Adoption Magazine: The 1000+ Questions

Adoption Magazine: The 1000+ Questions: "author: Nicky One thing that parents have to be aware of when we adopt transracially is that our family becomes conspicuous.  Anonymity does..."

Brene Brown: The power of vulnerability

Is running good for you?

Running is good for you, right? At first I thought it was tough, you got sore, and I could find dozens of reasons not to run. Well, running is not for everyone, but it is one of the best exercises you can do for your heart, your body and burn some extra calories. It is also one of the most accessible activities, all you really need is a good pair of running shoes and the outdoors! No fancy equipment, no special skills...It takes time to build endurance to run even a short period of time, but don't give up! There are also a lot of reasons why running is good for you, and here are 9 of them:


 1. Bones The human bones are made to accommodate the demands placed upon them. When just sitting all day long, at the office, in the car, in front of the TV, we allow our bones to grow weaker. But if you run regularly, they meet resistance, which will lead to stronger bones.


 2. Heart Getting your heart pumping a little faster for let’s say 30 minutes every day, and especially if you also include interval training is something your doctor, and not to forget you, will thank yourself for later. Training your heart and strengthening your cardiovascular system will lower your pulse while resting and sleeping; therefore also make you more fit to handle stress.


 3. Balance When running outdoors, you have to avoid and deal with curbs, dogs, stones, branches and other miscellaneous objects. These changes in direction and speed will strengthen your balance, so next time you stand in front of the door with 3 shopping bags and need to unlock your door with your key, this everyday manoeuvre will feel easier to handle.


 4. Posture If you run the right way, you quite automatically will lower your shoulders, use your arms to help pumping energy into your running pace and tilt your pelvis a little forward. All of this will raise your head and prolong your spine. So instead of looking like some sad, bent slave at the office, you are now a runner with your eyes set at the horizon, always looking for a challenge.


5. Waistline Running uses a lot of energy, and few other sports or activities are more efficient if you want to drop, let’s just say 10 pounds from your waistline. And especially if you include a few extra exercises while running, like suddenly running up a hill, or jumping over low fences parkour-style, you soon need to get down to your nearest mall for a new pair of trousers.


 6. The sun When running outside, naturally the sun will sometimes stop by and say hello, rewarding you with a healthy color, to match your new slim and fit you.


 7. Yes, I can! Ok, I won’t lie to you. It’s not easy at first. You will experience a burning sensation in your chest (it’s your lungs getting surprised), possibly a new sort of pain in your feet and legs (wow, we have to work now!) and you might get a headache, a pain in your back – or easily said, everything in your body might protest against this new lever of activity. But after a few trips, your body will adjust, and what seemed impossible (run 15 miles? Are you nuts?) Will soon be something you can easily manage. The first time you reach the goal you have set, you will be surprised how you feel. Ever heard of “runners high”? Get out there and experience it for yourself.


 8. I believe I can fly There is something about running that just feels right. Something eternal, like being a tough Greek from ancient times, that could run for days, without even getting exhausted. Running means beating the normal pace of the city, and very few things feels better than beating the bus in regards of getting from A to B – just watch those losers sitting stuck in traffic.


 9. Endurance Sometimes it will rain. Your foot might ache. You feel tired, and the wind is blowing in the wrong direction. But you still keep running, and after another dreadful 25 minutes you enter your destination and relax. So, tomorrow morning, when you have to wait a few extra minutes for the elevator, or the meeting drags on for an extra hour, who cares? I mean, remember yesterday evening. That was tough, this is nothing! You kind of take the sexy “who cares” attitude on you. 

Source: http://exercise.about.com/cs/running/a/begrunning.htm

Canadian Rockies Time-Lapse Montage

Canadian Rockies Time-lapse Montage from The Upthink Lab on Vimeo.

Another super well done video. This is pure art! So poetic, so beautifully done! I love the mountains, love the nature, the green, the life is all so me! I would love to have time to explore those areas more... Hope you enjoy this video as much as I did today!

Freshfield Icefield: A Skier's Journey Ep3

Freshfield Icefield: A Skier's Journey Ep3 from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.

