Charter for Compassion

This is the charter for compassion. It is something that I deeply believe in.

A call to bring the world together…

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.


You can read more about the charter on:
http://charterforcompassion.org/

What to do when you are down?

Go to U2!!!
It was amazing

Crossing the 18 month mark...

Well, we have crossed the 18 month mark. Officially heading into crazy ridiculous wait times territory..

First of all, HUGE congratulations to everyone who received referral and court news. Amazing! I am so happy for you and your families. CAFAC has said they expect more referrals before christmas, but they were quick to point out the the sibling referrals were older then our requested age range. I think they did this to ensure we wouldn't get our hopes up. Our request is 2 under 36 months (including twins).
......5 million children needing families in Ethiopia, and no 2 under 36 months available. Somehow, that statistically doesn't seem very probable.....
I don't want to keep emailing our agency, asking questions. I know they are busy, processing referrals and court dates, and uniting families. So emailing or calling to ask if they have heard anything seems a little pointless. The answer I always get is that our age ranges is quite difficult (because it is tight) and expect at least another 6 month wait.

At this point, I am not sure what to think. There are good days, and there are bad days. Overall, I feel like I am hanging in pretty well, but it is hard to know that the projected timeline is ALWAYS 6 months away. 6, 12, 18 and now 24 months is what we have been told to expect. So, I think I am trying not to think about it, but crossing the 24 month mark is going to be terrible.
Honestly, I think at that point we will really have to consider what our plans our. We cannot sit in perpetual waiting, with the finish line always outside of our reach.
It is terrible, always afraid to plan to far ahead because you expect that you will have children home (like, by this time next year???), but when the date comes, and passes, and you are told that there is still a LONG wait ahead, you feel really deflated.
At what point do you consider or accept that really, it isn't meant to be? It's a tough question that I think a lot of people who are waiting to adopt start asking themselves. Is there a point when you just have to accept that maybe it's just meant to be the two of you. That used to be a really hard thing to believe, but now I think that I am more willing to accept the idea. This process has really brought me to terms with the fact that it might not happen for us, and I am sad to admit that I guess that would be ok.
I have decided I need to pick a date, and make that D-day. If we haven't heard anything by that date then I think we need to make the decision to move on.
I don't think it is healthy to sit and wait forever. It is certainly difficult to know that no matter how long you wait you never hear anything. It makes creating life plans difficult.
Although I don't want to give up on this dream, there may come a time when it is the right thing to do for us.

For now, we will continue to wait.

Thanks for checking in, and listening to my little pity party.
L

The danger of a single story

If you have 18 minutes, I would recommend you watch this. Beautiful video about the dangers of a "single story".
A very important perspective and something we should all reflect on.

CAFAC Referrals expected in 5-6 weeks (probably not us)

Well, I am sort of afraid to post this...perhaps it will jinx us!
A person I know, who has been waiting 18 months, was speaking with CAFAC last week who told them them following:
That in the next 6 weeks they are going to receive a number of referrals, hopefully this will clear up the long time waiters.
They weren't sure if this family would be in this batch, or the next batch.

But, it did make me hopeful that we will receive a referral. Maybe actually by April!
I almost made a backwards ticker, but then I thought I would really jinx ourselves!

Nearly 18 months now.....

Marathon weekend in Victoria

This weekend I ran my first marathon in Victoria.

Although I wasn't very fast (to put it in perspective I would have to take off 1.5 hours to qualify for Boston), I really enjoyed it.

I ended up raising over $2000.00 for teen adoption. The money will go towards finding forever families for teenagers in the foster care system.

Thank you everyone for your support.

Shawn ended up running the 1/2 marathon. He was too late to register, and they didn't have a cancellation list. Fortunately he met someone at the registration desk who was canceling, so he borrowed the race bib and ran it. He didn't get an official time, but he did participate as "Brett".

Here are some photos of me looking fresh (at the 6:30am start time) and not so fresh (at the end of the marathon).

I hope everyone had a great Canadian Thanksgiving.

Here is me at the beginning (taken with a cell phone, so I look a little jaundice)

And me at the end of the race with Shawn, exhausted but happy.

Congratulations to our good friends!

I just heard amazing news that a wonderful family we are friends with just received a referral for an amazingly beautiful little boy from Thailand. Thailand is a fairly new program for Canadians to adopt from, they are working with Hope Adoption Services in BC. Their son is so so so cute, he looks so happy and healthy.

This is such wonderful news I am so happy for them.

It does make it feel a little bit more real to hear news from people that we know.

So HUGE congratulations. I am just so excited for them, it makes my entire weekend.

I hope in the next few months I can post lots of good news from people we have met and their referrals.

Keep these referrals coming!

For now, I am basking in the post-referral glow of our friends, and hoping that in the next 6 months we will be posting our own news.