THE BEST THING I EVER DID IN MY LIFE

I met my son when I was a music teacher in the public schools. He was in second grade and enrolled just before Halloween, that October. He wasn’t my son, then.

November is National Adoption Month and I am getting this in just before the end of the month. But in celebration of the great time we shared this afternoon and the best thing I have ever done, below is uploaded a video and some photos from today. It is not easy to get him to stand for a picture, but we had a ball watching the video that we made together today.

“Did you know it would take less than one percent of the U.S. population to provide a forever family for every child in foster care available for adoption? November is National Adoption Month and we’re part of a coordinated effort between the U.S. Children’s Bureau, Ad Council, and Child Welfare Information Gateway to make the difference of a lifetime for about 130,000 children who deserve a family of their own.” www.adoptuskids.org

I met him when he was eight. Now, he is 22, getting his Bachelors and Masters degrees, simultaneously in engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. A great young man.

No regrets.

The music my son was playing initially, while we were having some fun after sharing our meal together, was David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”.

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Uploaded by cutelisha

However, I was afraid that if I wanted to upload this to Youtube, it would be banned. And I had already tested some songs from Susan Tedeschi’s CD Just Won’t Burn for another Heath Ledger video tribute, so I put the song, It Hurt So Bad on and here is “our fun”.

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Uploaded by ilovemylifesblog

The picture at 2:28 is the day of his legal adoption.
We had just left the court room and were at JW's Seafood Grill
with his dad, and his dad's mom and dad.

His dad and I are no longer together,
but still help each other out,
when one or the other asked.

I sent food for his dad after our "little party".

Before we ate today, I asked Jonathan to say one thing he is grateful about life and one thing he is grateful for - about me... and I did the same for him.

He said:
I am grateful for your love, the way that you love me.... And for the understanding that you have for me not being able to talk to you, as I am studying and tutoring so much...

And I am grateful that I am able to do the work (in his engineering courses) - that I have the ability to do it (and so well, I added).

I said:

I am grateful that I have been with such great spirits lately. And I am grateful that Jonathan came to be with me, today.

It was a lovely idea and I thought he put "it" so nicely.

Jonathan's First Video - May 27, 1996

This is blocked in Germany due to the music we had playing in the background for Jonathan to dance to. This is when Jonathan was my student and visiting my home on Memorial Day. I gave him piano lessons at that time. We had planted a evergreen bush in the front yard and named it Jonathan.

9 Ways To Help Children in Foster Care

Map Quest for my area - Beautiful

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Rafa lost his third round-robin match
to Novak Djokovic 6-7(5), 3-6


Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts during the men's singles round robin match against Novak Djokovic of Serbia during the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena on November 27, 2009 in London, England. November 26, 2009Photo credit: Julian Finney/Getty Images Europe

17 pictures: Rafael+Nadal

Tournaments Website: www.barclaysatpworldtourfinals

Final
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Singles
2.30 pm London Time
9.30 am USA EST
Davydenko vs. del Potro

Online viewing ( for a fee): www.tennistv.com

You might try these links for free viewing:

www.atdhe.net

www.channelsurfing.net

Great Sources of Information

vamosbrigade.com

Sponsored by Babolat

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(I Ain't) Missing You Heath
Uploaded by mimccd
This tribute is about Heath's early films
Two Hands and The Things I Hate About You


A Very Young Heath in Roar
Uploaded by jopicca

I ordered both Two-Hands and Roar this week from Amazon. Roar came today! Two Hands is shipped and on its way.

A LITTLE STEP UP ON MY SOAPBOX

I was motivated to purchase these two dvds because mimccd and jopicca posted these two videos. Just wanted to say that ~ because of the battle over copyright infringement issues on youtube....and the problem of being able to post movies and especially, music on youtube. As I have said before the whole copyright issue and banning use on youtube-type sites is way behind the curve on utilizing the benefits of gaining sales by our use, not losing sales. Get with it, WMG, Sony Music, Warner Brothers, and whoever else is banning music and movie use on youtube type sites. Think outside the box

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GENOCIDE IS NOT OKAY

USE YOUR VOICE
TO CALL UPON OUR LEADERS
TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT
ABOUT SOMETHING THAT IS VERY WRONG

standnow.org
www.savedarfur.org
whilewewaitsudan.blogspot.com

www.henryjacksonsociety.org/stories

Sandra from Rhode Island, but pictured here, many years ago in Paris.

That is the Arc de Triomphe in the background.

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Comments Welcome

Thank you for stopping by.

I BELIEVE IN YOU

I'VE ALWAYS BELIEVED IN YOU

It was a day in late October in the year of 1995. I met Mrs.D's second grade class in the hall as I did every class in order to do the symbolic hand-off of who's in charge for the up-coming music class. Mrs. D said "We have a new boy and he's from Boy's Town and . . ." Jon was born in August in the year of 1987. I became Jon's mentor in school and became friends with his foster family.

While lost on the way home from a church Halloween roller skating party, this song played on the car radio. The line in the song that says "just give me something that I can hold on to..." caught Jonathan's ear.

In the spring, Jon began piano lessons with me and he was allowed to do things outside of school with DCYF (Department of Children, Youth and Families) authorization. The next school year Jon was to get his "forever family" and left our school and community in the fall to live with his new family. I cried in my walk-in closet many times after Jon left.

This song "In This Life" meant a lot to me during this time. The video makes no sense for my purpose here, but the words do.

"Let the world stop turning.
Let the sun stop burning.
Let them tell me love's not worth going through.
If it all falls apart,
I will know deep in my heart
the only dream that mattered had come true:
In this life I was loved by you."

Early next spring, on March 7, 1997, I received a call from Jon's case worker that he was coming back to our school system and would be living with the same foster family that he had left before the adoption placement. On Christmas Day in 1997 at 4:00 p.m., Jon came to live with his new "forever family". On March 8, 1999 Jon was legally adopted. Today, March 8, Jon has been my son for eight years.

Jon is my only. I chose not to have children when I was very young because I didn't want to bring children into this problem-filled world. The journey with Jon has been touching, raw, painful, extremely tough and rewarding. I can with all honesty and sincerity say that he enriches my life. I know his journey will hold many levels of discovery. . . his life has so many layers. I am pleased and proud to be his mother. As a freshman at Northeastern University's Engineering School he received all A's except for one A- first semester. Jon is a hard-working and honest student.

This picture was taken at Spain tonight.

Tonight, I took Jon to my favorite restaurant, Spain, in Narragansett, Rhode Island. The conversation included his courses, his girl friend, a possible trip to Europe with her, his co-op/intern semester next spring, summer job plans, movies, where he stands on his beliefs, politics, homosexuality and what he thinks of my beliefs. In the end, we pretty much stand together on the issues.

Being a kid today is full of pitfalls. And for those kids that have parents who fall completely short of their responsibilities as parents, life is so demanding of resilience. I knew when I met Jon that if any kid could make it against all of the odds that were stacked against him - Jon could.

And he continues to prove that right. I am so grateful to be a part of his life and play my part for his goodness and for my growth.

I love my life. It hasn't been a life at the beach with Jon, but now I can and will say, it has proven that my strong sense of natural connection with Jon in the beginning was right and still holds true. I listened to my heart in 1995 and now in 2007, I am all the more richer in my heart.

Love,
Mom

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Dedicated to my son
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A-ah...let's hear Amanda Marshall in another version of
"I Believe in You"

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More than 100,000 children in the United States are in foster care waiting for permanent families.

Hundreds of thousands of children around the world are living in orphanages

or substitute care and need homes.

Are you ready to parent?

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