We are in the middle of summer, but I came across this video and felt in love. So beautifully done, so moving, so lovely that I needed to share today... The beauty of the Rocky Mountains and the love of skiing.

Life is like Coffee Movie

Life is like Coffee Movie: "Do you know people that just seem to be happier in general? Do you say to yourself, "I want to be more like them"? Often, the happiest people in the world don’t have the best of everything...they just make the best of everything!"

Wilderness cam catches thousands of wild creatures in Banff National Park Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Wilderness+catches+thousands+wild+creatures+Banff+National+Park/5054493/story.html#ixzz1RIfd86Mk

Em homenagem e respeito pelos animais e pela natureza uma bela filmagem de uma pequena área do Parque Nacional de Banff. Pretty cool!

Rick Smolan tells the story of a girl | Video on TED.com

Rick Smolan tells the story of a girl | Video on TED.com

Ideas Worth Sharing

Mães em rede - Mães diferentes no mesmo endereço - Mães em rede: O Globo

Mães em rede - Mães diferentes no mesmo endereço - Mães em rede: O Globo

(Amei este artigo, e aqui quero muito compartilhar com o mundo!)

Etiqueta da adoção

Ola blogueiras amigas. Miguel ja fez 2 meses (tem um mês e pouco conosco) e todos os dias penso em sentar aqui e escrever para vocês. São tantas novidades nesse comecinho, ne? Para mim, é uma emoção completamente nova ser mãe de alguém já tendo outro filho de 3 anos na casa. Ver esse amor de irmãos nascer, me sentir inúmeras vezes dividida entre os dois (sem tempo para nada) e comprovar na pele aquela velha piadinha de que um filho é um e dois filhos são pelo menos 5! Acreditem, assunto não falta e daria para lotar esse blog só com Miguelzices e Bobzices.

Mas felizmente esse blog não é para corujar os meus pequenos e, sim, para discutir alguma coisa de interesse público! Então venho amadurecendo um tema para conversar aqui: a etiqueta da adoção. Acho que vale dar um toque não para quem quer adotar, como eu fiz, mas para quem apenas convive com adotados. E, como não são poucos, acho que o tema pode ajudar e interessar a mais gente. Juro que não estou legislando em causa própria.

Desde que o Miguel nasceu o tema da adoção voltou ao bate papo da minha vida com intensidade total. Invariavelmente, todas as pessoas que visitaram o Miguel perguntaram alguma coisa sobre ele e o processo. Amigos e familiares fizeram comparações — mais do que naturais — entre a historia dele e do meu primeiro filho, Roberto. Teve muita gente também que se aproximou de mim exatamente para saber como adotar e que passos dar. Outras amigas que ainda estao à espera vieram até aqui para curtir o momento e sonhar com a sua vez. Com tudo isso, o que ja era um tema IMPORTANTíSSIMO para o Roberto virou o assunto mais sensível do mundo. Ele pode estar lá do outro lado da casa, distraido com seus brinquedos, que se alguém fala a palavra adoção, advinha quem aparece na sala?

Comecei, então, a reparar que a linguagem é fundamental. Deve existir, sim, uma certa etiqueta para falar desse tema, principalmente na frente de crianças. Sou a favor da transparência e Roberto sabe que não nasceu da minha barriga, que nós o buscamos. Ele, inclusive, foi buscar o seu irmão. Mas Isso não significa que a gente possa falar na frente dele termos como "a mãe do Roberto e a mãe do Miguel" (se referindo às respectivas mães biológicas, quando falamos algum detalhe do processo de adoção). Ou algo do tipo "Ela entregou" ou "Ela não quis" ou "Ela abandonou". Uma amiga querida, por pura distração (é super gente fina, adoro, mas completamente avoada), comentou sobre alguém que ela ouviu falar que queria entregar seu filho. Ai veio o comentário na frente de crianças: "Como é que pode? Parece que ela está dando um cachorro".

