We received the call in the afternoon of Wednesday, December 26th for a 9 month old girl named Sanbate. We have sent her referral off the University of Minnesota for a report and await a "good" assessment. In other words, if the doctors feel that she is "reasonably" healthy or has medical issues that are treatable we will accept. She is a stunningly beautiful baby and we hope that she will be our child.

Steady hearts.

This year I made most of my Christmas presents.
I asked my husband for one thing (boots) and one thing from my mom (clothes steamer so we could do our dry cleaning at home).

Well, after seeing this really cute short film I feel a little guilty for asking for any
STUFF.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Today we performed the Shepherd's Play. I was Mary. It was lovely.
We are next on the waiting list for referral.

The Hatches strike again!
Gingerbread house making with Hatches really puts me in the mood for Christmas despite the fact that our cats peed on the box of ornaments this morning.

" President Bush declared an emergency in Oklahoma on Tuesday, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts."

"This is a big one. We've got a massive situation here and it's probably going to be a week to 10 days before we get power on to everybody," said Ed Bettinger, a spokesman for Public Service Company of Oklahoma. "It looks like a war zone."

Excuse me?
A war zone?
I am sorry have you seen a war zone lately?

This is because the midwest was hit with a whopping ice storm and many states, especially Oklahoma have lost power.
Can I remind you that many people in the world live without electricity? That a war zone is not a place where winter is happening but when human beings are being maimed and killed and tortured.

Please folks! A little perspective!

Today is the last day of our long kriya meeting in Berkeley until after the Holidays and I just don't feel like going. I like staying home on Mondays. I don't like driving at night. Mr. D is gone into the city to meet a friend and attend a workshop. I am still making Christmas presents.

All excuses. Sometimes I buy the excuses and sometimes I don't. I wonder what I will do tonite.

The darkness closes in.

Every couple of months or so we hear a knock on the door and there are young people collecting money. The child at risk "programs" they are collecting for don't sound fabricated but there is never any literature or a phone number that verifies the organization's existence. In fact, usually what they do have, doesn't add up.

For example a young man of say age 19 came today as the trainer of young woman who shook my hand. I understood they were collecting money for children in Richmond who are at risk and also for those children's Christmas presents. They young man said he was once a youth who benefited from this program and he handed me his identification. His id was old and water stained and looked very low tech and uh...sketchy.

When I questioned his lack of literature and poorly maintained id he said he had collected 400 dollars just the other day. I confided to him that I generally didn't give money at the door but often sent money to organizations I had researched and further that his id looked like it had been swimming on numerous occasions and that didn't give me confidence in him.

As he walked down the stairs he mumbled the website of the organization but I didn't catch it.

Is one obliged to give money to avoid the ire of those at risk young people?

What does it mean when the families who obtained their immigration (I-600A) approval one month ahead of you, are at the top of the referral list?

Perhaps it means you will receive your approval in two, three or four months.
Perhaps it means that the list is real and people really do finally reach the top.
Perhaps it means we may be given the chance to adopt after all.

Or am I just playing mind games?
This wait time has become a game of Maya (illusion).

We had a little run in with the law at the beginning of this week.
No, we weren't pulled over by the cops. In California, the surveillance cameras installed at many intersections will take your picture if you are crossing an intersection at a yellow light and it turns red before you have finished crossing. This week it happened to me on Sunday after getting Dosas in San Francisco and to Mr. D while going to Satsang in Berkeley. Just another reminder that the long arm of the law has just gotten longer.

For more information on this new fascist trend in traffic regulation check out Highway Robbery, which includes this great quote,

"Traffic rules account for most of the contact by average citizens with law enforcement and the courts. Enforcement of laws which are widely perceived as unreasonable and unfair generates disrespect and even contempt toward those who make and enforce those laws."
The Appellate Department, in People vs. Goulet


The National Motorists Association agrees that Red Light Tickets do not improve road safety.

Mr.Traffic feels the same way I do.