Would you please consider signing the Fairness for Families petition?

Here’s the background:

1. Until recently, to get approval to adopt from overseas, families would file a form with the US Government (with US Citizenship and Immigration Services) called the I-600A. When this was approved, the approval would last for 18 months.
2. For most overseas adoptions, 18 months is long enough to complete an adoption, but …
3. China adoptions have slowed down dramatically, and now many families are waiting a couple years (or more) for a China adoption to go through.
4. While families are waiting, their approval from the U.S. government is expiring. Our government has given families ONE free 18-month renewal. But …
5. That renewal is running out for some families, and our government is telling them that they must start from scratch. Here’s why — and what it means:
   • In the last year, our country has officially become part of an international treaty governing intercountry adoptions, and part of this has required a new and “improved” (gag me with a well-used motor oil rag) process — no longer “I-600” but “I-800.”
   • The new process (I-800) is long and onerous
   • Some families will have to change agencies (think: a whole new set of fees — thousands of dollars) because only certain agencies are approved for the I-800 process.
   • Families that are required to change agencies will lose their “place in line” — moving to the end of a 25,000-person waiting list in China.
   • Some families will lose their approval, because Chinese requirements have changed, and by resubmitting their application to adopt (instead of just leaving it in line), they will be rejected.

The petition is asking US Citizenship and Immigration Services (US CIS) to obey the law (the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000) which requires USCICS to “grandfather” old cases. In other words, cases submitted under I-600A form must stay I-600 cases instead of becoming I-800 cases.

For more info (and more things to do!), go to my Carolina Hope blog post about it. Also consider passing this around to your friends and family.

Thanks! I won’t do this often. (By the way, I lifted the cute photo from Carolina Hope’s website. But I’m the one who took the photo, so I think I can do that. And no, he’s not available for adoption.)

Happy 28th birthday to my big brother!

Friday night we invited Josh’s Thai students from last semester over for food and games. They came and treated us to some Thai soup with rice and a Thai dessert. All four are pursuing graduate degrees in engineering- or science-related fields before returning to Thailand. Lha (“lah,” yellow shirt) is working on a Ph.D.  Dow (red striped shirt) is working on her Ph.D. and is married to a judge in Thailand. This year her mother and 21-month-old son came to Texas to be with her as she studies far away from home. Mook (“moke,” in shorts) is also working on her Ph.D, and Boat is working on his MA and plans to stay for Ph.D. work. Boat came to UTA after being an exchange work/travel student at Six Flags where he did “all sorts of things.”

After we ate and looked at wedding pictures, Josh asked for a short Thai lesson concerning the Thai tones. In short the “word” na can be said five different ways meaning five totally different words, depending on the relative pitch of the vowel. After the lesson, we played a lively game of Jenga. The loser had to scoop the ice cream.

We are very pleased to announce that we have made another addition to our home. Since moving to Texas, Josh and I have been the looking into buying a digital piano. We were all set on buying one from Craigslist a few weeks ago, but the seller decided she couldn’t part with her piano and backed out the afternoon we were going to pick it up. Since then, I’ve continued to search Craigslist for another digital piano with no success. This morning, we returned to Guitar Center – where we had previously looked at digital pianos – and the rest is history….

In other news, today was my first day working for Earhard’s Main Street Music School. The school is less than a mile away from our apartment, and I’m looking forward to getting back into teaching piano. So far, I have one piano student, an adult beginner, scheduled for weekly lessons on Saturdays at 12. When I came back from teaching, my man had assembled our piano and I am enjoying it immensely.

On Sunday we decided to try playing a new game…

the pictures reveal the winner and her husband.

A few days back Amy posted about my new whiteboard. The scrawlings you saw on the board were preliminary notes for a presentation about the linguistic framework proposed by Charles-James Bailey, a presentation that I made today in Historical and Comparative Linguistics. You can see the presentation here, but you probably don’t want to. That’s okay. (The slide that you see here has a quote from Bailey I particularly liked.)

I got some positive feedback from my classmates about the 50-minute presentation (it was assigned as a 20-minute deal, but I got permission by email last night to go long). I mention the positive comments because — though directed to me — they belonged to my wife. Last night she patiently sat through my presentation (in its first draft) and made some pedagogical and organizational recommendations that resulted in a talk that actually made sense to the class. (The resulting presentation resembled the original draft … not at all!)

Thanks, Aim!

(Oh yeah, and she made me yummy pizza for when I got home.)

Last night we had dinner with Micah and Anna Martin. Micah and Anna bought a house, gutted it, and are now working on restoring it so they can move in. Our plan was to go over and help them with the work, but Micah got called to a welding job and it was too late to do any work by the time he was finished. So instead of working, we had dinner with Micah, Anna, and one of Anna friends, Meghana, plus the Martin’s two dogs who “patiently” waited for someone to have pity on them.

We were treated to a Texan meal….Anna made delicious guacamole that won me over to being a guacamole fan. Micah grilled meat for our tacos. Let me define meat as beef, pork, chicken, and DOVE, shot by Micah. The tacos were delicious and we enjoyed our Texan meal. (My facial expression is one of mourning for the dove — probably a descendant of Noah’s — rather than of distaste for the meat that Micah cooked.)

We plan to go over some other time to help with the house.

This week we made an addition to our little home. Long before the wedding, Josh requested that we purchase an item to assist him in his studies and in his explaining linguistic concepts to me. So at last, I went to Target and purchased our whiteboard.

