Bangs!

After telling Gwenn at least 3 times a day "If you don't keep your hair out of your face, I'll cut your hair and give you bangs", on Sunday night Gwenn finally replied "OK." So, within 90 seconds this is the result. She loves the new look, and best - no dealing with clippies or having mommy constantly asking to pull the hair back. Life is good.

A Desperate Search for Stolen Children

In an article published by the Washington Post yesterday, there is more light being shed on child abduction and trafficking in China. Unfortunately, authorities and the government are doing nothing to protect their citizens and children, and often police look the other way or are paid off by those who have kidnapped children and adults.



With the Beijing Olympics only a few months away, I hope that we see more and more of these articles. It's hard to get attention on them, and I sincerely hope that all of the press in China will allow for these issues to be explored. Either they can deal iwth the issue, or their system will eventually implode on itself. The people cannot continue to be pushed down for so long -the rumblings of discontent will flare up again. I say good luck, and godspeed.

Braindump

Can I say that I have an obsession with Post-Its? I love them. I keep stacks of them around for most occasions. And I use them to clear out stuff on my mind out of my mind and in a holding spot - actually, one right next to my mouse. The system is simple: blue for business, pink for personal, and yellow for whatever else I need to be reminded of that doesn't fit.

No change in One-Child Policy

In an article published today, the wide-spread hope of additional changes to China's One-Child policy appears to have died with the announcement that there will be no change in the policy for at least another decade.

While I understand China's desire to control the population as it develops, they have not successfully dealt with the side-effects of the one-child policy: infant abandonment, infantacide, child kidnappings and child trafficking - all amazingly shocking issues occuring on a daily basis in China, where children are often treated like commodity items, to be traded, sold or killed at the whim of the parents. While it is interesting to watch China trying to enter modern commerce, I am constantly reminded at how far they have yet to come in order to truly be ready to meet the challenges of this next century.

Outsourced Surrogacy

NYTimes had an article today on the surrogacy business in India, and their key clients in the west. I still haven't completely decided where I land. I have reservations just because of the economic disparity between east and west, and the fear of potential exploitation. However, for many who feel adoption is not an option (can it be so?) - this may be an affordable answer. I just don't know enough about surrogacy and rules in the US, however I didn't know you could pay a surrogate in the US for their services - I thought it was only medical.

In choosing an international surrogate, do you exersize more control that you would with a western surrogate? This is raising huge questions that I feel that we will address for a long time - outsourcing of wombs I believe is here to stay.

News

Yahoo reporting of 8 deaths at a SWI in southern China...

Finalized

Lucille XiaoMai is both officially a Peterson,with accompanying birth certificate in English, and the proud owner of a new birthdate compliments of developmental evaluations and bone scans. Congrats Lucy!

We had a great judge who was amazingly patient as Gwenn tried out pretty much everything in the courtroom, and I want to thank Mary - my amazing lawyer who saw me through this! She was there before with us, but it's great to have her around. We could not have done it without her!

Braces, Part Deux

After months of RPE's and Schwartz Devices doing their work, today started the next phase of our orthodontic adventure - actual braces, sporting cool pink bands... They are on the 6 permanent teeth that Gwenn has, and as you can see there are spaces from recently lost teeth on each side of the front teeth for the new teeth that will (hopefully) come in soon.

Adoption Issues in the News

Headline: 66 Nigerians Held on Trafficking Charges
Serious adoption irregulaties found with Nigerian women living in Italy, would take children from orphanages and sell the infants in Europe.

Headline: Costa Rico Nabs 14 in Adoption Scheme
14 arrested in Costa Rico as it appears they were paying mothers to relinquish their children for adoption.

Headline: Driver Says Man Couldn’t Care for Baby Girl
In the recent child abandonment case that hit national headlines, the father who abandoned his child told the cab driver that he could not care for the child and that the birthmother had already left.

Time for one-child policy to change

On February 24th a YunFei, a 20 month old girl, was being taken by her paternal grandparents to be raised at their home in Guizhou Province. Instead, the grandparents left the train with her and attempted to kill her by placing her in the path of an oncoming train. Yunfei survived -- with both legs amputated. (Read the full story here)

The reason for this? Her mother spectulated that it was because the she had borne two daughters instead of sons.

The impact of the one-child policy continues to be felt far. Whether through child abductions and kidnappings, to infanticide, or infant abandonment, China need to move forward in as forceful a way as they did when the revolution occured. Truly, if there was need for a revolution, it would be one to shake preset beliefs to their foundations - and change how children in China are treated.

Today the LA Times reported on the potential for China to re-address its one child policy. More important than the discussion of the policy, will be a strong stand, backed by action, in determining what occurs to people who violate the laws in areas like kidnapping and child trafficking or infanticide. Make girls acceptable to family and society. Maybe pay families who have girls; free secondary education for second or third daughters; how about accepting all babies and making them legal, instead of forcing parents to hide daughters so they can have a son; how about hiring and training a force of 5,000 detectives to investigate and crack down on child trafficking -and making the penalty for getting in the way of the investigations worse than if that person had a no-papers child.

It's time for China to wake up, face the rest of teh world, admit there is a serious flaw in the one-child policy, and get aggressive on ways to deal with the issue now and in the future. How many YunFei's are there, that we never hear of? The drip of these issues hitting the press should continue until the impact of the full waterfall is felt and China reacts.