Lilla's birthday and more

Well, I'll start with the happy! (The sad doesn't affect our family personally, but it is worrisome...read below!)

We celebrated Lilla's birthday on her REAL birthday. I am so glad we did as in the past there has been much confusion about why do people have parties on days that are not their birthday? It really bothers her. Her favorite thing to say whenever we questioned something she was doing: "well, it's MY birthday!!!" Try to say it with as much sass as possible.

We went to the pool and partied with family. It was fun!


As for the mysterious cantaloupe, if you have been checking to see about that, here is what happened: Well, if you want the whole story, you must go back a bit. Last year I planted 6 cantaloupe plants and they all died. Sigh. Disappointing but not surprising. I also planted green beans last year and maybe one plant really took off and I got about 7 beans. Argh.

SO. This year, I worked on my soil a good bit. I planted tomatoes. I planted lettuce (died). Then I decided to have another go at green beans because I really like them fresh. I planted about 8 rows, maybe 50-100 seeds. About 10 plants came up and green beans grew!! Yea!

Then, a weird vine appeared and overnight it doubled (I swear). then yellow flowers appeared on it and then a strange fuzzy green ball appeared. Was it a zucchini? Watermelon? A few days ago a tan webbing came up on the outside and we realized it was a cantaloupe!! We accidentally grew a cantaloupe from a packet of green beans seeds!


As for the sad news, there is a new worry in China. Actually there are two. First, the typhoon. As far as I know there was no evacuation from Hope's province. Our prayers are with people in the affected provinces and families waiting for children as well.

But the main new worry is a new CDC instituted TB test. Effective July 1, 2009, all children over age 2 being adopted from China must have a PPD skin test, and if that is positive, a clear chest xray, to be brought into the U.S. Sounds like a good idea, right? There is so much messed up about this!!

What's wrong with the TB testing and the implementation of the treatment?

-no other Americans entering the US from China have to do this! Even if they have been living in China.
-the testing is done after the child is legally adopted. The testing could be completed and treatment started much earlier in the adoption process, so families will not be torn apart.
-children are no longer contagious after just 2-4 weeks of being treated. However,if a child tests positive, they must remain in China for the duration of treatment, until a sputum culture is negative, around SIX MONTHS!! Many adoptive families would not be able to stay with their child that long, having jobs and other children back home. So imagine, you adopt your child and a week later you find that you can't bring them home with you after all and will need to go back to China in several months to get them. Heartbreak for everyone.

A family has just had to leave their newly adopted child in China. I can't imagine how horrible it would be. Please read their blog here.

What can you do?
-If you are reading this and you work at the CDC, please do what you can to inform your colleagues and keep families together.
-If you work in the media, please pick up the story.
-If you are a nobody :-) please sign this petition!
-and not to be selfish, but please pray that we persoanlly do not run into any snags with this.

Of course no one wants TB being spread around by anyone. But this new rule is overzealous. There are many other ways to go about this!