Happy New Year

Hello faithful readers,

Happy New Year to you all. I wish you blessings, peace and love for 2005. I had a wonderful holiday in Orlando with Mom, Jenny and Kevin. I got to scratch the kitties with the pink back-scratcher from South of the Border. Since I can't pet the kitties and still be able to breathe, I use the back scratcher. The kitties don't mind. They think it is my paw.

Yesterday, Karen and I went to NYC. I bought a cheap handbag on Canal Street, then we visited my friend Lisa at her office for the New York Daily News in City Hall. Next we took the subway to Radio City Music Hall, where another friend - Jill - is a producer of the Christmas Show. We got to see the camels that perform in the Christmas show! They live in the Radio City basement for the run of the show and every day, their person walks them on 53rd Street. Apparently, camels like to dance and stretch their necks to the tall trees.

My goals for this year are to lose some weight and to really work towards my goal of adopting a child. I want to be a mom more than anything. I wish I were married and pregnant with my own biological baby. But that hasn't happened. This is not to say it won't, but I do feel strongly about being a mom and about the need to give homes to orphaned children. It costs about $25,000 to adopt a child from abroad, such as China or Romania. I do not have that money, but maybe it will come to me in some way. Who knows. If I am meant to adopt, it will happen.

It has been hard for me to watch the coverage of the tsunami. The whole thing is so big, devastating and awful. On one blog, a man in Southeast Asia wrote that it is a good thing he is an atheist, because he can't imagine how a God or god could allow the tsunamis to happen. Perhaps because I am writing this in the comfort of my New Jersey apartment, but I don't belive God caused the tsunami. I believe that these are things that happen on the earth and now, we are just in the way since there are so many of us humans. I believe this after living through the Florida wildfires of 1998 and Hurricane Charley in 2004.

But it is still awful and my thoughts are no comfort to those who are suffering. My sister, Jenny, has been thinking about the tsunami, too and this is what she wrote to me in an e-mail today:

" Hi Kathy,

I wish you a very happy New year, and I hope it is a
more peaceful and hopeful year for us all.

All is finehere.  Quiet.  I am working on revisions,
Mom had breakfast with Judith and Kevin
is getting ready for work.  The kitties are fine.

Kev and I will go out to dinner, then come home and
just hang.  Maybe light a candle in honor of the
people in Asia.  What happened there, it just makes me
heartsick.  All those people...

Jeez, there's your place to look to adopt.  Talk about
immediate need and kids being orphaned!  I'd say
Indonesia/Sri Lanka/India, etc are the places to focus
on!  I just can't imagine having all one's friends and
family just washed away....it's a devastating thought.

So, I think it is right to have sort of a quiet New
Year's, being glad for what we have, and just paying
honor to all those who lost everything.

Seriously, I SO plan to watch any whining in the new
year.  If a tsunami is not whacking into my home and
carrying away all those I love, then I really ain't
got any problems, and I've nothing to complain about!

Thus, on that quiet and sad, but-also-glad-to be-alive
note, I wish you the healthiest and most hopeful of
new years, and hopes for us all for peace and safety.

Love, Jenny"

(KQ again: I did some research and the U.S. government says it will NOT allow Americans to adopt tsunami orphans for the near future. Things are just too chaotic and it would be best for many of the kids to just stay with extended families instead of being completely uprooted. Makes sense.

http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/notices/notices_2017.html)