We're not suggesting that Disney/Pixar is trying to capitalize on our success here at the Stinky Mouse Blog, but don't they have enough rodents under contract over there already? Do they really need to move in on the turf of us pink nosed, pink eared, gray heart-throbs?

Actually we are all looking forward to this coming out on DVD. My guess is that this movie will find its way under our Christmas tree if it's on disk by then. Here's a 9 minute Trailer...

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE NEW PICTURES WE GOT!

We expect to be hearing this from Kai for the next couple weeks. Though he should know, as he was with us to see Ben off. Ben is on his way to Alaska! He's going up on the Alaska Ferry which departs from right here in our little town (Bellingham, WA). He's going up with his life long best friend Traesti - the 16 year old son of our next door neighbors, who fish commercially on a little gill-netter out of Petersburg.
He'll be working for them as a deck-hand and gopher. They've wanted to take him for a couple years but this is the first time we've let him go. HERE'S A LINK to the photo album page on the family's wesite for their fishing company: Desire Fish. Be sure to check out the link to their photos because there are some really great pictures.
Ben and Traesti will be camping out on the ferry for 3 nights on the trip up, and get off right in Petersburg. He'll be staying with them for two weeks then comes back on the ferry by himself. Quite an adventure for a 16 year old, don't ya think? I think he's going to have a great time, I just hope his mother survives!

Hey! That's a Really Good Idea! CLICK HERE To Visit Shen's blog NOW!!

Tina is now working part time at Children's House International. This is the adoption agency we have used for both Kai and Shen's adoptions. She works about 4 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, and on Thursdays she works from about 1PM to 8PM. Tina takes Kai over to his friend Mimi's house when she goes to work and picks him up on her way home, except on Thursdays. On Thursdays I get off work early and pick up Kai. For the last two weeks we've gone to the park near our home to play. I snapped these pictures with my cell phone. As you can see, Kai is becoming quite the climber. Less than a year ago he couldn't get up either of these ladders, now he flies up both of them!

Our mailbox is down the street a little ways from our house. It sits in a little frame that holds a dozen or so mailboxes for the homes on our cul de sac. This evening when we opened the box we found a phone bill, a credit card offer, a couple grocery store flyer ads, and a small white envelope with Shen's name written on it in large block letters. There was no postage or address written on it. No indication of who had placed it there. It was mixed in with the other mail, not on top, and not on the bottom. The envelope was thin white paper, and you could easily tell it contained a small stack of cash. Tina and I looked at the little envelope for a minute; hesitating to open a letter not directly addressed to either of us, then tore it open. Inside was a one hundred dollar bill, six twenty dollar bills, two five dollar bills, and four one dollar bills.

Two hundred and thirty four dollars.

At first count it almost seems like a random amount of money for someone to give us. But it isn't. Whoever put the money in our mailbox has been watching our fundraiser progress. Closely. This was the exact amount needed to meet our goal of $3000.

We don't know who put this money there. But whoever it is, we assume they look at this web page. So we want to say to this Mystery Mailbox Angel, "Thank You Very Much."

Scott Adams said "Remember, there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end." We are deeply humbled to be the recipients of so many kindnesses. Thank you to everyone who has donated to this fund, each gift has made a huge impact on our lives, in ways that go beyond the simple mechanics of the money. We are keeping the Chipin Widget on the blog until it's original set end date. If you would still like to make a donation to our fund we would greatly appreciate it. All money we receive beyond our goal of $3000 will be donated to Love Without Boundaries Tuan Yuan Grant Fund.

We want to thank everyone who has contributed so far to our fundraiser! As of this morning (Saturday, June 9) the count on the Chipin widget is at $1181. While that is truly an amazing amount to be at already, it's actually not the whole amount. A number of very generous friends have given us checks directly which total $1250. This puts our grand total to date at $2431; that's 81% of our goal!

When we first started this fundraiser we weren't sure how people would respond to it. We've never asked for help from others like this before, and I have to admit it felt a bit weird, but the response has truly been amazing. And even more surprising to me, it has been an experience of affirmation. The gifts people have made to us are like statements of belief in what we are doing. I think that has truly been the best part of this exercise. Because I have to admit, that at times I've questioned what we're doing myself. But then somebody makes another donation and it's like they're saying, "Yes, you are doing the right thing!"

When I started the fundraiser I put August 15th as the cutoff goal for the event. I had hoped that we would travel well before then, but now it looks like maybe I was being a bit too prophetic. We now suspect that this will actually be quite close to the day we receive Shen. In two and half weeks we have already raised over three fourths of our goal. I believe we will easily exceed our target amount, so that raises the question of what we will do with the money we raise beyond that amount?

Since our goal is to raise the orphanage fee for Shen's adoption we have decided to donate all funds we raise in excess of that amount to Love Without Boundaries' Tuan Yuan Fund. “Tuan Yuan” means “bringing families together.” Every time this fund reaches $3000, Love Without Boundaries offers a grant to pay the orphanage donation for a special needs child. We hope to be able to pay this gift forward many times!

Another little funny note: I want to give a special little thanks to a particular friend from work who donated an unusual dollar amount (not divisible by 10 or 5) which has created an odd rolling total. I really like the way this makes the number look on the widget counter!