Eu sei que não foi por mal. Pessoas que não são, digamos, desse universo, não frequentam Café com Adoção, nem estão envolvidas com a causa nem percebem que as palavras às vezes tem uma carga forte. Outro dia, viajando com a família, conheci um casal super simpático que encheu de elogios os meus filhos. Quando soube que eles eram adotados, a pessoa que eu mal acabara de conhecer falou: "Eu pensei que eles eram seus". Respondi que são, sim, meus. Muito meus. Aí ela respondeu: "Como assim seus? você fez barriga de aluguel?". Gente, o fato de não serem da minha barriga significa que não são meus? Não fiquei chateada, a pessoa não falou por mal. A adoção causa esse constrangimento, esse momento de "ops, caramba, por essa eu não esperava". E as novelas não ajudam na medida que vemos em capítulos decisivos a mocinha ouvindo da pessoa que a criou revelando em tom grave: "eu não sou sua mãe!" (me lembro de Paraiso Tropical... a personagem da Suzana Vieira dizendo essa exata frase para a personagem da Alessandra Negrini!).

Por outro lado, acho que não dá para poupar o Roberto desse assunto mesmo. Ele é forte demais e toda hora surge mesmo, mesmo que a gente tente filtrar ou medir as palavras! Fui numa festa esse sábado e conheci uma moça com uma filhinha de 5 anos, também adotada. Nós já nos conhecíamos de nome e, quando nos vimos, ela imediatamente avisou a sua filha: "Veja, o Roberto é como você, também não é filho da barriguinha não, é do coração. Vem aqui conhecer o Miguel. Olha que maravilha que Papai do Céu mandou para a casa da Tia Germana." Nâo deu nem tempo de combinar algo entre nós duas, ela saiu contando. A filha dela é mais velha, ela já deve fazer isso há mais tempo. Achei legal a naturalidade. Mas também é importante ressaltar que a linguagem usada por ela é COMPLETAMENTE cuidadosa e amorosa.

Só finalizando (esse post está enorme!), meu marido me ligou todo emocionado do Ceará, onde estava viajando a trabalho, contando que esteve em vários lugares onde estivemos quando fomos adotar o Roberto. A mesma pizzaria, o mesmo hotel, etc. Mas ele contou só para mim e não para o Roberto. Pedi que contasse ao filho, sempre com um sorriso no rosto, que esteve lá onde a gente foi buscar ele, no lugar lindo de onde ele veio e mudou a nossa vida. Mas meu marido é mais fechadão e o papo entre os dois acabou não acontecendo. Como se vê na adoção, escolher as palavras é complicado seja para falar demais ou de menos...

Um beijo e até breve.

Have a Wonderful Day!

Eu pessoalmete adoro posters que usam sabiamente a arte da Tipografia como método efetivo de comunicação e arte. Não é mesmo demais este poster? É interessante ver o efeito de como a tipografia, seja ela Arial, Verdana, Sans Serif e Helvética, consegue transmitir uma determinada mensagem para cada público. 
Eu encontrei este poster por acaso, olhando outros sites de arte. É um poster criado por Kal Barteski, este e mais outros posters foram usados em ônibus e estações de ônibus. A série de 7 posters pode ser encontrada em seu web-site  http://lovelife.typepad.com/

Tenham todos um dia maravilhoso! Coisas lindas podem acontecer hoje... eu posso sentir...

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

Lyrics | Judy Garland - SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW lyrics

I love this song... just started to listen it accidentally today and thought it is a song to our baby.
My baby, wherever you are, we are here, waiting for you. This song is for you, we are waiting for you.
My baby... somewhere over the rainbow... We love you!

Memory of Colors presented by Fotopedia

Cores...
Eu estou tomando um curso chamado Teoria da Cor na Universidade de Calgary. Estou aprendendo tanta coisa que ando cada vez mais fascinada com o tema 'cor' e tudo que seja relacionado a cores. Achei este video lindo e gostaria de compartilhar com voces. 

