RoddaPalooza

2008-07-23 

We're on day 3 with no water.  The poor guy spent all day yesterday jack-hammering through concrete and still didn't reach the busted pipe, so he's going to (hopefully) finish that job today.  Then maybe they can fix the pipe this afternoon, and then maybe we can get our water turned back on.  Thank god they have showers at the gym.

Yesterday my friend Angie (who I grew up with in Athens) came over to take some pictures of us with Lidya.  Angie is an amazing photographer who specializes in children and families, if you want to see more of her work you can check out her website at:  http://www.angiebuckley.com.  She already emailed me a few of the shots and I am really excited about it, I can't wait to see the rest.  Here's a little preview.

Shawn and I want to know how you can get flooding in your basement when you live in the desert!  Actually, we already know how.  We had a water main break that was leaking into our neighbors sub-basement causing their basement sump pump to run continuously.  The continuously running sump pump was dumping water into their front yard which super saturated their front yard causing seepage into our basement.  It's funny how that works.  Anyway, we had our carpet torn out today and they are hopefully comming tomorrow to do the work on the water line.  What a pain in the arse.  Oh well!

And for you Lidya fans out there we don't have any new pictures of her but I thought I would post an oldie but cutie!

I know, I know.  You all come to this site to see cute pictures of Lidya, not to hear my rantings and ravings about global social justice and other such issues.  Nonetheless, its my blog, and I'll post as I want.  And I do hope you read on (if you really don't want to...just scroll down to see the cute pics).

Anyway, a few weeks ago I had dinner with some moms who have adopted HIV+ children from Ethiopia.  I found out that in Ethiopia, HIV+ children do not receive any medication until they have full blown AIDS.  This obivously greatly reduces their chance of survival over a long period of time. 

In addition, I had no idea that there is currently a ban on people with HIV receiving visas to enter the United States.  This means that the adoptive parents must apply for and recieve a waiver in order to get visas for their children.  This waiver costs $545 per child, and requires extra time spent by the family in country, greatly increasing the overall cost of adoption. This waiver is not required for adoptive families adopting children with other special needs, many of which post a much higher public health risk to the US than HIV.

As we all now know and accept, children who are HIV+ do not pose a health risk to their communities.  HIV is not transmitted through physical contact or saliva, it is only transmitted through blood exchange or sexual intercourse.  Therefore, the chance that these children would transmit HIV to anyone in this country is extremely low.  (One of the moms told me that they even have drugs now that HIV+ women can take which allows them to give birth with an extremely low chance of transmitting the disease.).  On the flip side, during the adoption process families who are adopting HIV+ children go through an extensive screening process, and must prove that their insurance companies will cover the cost of HIV treatment.  This means that not only are you giving a child a family, but you're giving a child a chance to live.  HIV+ people in the US now have a full life expectancy, whereas in Ethiopia HIV is still a virtual death sentence.

The U.S. Senate is currently debating and voting on the PEPFAR bill, which includes a provision to strike the legislative ban on people with HIV receiving a US visa.  Senator Sessions (AL) has introduced an amendment to strike this provision, which would leave in place the discriminatory provision excluding people with HIV from
receiving a visa.  So, to boil it down, if the bill passes in its current form, there will no longer be a requirement for adoptive parents to get the visa waiver.  If the Sessions Amendment passes, the requirement will stay in place.  It is my firm belief that we should do everything in our power to make it easier, not more difficult, for families to adopt children who are HIV+.  If you agree, I strongly urge you to contact your Senator to ask him or her to vote against the Sessions amendment.  You can find a link to your senator's email address and phone number here http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

Thanks for listening (reading).  Now...back to cute pictures... 

 Well, it's been a while since we've posted so I though we should show off our cuttie pie daughter a little more.  Here are some shots we took of her after a bath.  Her Uncle Kirk sent us a really cute bib and some bottoms, both with her name embroidered on them.  Thanks Uncle Kirk!!

Both Shawn and Lidya have been nursing a cold this past week but Lid seems to be getting better, Shawns still fighting it.  Somehow I've managed to avoid it.  Lidya has actually been getting bigger these past two months and has out grown many of the cloths we had for her.  She's still behind in size but she's catching up and she's certainly not behind in mental development.  She's been very responsive and is starting to grab at everything in her reach.  She still laughs a lot and talks our ears off at times.  We are happy that she is doing so well.

Yesterday we received a package in the mail with a cool jazz CD for
kids and a book.  Unfortunately, there was no note and no return
address.  If you were the person who sent this, could you please
identify yourself so that we can properly thank you???