The software we use for making the Stinky Mouse blog released an update with some interesting new features. In order to take advantage of some of them I had to switch to a new template for the page designs. To make everything fit I've changed the layout and tidied things up a bit. Probably not too noticeable to the casual viewer, but it was quite a bit of tweaking to make it go!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NEW PICTURES WE GOT!

On Saturday mornings Tina and I try to sleep in and listen to NPR Weekend Edition on the radio. Kai believes it his job to do everything in his power to prevent this from happening. This weekend I did manage doze there in bed for a bit, and heard part of a piece regarding an interesting new book that sounded like a must read for this house. HERE'S A LINK to the NPR article, and here's a cool video advertisement for the book. I highly recommend watching the video it is way too clever!



This blog entry is such a commercial for the book already I thought I might as well give you a link to where you can buy it right now...

*There's been some interest in our little meditation path on a certain online discussion forum, so I thought I should blog about this again. Coincidentally, for my birthday this year Tina gave me some decorative little molded "stones" for putting in a garden.

As you can see, they are very pretty and have Chinese characters molded into them with English translations. But Tina didn't intend for me to put these in a garden. They were obviously for our labyrinth. The "stones" were the perfect shape and size to fit with the real ones we used for making the path. The gift of these decorative stones was also meant as a hint, or a nudge, to get out there and clean up the labyrinth. It falls into disarray over the winter, and I had been neglecting it this spring. But Tina's plan worked and I got out there and cleaned it up, and added the new "stones" to the path.

Kai was very pleased to have the path cleaned up. The ground where the labyrinth lies is pretty uneven, so when it's cluttered with sticks and leaves, and the grass has grown to hide the potholes, walking it can be a bit treacherous. last year he walked it a few times with me, but he required a fair bit of direction to get all the way in and back out.
It's not that walking a labyrinth is difficult, it's not a maze or a puzzle. The path simply wanders back and forth in a unique pattern to the center. Once you get there you turn around and walk the same path back out. But for little ones it's difficult not to step over the stone border and onto another circuit. And since it's not a simple spiral, if you step over the stones you are probably headed the wrong way. Also there are times when you find yourself almost to the center (the goal) and suddenly the path seems to twist in the wrong direction leading you away from where you want to go. This is confusing the first few times you walk a labyrinth, you have to learn to trust the path and to keep going forward, even if that doesn't look right. (funny, kind of sounds like life!)
This weekend however, Kai figured it out, and he walked to the center and back out, over and over again! Each time he got to the smooth round stepping stone at the heart of the labyrinth he would proudly step onto it, put his fists in the air and shout, "I did it!" then he turned and followed the path back out.


I love our little labyrinth. It grew out of one of the many flights of fancy I am prone to. I get these wild ideas and dream up elaborate plans; which usually lapse into disregard and are left unfinished. Fortunately the labyrinth was simple enough and we were blessed with the exactly perfect spot for it. It's been there for quite a while now, 5 years or more. The space has formed around it and seems to just belong there now. We used to spend more time out there, but not as much lately, which in a way makes it more special.

NOTE: Ours is classical seven circuit Cretan labyrinth. It is about 22 feet in diameter, which is pretty much the minimum size required to lay one out for walking.

In the fall of 2004 we embarked on a journey we had dreamed of for many years: to grow our family through international adoption. At the time we made this decision, I can honestly say, we didn’t have any idea what the experience would come to mean for us, and how profoundly it would change our lives. When we began, we thought we would adopt a healthy infant girl, but somehow as we made the first few steps down this path, we felt called to go a different way and bring home a “waiting child”. We adopted a little boy almost 3 years old with a limb difference; that little boy is our son Kai, who many of you have had the opportunity to meet, either in person, or through our blog. And now, just as for the speaker in Robert Frost’s poem “A Path Diverged Into a Wood”, for us, this has made all the difference. 

We quickly became very involved with the world of international adoption, and advocating for waiting and special needs children. We also knew we wanted to open our home to another child. We are currently in the process of adopting another little boy from China with a limb difference. His name is YuHeng (the meaning of his name in English is Eternal Rain), he’s three years old and is living in the Child Welfare Institute in the city of Xi’an. 

Adopting from China has many associated expenses including agency fees, home study costs, local, state and federal background checks, document acquisition, notary fees, translation fees, immigration fees, as well as travel and airfare costs.
 
One of the expenses in adopting from China is a required $3000 donation to the social welfare institute that has provided care to the child being adopted. This money helps the institute to provide care for the children who continue to live there. Because of this money, we have witnessed great improvements in the lives of children in these orphanages. And this is where we would like to ask for your help.
 
I know that all of us are frequently called on to contribute to many worthy causes, so I don't assume for a minute that you are short on opportunities to give financial help to others. Still, I am hoping that you might consider assisting us. Rather than asking you to buy overpriced magazine subscriptions, extra-thin wrapping paper, or chocolate of questionable quality, I am asking you to consider making a financial gift of any amount you like by clicking on the Chipin Button at the top of this page. Chipin provides a safe secure way for you to donate money via a credit card or through PayPal. Your gift will go towards helping us in the process of bringing home our son Shen.

Thank you very much for taking the time to consider our request. If you are interested in other ways of providing financial assistance to children living in orphanages in China please visit the websites of these excellent charitable organizations:

Love Without Boundaries

Half The Sky

Starfish Foster Home