Brigadeiro e Casadinho

 
Bom brasileiro tem sempre tem brigadeiro e casadinho em aniversário de criança. Lembranças meigas do tempo de criança é ficar de olho na mesa enfeitadíssima cheia de brigadeiro e docinhos. Coisa boa é comer um (ou dois, três, quatro, cinco...) brigadeiros e/ou casadinhos. Leandro Kyohei teve a sorte do mundo de ter tido estas lindas guloseimas em seu aniversário! E isto eu tenho que agradecer de coração à uma grande amiga e sua prima linda! Flãvia & Fernanda vocês sabem que serei eternamente agradecida, não somente pelos docinhos, mas principalmente pelo amor e pela atenção aos detalhes, pela ajuda na decoração, pelo carinho e paciência também. Estavam deliciosos e aqui algumas fotos dos docinhos para que vocês, caros leitores, também fiquem com água na boca. Pois eu vou olhar para estas fotos e também lembrar como estávam deliciosos!
Aqui deixo a receita em Inglês para leitores que queiram a receita e não sabem como fazer. Bom, só não sei se vai sair tão gostoso o quanto os da F. Bjs.
A good Brazilian will have 'brigadeiro' or/and 'casadinho' at their children birthday parties. It is a sweet treat made of condensed milk that many children just dream of having and love to see the birthday table totally decorated with these delicate treats. Here I am leaving you with the recipe, just in case you want to try to make your own. 
 "There is a great Brazilian sweet that is like a bonbon and extremely scrumptious and delicious called brigadeiro! This is a great type of sweet that is loved here in Brazil! Try it! You can make it in the microwave too, just remember to stir every minute."

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine cocoa, butter and condensed milk. Cook, stirring, until thickened, about 10 minutes. 
2. Remove from heat and let rest until cool enough to handle. 
3. Form into small balls and eat at once or chill until serving.

Creating Dinosaurs

We've been sick with a horrible cold these weekend. With no much to do outside, we got creative at home and started to use some of our cardboard to create dinosaurs to use in L's birthday party. Recycle the cardboard into party poster boards was so fun Well, the birthday party theme is going to be dinosaurs. So we decided to paint some of them in the used cardboard. L got involved in the process painting and deciding the colours. It is becoming a memorable party already, in the planning process. Check out our progress: 

Brachiosaurus. The largest known dinosaur, cropping or nipping vegetation as high as possibly 9 metres (30 ft) off of the ground. We used two tons of green tempera paint, some brown, white and red. Leandro did a great job painting the legs, neck and tummy!

Here is our fierce meat-eater Ceratosaurus getting form. Did you know he had over 70 saw-edged fangs? His name means 'horned-lizard'. Leandro had to applied a lot of paint on this huge dinosaur. We used light green and blue-green tempera paint. Jurassic Period.

He may be a variation of a Panoplasaurus. Panoplosaurus means 'completely armoured lizard', with spikes on its sides, but with an unprotected belly. We used golden-yellow tempera, blue-green for his back armor and white horns.

And last but not least, our reference book. Great illustrations and tons of information. Fun for kids and for big kids too! 

The Disappearing Male - Doc Zone | CBC-TV

The Disappearing Male - Doc Zone | CBC-TV

The Disappearing Male

Sunday February 14, 2010 at 3 pm on CBC-TV

Related Video

THE DISAPPEARING MALE

View the entire film.

43:43 min

"We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment in which our children and our children's children are the experimental subjects." Dr. Herbert Needleman

The Disappearing Male is about one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system.

The last few decades have seen steady and dramatic increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from genital deformities, low sperm count, sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer.

Some researchers say that declining male fertility rates could be the first sign of extinction.

At the same time, boys are now far more at risk of suffering from ADHD, autism, Tourette's syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia.

The Disappearing Male takes a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals that are ubiquitous in our world.

Found in everything from shampoo, sunglasses, meat and dairy products, carpet, cosmetics and baby bottles, they are called "hormone mimicking" or "endocrine disrupting" chemicals and they may be starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development.

