Some Good Stuff, Some Worrisome Stuff

 Well, lookie here -- I'm posting twice in the space of a month! Crazy, huh?

Anyway, let's get the worrisome stuff out of the way. So far, we haven't experienced any of this ourselves, but families with members adopted from China are reporting difficulties renewing passports, questions about country of birth, questions about citizenship, requests to send literally irreplaceable documents to bureaucratic offices via regular USPS mail, and delays in forms being processed. When you consider how enthusiastically the "leadership" of this nation is at getting rid of (or at least prosecuting) non-White, non-Christian "foreigners"... well, let's just say we're wary.

So on to some of the good stuff...  Miriam's dance team had their first competition of the season this past weekend, and the group dance she was in placed first in category with a "Platinum Plus" rating, 7th overall in the age group,  and won both a Hollywood Bound Judges' Award and a "Golden Ticket" slot in the organization's Nationals later this year.  Not too shabby, eh?  (Yes, I'm kvelling again.)

What's really scaring me right now is the knowledge that, by the end of March, that scrawny little 13-month-old pipsqueak we met in China will be eligible for her Learner's Permit -- as in, she's about to become a driver. (Somewhere about 17-18 years back, I still remember my sister's comment, "...and you'll have to teach her how to drive.") YIKES.  I already let Miriam sit behind the wheel of my car -- after moving the seat about as far forward as it would go! -- and see what it felt like to be there when the car was moving* so right now whenever the subject of driving comes up she's a bundle of excitement, anticipation, and more than a little fear that I can't help but laugh at sometimes.  They grow up fast, ya know?

 *We were in a parking lot and I had my hand on the shift lever, all she did was lift her foot off the brake for a moment, then let out a yell when the car started to roll and stomped the brake again as I slipped the car into Neutral. :-)

Anyway, we've had a less-than-stellar month (2 year anniversary of Dad's death, 1 year anniversary of my uncle's death, and Mom wound up spending a week in the local ER/IMC and will finally be returning home from the rehab center this weekend) so I just wanted to poke my head back in the door for a moment before trying to get some badly needed sleep.

Talk at'cha later -