Friday, January 23, 2009

Job Description

ob Description:
POSITION:
Mom, Mommy, Mama, Ma
Dad, Daddy, Dada, Papa, ma, Pop


JOB DESCRIPTION:
Long term, team players needed, for challenging, permanent work in an often chaotic environment.
Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work
variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.
Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends
and endless sports tournaments in far away cities! Travel expenses not reimbursed.
Extensive courier duties also required.


RESPONSIBILITIES:
For the rest of your earthly life you:
Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs $5.
Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.
Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges,
such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and
coordinate production of multiple homework projects. Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings
for clients of all ages and mental outlooks. Must be a willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next.
Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated
devices. Must always hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete accountability
for the quality of the end product. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION:
None.
Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills,
so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:
None required unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION:
Get this! You pay them!
Offering frequent raises and bonuses.
A balloon payment s due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them
become financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS:
While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and
no stock options are offered; this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth, unconditional love,
and free hugs and kisses for life if you play your cards right .

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Santa Came Early




Santa came a little early this year. What I wanted almost more than anything was for our adoption agency to get their Hague Accreditation so that could once again move toward our referral. Our Christmas wish was granted and it came today. The number one item on my list is the actual referral. If any of you have Santa's ear, we would appreciate a mention! Happy Holidays to you all.

The North Pole Limited Express

Have you ever been to the North Pole? I have. 3 times, in fact. Each year Nathan, Noah and I drive to Chatanooga and catch a train to the North Pole. This year may have been the most fun year of all. Noah is truly caught up in the magic of Santa and it is so infectious. How could anyone not believe? Our photos captured some wonderful moments, such as my two guys shaking the bells given us by Santa from his sleigh and Noah's request to Santa to view his Playmobil catalog so that he knew exactly what to deliver on Christmas Eve. What a special night that is. I will leave you with the photos of our trip to the North Pole and a little something extra under it. The something extra is a letter written in 1987 by a little girl named Virginia to The New York Sun. Read it and believe.





Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Halloween

Well, I'm just now getting around to the Halloween photos. As usual, we had a fantastic night. Nathan's parents joined us for a night of warm fall soup prior to the rounds of Trick-Or-Treating. Also, as usual, we went with the entire street. Our dear neighbors of the last 7 years moved the day before but came back to the court for the festivities. Along with the Brahnams was the family next door. We visited our other neighbors along the way and of course, two of the neighbors had treat bags ready for our little gang. Noah was in his Harry Potter best, Nathan was Gandalf (as usual), and I was a witch (nothing new there!) A good time was had by all.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Thanks + Adoption Petition

Thanks to each of you who signed our petition to the USCIS and Congress to ensure that those of us who began our adoption journey prior to the implementation of the Hague Treaty on International Adoption can be grandfathered in to the old system of USCIS approval.

The petition worked and we have now been grandfathered in.

Thank you again. I know many of you - my friends and families - put your electronic John Hancock participated.

We Give Thanks

Today as Noah's class was busy working on their turkey drawings, Noah shared the verse that we say each week in our church class. If you are looking for a simple blessing and way to say thanks...here it is:

We give thanks.
We give thanks for being.
We give thanks for being here.
We give thanks for being here together.

Simple and to the point.

This is why he is the Sun.

I am thankful for all I have and all that I AM. May your day be filled with the gifts of Spirit so that you may find thanks too.

Dana

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi Folks,

I have been a little too eager to get to the Christmas music and totally forgot about my all time favorite Thanksgiving ballad - story - Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie. So, scroll down and turn it up as you stuff your turkey's and bake your pies. Happy Thanksgiving. May you find much to be thankful for. I know I have.