You need to watch this: http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/Doc_Zone/1242299559/ID=1233750780

November is National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month: 10 Common Misconceptions about Adoption

November 13, 2010 9:00 am by Shannon LC Cate in Family

(* I really liked this article because it is honest and uses the right words! My favorite ones are no.5 and no.6)

November is National Adoption Month, and although the main purpose of the month is to encourage adoption of children in foster care, all things adoption seem to make the Internet rounds each November. This seems as good a time as any to clear up some of the most common misconceptions people outside of adoption tend to have about it. Here are the ten that came instantly to mind, based on my own experience of talking to people about adoption:

1. Birth mothers are all teenagers

Birth mothers (sometimes called “natural” or “first” mothers) — international and domestic — come in all ages and from all walks of life. Some are teens, but the mythical “unwed teen mother” that many people think of when they imagine adoption is a hold-over from the 1950s and 1960s when single and teen motherhood were less acceptable in certain areas of society than they are now. These days, the reasons for placing children in adoptive families tend to be more diverse than mere age or marital status.

2. Open adoption is confusing to kids.

Most international adoptions are “closed” by default, because the first parents are unknown and perhaps untraceable. But there is a growing trend in domestic adoption to open the process and maintain some connection between birth and adoptive families. While this idea is often hard to grasp at first thought, the fact is that closing adoption records is a fairly recent phenomenon and fairly limited to industrialized societies. Even in the United States where formal, legal adoptions have been closed for the past few decades, there are subcultures in which informal and open “adoptions” have always been the norm. These might include extended families, neighbors or close friends raising each other’s children in times of need, temporarily or permanently. Such practices have been common throughout human history. Research is starting to show that adopted people who at least know a little bit about their first families have a better chance of adjusting healthily throughout their adolescent years of identity formation and on into later life.

3. They hate girls in China.

The circumstances that lead to so many girls being available for adoption in China are complex. But, in short, it is more the tradition of wives being absorbed by their husbands’ families that is the root of the problem in China. When you combine this with an economy that relies on adult children’s care of aged parents and a law restricting most families to either one son or two children (when the first is a daughter), the problem is seriously exacerbated. Some families — by far the small minority — with a first-born daughter feel pressured enough to have a boy on their second try, that a second daughter is sometimes abandoned so they can try again for a boy.

4. Black babies are the latest trend among celebrities.

If a celebrity does something, we hear much more about it than when Bill Smith from Peoria does it, right? When two celebrities do the same thing, we hear enough about it to make it feel like a “trend” simply by virtue of the percentage of space it takes up in the media. The fact is, African American babies are still the last to be placed in adoption in the United States. African American boy babies are at the very bottom of the demand pyramid for healthy newborns. Perhaps the reasons more than one white celebrity has a Black adopted son is because celebrities live such cosmopolitan lives that when the social worker doing their home study asks “are you open to adopting a Black boy?” they say yes more often than other people. And if you say yes to a Black baby boy, you will probably get one — and fast — because not many people say yes.

5. Adoptive parents are saintly for adopting.

Adoptive parents are always hearing how great they are for having adopted. People always mean well when they say this, but the fact is, most adoptive parents adopted because they wanted to be parents. Period. Not because they are special saints. This also sometimes sounds to adoptive parents like their children are somehow less lovable, and therefore, loving them is a heroic act. Adopted parents just love their kids like other parents love theirs. It doesn’t require any special effort!

6. Adopted kids are lucky.

The knee-jerk response that adopted people are lucky is also a misguided attempt to be kind. I think most people mean, “rather than dying on a roadside in China, your daughter gets a loving family — what luck!” But in fact, the adopted person had the rotten luck of getting stuck on that roadside in the first place. Now she’s been utterly displaced from her culture, language, religion, and country and sent to live with strangers. Those things are not magically erased by adoption. Yes, it’s wonderful to have a loving family, but all people deserve this. People who only get to have it after — even as the result of — incalculable loss aren’t lucky. Often though, adoptive parents will tell you that they feel lucky to have their beloved children.

7. Adoption costs a lot of money and only rich people can afford it.

Some adoptions are more expensive than others, but some are virtually free. (In the original spirit of Adoption from Foster Care Awareness Month, I will mention here, that many state adoptions are free and/or come with financial subsidies to assist adoptive families.) There are a number of factors involved including what kind of professionals are involved (social workers aren’t in it for the money but they do have to get paid something), whether travel is required and how much of it, whether an employer gives adoption benefits and many more. Don’t assume an adopted baby is a “luxury.”

8. There is a high level of risk that once adopted, a child will be given back to/taken back by biological family members.

