such laid back, extremely nice and intelligent people and their children are all absolutely adorable. Here are the only pictures I was able to take since, after the trip down to the beach in the morning, my camera got a little wet and didn't work properly again for about a week.



The adorable Shane bug


Laurie and all of our boys enjoying the tidal pool


The Vung Tau trio

This picture cracks me up. Travis and I were trying to get some pictures of our guys together. Jackson kept playing and being his cute self. My guys, not so much. They really did not think this was a great idea. Don't you love how they show it?!

Jackson giving Cameron a great big hug


Laurie also posted a few pictures of the guys on her site. My boys really liked Laurie. If I mention that we are going to the beach, they respond "Laurie." I hope we can do it again soon!

More cute pictures of Jack

Here Cameron is putting a bunch of shoes on a peacefully sleeping Jack


Me with a very snuggly puppy

Connor used the potty

Connor used the potty at home for the first time tonight! His teacher has told me he's gone at school several times now but tonight was the first time with Mommy. I'm so proud of my little man!

Cameron had already used the potty right before Connor but didn't want him to be the only one in the limelight. Cameron then proceeded to stand in front of the little potty and successfully use it again. Show off!

Cousins playing

Connor making sure Kaylie knows how to use the xylophone


Cameron getting some giggles from Kaylie


Titi and Kaylie

News Summary

Since this blog is basically like a baby book, I realized that I haven't included news articles about what's happening when the boys came into the world or the cost of things. This is two years too late but a pretty fair description of what's been going on at least in my opinion.