So, we're teetering closer than ever to a diplomatic something between the United States and China - something that could, one way or another, have a direct effect on paperwork and people traveling between the two countries. Including, of course, those of us involved in the business of international adoption.

Today is the day that the Dalai Lama is supposed to get a Congressional Gold Medal. He's already been buddying around with Dubya at the White House, and joining Al Gore in the limelight from getting the Nobel Peace Prize. ... more

Just when you thought the period of time between the moment you mail that dossier off to Beijing and the moment you say, "Hello, small person. Welcome to my family!" couldn't possibly get any longer - pushing twice as long as a pregnancy of the biological variety - it is.

So says Brian Stuy. His argument is that families from here (and there, and everywhere) are... more

If you're planning on going to China for any reason and doing any kind of business there - or simply interacting with people on any level ("More tea, please!" "Why yes, I think the document you need is right here."), then it's a good idea to know something about Chinese etiquette. There are guides aplenty that define important concepts like guangxi (personal connection) mianzi ("face" or reputation) and keqi (modest propriety), or that give pointers on ... more

Panwapa is a website for young kids to learn about different places in the world. It's been put together by the Sesame Workshop, so you know it's been baked with goodness. It's heavy on the audio, so don't look for it as a peaceful escape into computerland for the kids while you rock out in the living room or something. Anyway, there's a penguin who teaches you a few words of Mandarin while playing hide and seek (as well as other languages, like Japanese and Spanish),... more

Our China is a country that we don't understand, like a college roommate who sleeps until sunset and slips back into the room at 10 in the morning. Here's what I mean: This is a critical review of a documentary that aired on British TV last Monday. It was called China’s Stolen Children, and it was made by some of the people who worked on The Dying Rooms. Unsurprisingly, it appears to take a rather stark view of the One-Child Policy. It's also, according to the review, a bit over-simplistic.... more

I've been thinking about this opinion piece I just read in the Salt Lake City Tribune. Actually, it's just a letter to the editor from someone in Utah who's sick of being judged by people who think it's wrong for Americans to adopt babies from overseas. She has a lovely sister from China, and she's sure her family's choices were the right ones, but she's still tired of getting flak from people who don't agree.

Things like this confuse me. I mean, I kinda think the letter writer is correct (I would, wouldn't I?). But I'm not sure about the headline - "Judging solves nothing."

I've gotten used to... more

So Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, the cartoon we've all been waiting for with the Chinese-American family and the adopted Chinese vocal star... well, we'll have to keep waiting. It won't be airing until February now. I'm hoping this doesn't bode ill for the project. And I hope... more

So, we've been having trouble, all of a sudden, getting son (son!) to go to sleep at night. It seems (seems!) to be related to the beginning of preschool. He goes three days a week, but for the past two weeks or so, he's spent every night absolutely refusing to go to sleep in his own bed. He's also become alarmingly clingy and generally tearful in the hour or so between the end of dinner and the bedtime story.

There was a time - I can remember it well - when bedtime for him involved giving him a sippy cup of milk, turning on the miraculous Fisher Price Aquarium music... more

As someone interested in 1. news that affects China and 2. news that affects people traveling to China, you might have heard something about the recent trouble in the country we call Burma, but that its own government calls Myanmar. It's the bit that borders Yunnan province and a tiny piece of Tibet.

People are protesting, and protestors are being rounded up for interrogation:

relative of three released women said those being interrogated... more

So, our Autumn Moon festival was a bit of a dud this year, waylaid by cold germs and dismal, tropical rain. In other places, there were other observances, though. There were bigger Autumn Moon festivals for adoptive families in Pittsford, New York, and Bayside, California, separated by the continent but linked by similar situations - families eager to create a sense of "Chineseness" for their kids. These things always seem paradoxical to me (but the descriptions of food make me hungry... more