Cases in which children are moved after they have been living with “adoptive” parents for many months — even years — get so much publicity they can scare people into doing as closed an adoption as possible to defend against this outcome. But the fact is that adoptions are almost never overturned, once final. The hugely publicized cases are not only a minute percentage of adoptions, they are usually — nearly always, in fact — cases of would-be adoptions that are not yet final because of issues the adoptive parents have been aware of since the placement of the child. In other words, there was always a risk and the prospective parents took it willingly.

It’s also important to note that the courts in the United States favor adoptive families so strongly that when a child is removed from a prospective adoptive home, it can almost always be assumed that the reasons were excellent and much more than fair.

9. Birth mothers are saintly for placing their children in adoption. OR Birth mothers are demons for getting pregnant unintentionally/being “unfit”/not loving their children enough to raise them.

Birth mothers are women who have experienced a crisis pregnancy and dealt with it as best they can under their particular circumstances. Nothing else can really be assumed about them. Birth mothers and adoptive mothers are not in competition. Both are important to adopted people and both love their children as often as the general population of mothers love their children, that is, nearly 100% of the time. Birth mothers are severely judged in U.S. society. Doubt it? If you are not a party to an adoption, think about the birth mothers you know. If you’re having trouble coming up with a birth mother you know, that’s largely because most birth mothers are not hasty to share their adoption placement story. Some never tell a soul for the rest of their lives. Try to remember, the next time you’re talking about adoption, that the woman you’re talking to might in fact, be a birth mother. It’s time to make it safe for these mothers to “come out.”

10. Adoption is the opposite of abortion. As long as we have one, we don’t need the other.

Adoption is one option in a society with reproductive freedom. Adoption requires motherhood of a woman — both throughout a pregnancy and delivery and throughout the rest of her life — even if she never sees her child again after birth. For a woman in a crisis pregnancy who doesn’t want to be a mother, abortion is an important option. For a woman who doesn’t personally feel comfortable with abortion, but neither feels ready or able to raise a child, adoption is an important option.

These misconceptions are so popular, I think, because most media representations of adoption draw on them heavily. Racism, classism, xenophobia and national pride all contribute to simplistic understandings of adoption as well. I am an adoptive mother myself, and I have heard all of these many times in many places. I don’t mind clearing them up in a friendly conversation, as long as my children’s privacy isn’t being invaded. Most people who are not personally involved in adoption have little reason to learn the facts. But as adoption becomes more and more open in the United States, and transracial and transnational adoptions make adoptive families more and more visible, it will be helpful if everyone can learn a little bit more about those facts.

"All that you have is your soul." Tracy Chapman

Surviving the Future - Doc Zone | CBC-TV

Surviving the Future - Doc Zone CBC-TV

Future Earth 2025 - The Passionate Eye | CBC News Network

Future Earth 2025 - The Passionate Eye CBC News Network

Halloween Window Mural 2010: Winnie the Witch

Oi gente! Happy Halloween para todos! Esta data especial para toda criançada está chegando e a gente aqui em casa anda a mil preparando a casa. Meu pequeno L tem me ajudado um bocado: decorou o seu pumpkin, colou insetos e baratas na porta da entrada, ajudou a colar aranhas nos vidros da janela dos fundos e outros decalques pela casa. Já está todo animado com a sua fantasia de Happy Feet (Penguim) e me ajudou a pintar a nossa janela da frente com a personagem do livro favorito dele: Winnie the Witch!
Levou exatamente três dias para terminar... Que sufoco! Ela é uma personagem com muitos detalhes. Mas para pintar janelas de vidro determino mesmo três dias, pois primeiro preciso traçar os detalhes em preto. Depois deixar secar pelo menos umas 12 horas. Depois pintar a primeira base, as cores ficam meio apagadas, e deixar secar novamente por umas 12 horas. E no último dia repassar as cores e terminar os detalhes, e então novamente deixar secar.
Fico esperando que outros amigos me peçam para fazer desenhos nas janelas deles, mas até agora ninguém me pediu... assim continuo a pintar na nossa janela de casa.
Minha família AMA! Que já virou tradição, no Halloween e no Natal!