As you can see, Josh is already putting it to good use.

Sunday night we played a couple games of Jenga. The competition was stiff and the tension in the air was so thick you could have sliced it with a knife. And then sway…tilt…sway…crash…moan…and the delighted laughter of the lucky man who watched the tower fall on his victim!

This week our photographers sent us our wedding photos.

BJU’s Fall ’08 Music Team came to New Life Bible Church this past Thursday night for a service. Our church enjoyed an evening of music and testimony centered on God’s grace working in lives.

Josh and I had the privilege of housing Jonathan and Phil for the night (our first overnight guests). At first I was afraid that staying in a one-bedroom apartment would be a trial for the guys, but they survived and everything went well. This afternoon, the team went canvassing with our church. We appreciate their willingness to jump in and serve where needed.

Wednesday night, while Josh was at his evening class, I had Rachael and Selah Johnson over for a few hours, so their mom could have some free time before their trip out west next week. The Johnsons attend our church, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know their family. The girls and I had an excting night of Mac & Cheese, Uno, cookie baking, singing, and practicing their ballet to old Disney songs.

I’m finding that deciding what to make for dinner is a lot harder than it used to be. Dinner for me used to be a cheese stick and some crackers, maybe a piece of fruit, or maybe the easiest option – just skip the meal (except when I was eating at the Jensens’ house – one of my weekly meals last year). Now that I’m married, I’m finding that skipping meals is not the way to go.

Tuesday I was trying to figure out what to serve my man for dinner…what can one make with ground beef and potatoes (no – we didn’t have cream of mushroom soup, so beef/potato casserole options were out). Fortunately for me, Deb was online and gave me a great suggestion. After a bit of research, I threw together some ingredients and made dinner. (Don’t ask me for the recipe, because I don’t remember exactly what I did, but Josh gave the meal “two thumbs up.”)

No – this post isn’t an announcement. My grandma Sutter is an amazing woman when it comes to coupons and grocery shopping. Weekly she saves hundreds of dollars by combining coupons with store sales to get incredible deals. She then takes her goodies and gives them to missionaries, church members, families in need, and her family. Our apartment is stocked with free toothbrushes and all sorts of other nonperishable items from Grandma’s basement.

Now that I’m a married woman, I’m trying to continue the heritage that Grandma Sutter has begun. Every Wednesday I pour over the sales ads to find out where we can get the best deal on grocery items. Thanks, Grandma Sutter for your great example of saving money and of generosity to others!

My husband has spent the past two weeks explaining to me that Monopoly is not a game of chance but rather a game of skill, strategy, and scheme. I have opposed his view until tonight, when my great strategizing bled his resources drier than the Sahara Desert! I had the great fortune (I mean, strategy) to land on both Park Place and Boardwalk and to develop my properties fully, so that the unfortunate party who landed on Boardwalk owed me a whopping $2000.00 on every visit. Third time is the charm! Looking forward to game number four!

Since moving to Texas, we’ve enjoyed getting to know Micah & Anna Martin, a newly wed couple (as of May) from our church. Micah and Anna are both taking classes at UTA and spend all Tuesday and Thursday on campus. We’ve been able to have them over twice for Thursday evening meals after Anna’s class and are looking forward to many more meals with them (that is, as long as they don’t grow tired of my cooking).

In their spare time, Micah and Anna are working on revamping/remodeling/re-everything the house they bought. They are very much looking forward to having their own home…so who knows, if they get desperate, maybe someday we’ll have pictures up on the blog of our working on their house. It’s been neat getting to know some “real Texans” (Micah even goes boar hunting!), and we are blessed with their friendship.

Josh here. I’m not sure whether I’ve shared with everyone what I’m doing this semester. The Lord has very graciously given me about 30 hours of work a week:

• 10 hours as a Graduate Research Assistant (working in the linguistics computer lab and maintaining the linguistics website)
• 10 hours as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (attending Formal Syntax class, making photocopies, facilitating class on the two days that the professor is gone, perhaps doing some grading)
• 10 hours for Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency

The linguistics website work is a continuation of what I did this summer: redesign our department’s website. The site is still under development, with a couple more major sections to be added or revised this semester. As part of my 10 hours a week, I also clean keyboards, run software updates, and keep the printer paper stocked.

As far as the teaching assistantship, I was supposed to teach an ESL research paper class for graduate students. But only one student registered, so the department moved me to the syntax class. Overall, this has been very good for my schedule (less prep, less grading), and I was grateful that I was able to keep the stipend I was planning on having.

For Carolina Hope, I work on the website, adoption forms, and blog. (You might want to read a post I put up yesterday — a sweet story about a little boy with his adoptive mom.) I also recently helped my boss develop an online education course about adoption homestudies.

Of course, the most important thing this semester is spending time with my wife. But you know about that already!

Everyday since June 28th, I’m learning what I wonderful man I’ve married. Josh has been so good to me and very patient with me as I adjust to life in Texas as a “Mrs.” and search for a job. This week Josh accompanied me to a Pampered Chef party (those of you who know me know that Pampered Chef parties are not my kind of fun). We were under the impression that Josh’s officemate would be there and that the guys would wander off after a while. However, that was not the case. My dear husband sat next to me and kept me company for almost the entire presentation before his officemate showed up. So again, I was reminded that I have married the most wonderful man in the world and reminded of his love for me…that was shown to me this week by his sitting in a room with a bunch of women (and one rather strange man) to keep his wife company. That’s my man – thanks, Josh!