King of the Rings

Sorry, Larry. But the resemblance is irrefutable.

Song of the day: B.o.B. ~ Airplanes

Don't Blame Russia

Russia suspends all adoptions to US families. The first sentence of the article begins as follows: "Russia has suspended all adoptions to U.S. families until the two countries can agree on procedures...." Here's a thought, how about a no-return policy? This is a kid we are talking about here, not a shirt you bought at Old Navy that you still have the receipt and tags for.

I never thought I would ever take sides with Russia on an issue, ever. Let alone an issue involving something an American did wrong, and that Russia is reacting correctly over. Now, if this boy has "psychological problems" as the ex-mother states in her little return letter she sent back with him, okay. It still does not justify in any way why she felt it appropriate to return him.

What in the world is happening to the family complex these days? Did this woman from Tennessee plan to return this little boy all along if he just wasn't quite the perfect child? Every day millions of children are born with disabilities, problems, birth defects, illnesses, etc. If this was a child of her own DNA with "psychological problems, " what would she have done? You can't "return" that. This just absolutely amazes me. The person with psychological issues is the woman from Tennessee. If she was not ready to accept the possibility that her new son would need a lot of TLC, she had no business bringing him here to be under her watch, love and care.

Close family friends adopted a son about three or four years ago from Mexico. They met Jorge while on a mission trip with their church. They had already gone through the difficult tug-of-war challenge of raising two girls. They were done with parenting so to speak. The house now to themselves, they were a little more "free," if you will. He could barely speak English. No one could figure out his real age. He had problems with one of his arms. They were starting all over, unconditionally. Deciding to take on the challenge of raising another child, a Spanish speaking teen, was like a one-step-up, two-steps-back sort of decision. They were making a decision to put a halt on their own free time in order to offer a better life for someone else.

They could have easily given up and sent him back to the orphanage and said forget this, it is too tough. But they are not as heartless or irresponsible as this Tennessee woman. I don't know her whole story so it's hard to try and not pass a world of judgement onto this lady. But as far as I know, somebody did not love her enough as a child.

Go out and give somebody a hug today.