Killing Some Time, Burning Some Money

Aiden and I spent a couple days at Disney World this week. It was nice to get out of town with another mom and Aiden's best buddy. I asked Aiden what he liked best about the trip. He said it was riding the monorail, jumping on the bed in the hotel room, and the Legos store. I didn't have to purchase park admission passes for that. But then, knowing he isn't a big fan of too many people and too much noise (I liked lounging around the hotel pool the best), I could have guessed that.

We may go back again when the crowd is thinner. Then again, we can head west for 15 minutes and get a hotel room on the beach (with good beds to jump on), ride the beach trolley, and float in the Gulf of Mexico for less than the cost of a park pass to the Magic Kingdom.

Latest Update on Kyrgyzstan Progress

Based on an email from a wonderful agency director:

The powers that be say they are working on it, but there is nothing of substance yet to report. The investigations seem to center on Bishkek, although the adoption documents from Tokmok may not have been reviewed yet.

According to The Economist, The Kyrgyz president gave the US six months to renegotiate the US base arrangement. While it does not affect adoption directly, any swing between Russia and the US from inside Kyrgyzan can influence how the Kyrgyz government feels about the US in general.

DOS has not directly reported anything new, but the talk is that they are working hard to get children home. It isn't known whether they can make it happen this month or not.

JCICS Update

March 3, 2009 - Joint Council is pleased to confirm that U.S. Embassy officials in Kyrgyzstan met late last week with the Vice Prime Ministers Office regarding the 65 in-process intercountry adoption cases and the future of intercountry adoptions from Kyrgyzstan. At this time Joint Council cannot confirm the exact contents of the conversation.

Further, we can confirm that police investigations are occurring in Kyrgyzstan in regards to accusations surrounding child buying for intercountry adoption. No further information on this subject is available at this time. As soon as more information is available Joint Council will release it on our website.

Help is Just a Click Away

By just clicking on the Google ads in the sidebar, you make an automatic contribution to those that help folks in Central Asia. John Wright said they received $20 in just five days. As more folks add the ad and others start "clicking" the ad, the amount should grow.

If you don't have anything to do, would you take a minute to do some clicking?

Rita