In reading my list mail this evening I came across an interesting site at https://familyhistory.hhs.gov/. The site is titled My Family Health Portrait and it is a tool provided by the US Surgeon General.

My Family Health Portrait allows you to create a personalized family health history report from any computer with an Internet connection and an up-to-date web browser.

The Information you provide creates a drawing of your family tree and a chart of your family health history. Both the chart and... more

A while back I wrote about Canadians adopting waiting children from the USA. I'm not sure why - but apparently they find it easier to come to the USA than adopting out of Cananda.

With an estimated 2 million American families looking to adopt, it may surprise you where these babies are ending up. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports.

British Columbia, in Northwest Canada, is best known for its vast wilderness, where blacks are point .65 percent... more

Oh this is the most delightful time of year for me. My memory always goes back to the first Christmas our children spent with us in our home.

My husband and I have always been one for big Christmas surprises and we have a cherished family heirloom that sparks the spirit of Christmas every year in our home.

It is a cherished velvet and mink Santa Suit. With all the beautiful trimmings right down to a jolly pair of eye glasses for checking Santa's List.

Needless to say my husband and I had one of our other distant family members... more

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Link: Sky Forever

Okay, I know this is an extreme dramatization and I wasn’t fond of the graphics at the beginning, but this one really got to me. It is not for children. I think it’s because there isn’t any sound. It makes it that much more dramatic and memorable. In a rather macabre kind of way – I enjoyed it.

One of the things that it does remind me of is the fact that I could pass my birth family on the street (parents, siblings, cousins…) and I would never know. I can search faces for features that are like mine, but there are thousands of people who might have my same eyes, nose or facial structure.... more

I swear if I hear my husband mutter those words once more I may go crazy. I interrupted his very important computer video game of saving the world or some other equally important game to ask for help with our daughter. As usual on a sunday morning I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off doing morning chores so that I could enjoy the rest of my day and be involved with my daughter & husband. I try to do chores when my daughter is napping or when my husband is home so that he can be with our girl. She stands at the gate crying “Up” while I’m doing... more

This is the time of year for giving, right? My husband and I have a policy about giving: we only give local. That way we know who we're giving to and exactly where the money goes. My small business, however, gives anywhere BUT local. I give 5% of my profits to charities connected to the kids in the Russian orphanages.

Since my business is small, I also have small profits (hint, hint: buy... more

When Mark and I met in 1993, we started a conversation that continues with barely a lag to this day. We talk about everything and nothing, and would rather blather together than solve the problems of the world with anyone else. On working days, we phone each other many times with tidbits of news or thoughts or reminders, and when we're both in the same place we tend to communicate almost constantly through words or touch, eye contact and laughs.

Although there are times when our wires get crossed, we're most often on the same... more

Excuse me for asking, but what year is it over in the USA right now?

From this report from Colorado, it appears that some sort of time warp thing has sucked at least that part of the country back a few decades.

A homeowners' association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of... more

[Continued from HERE.]

There are a few more ideas that I believe could go a long way to addressing some of the issues raised by the M Fray. The concern that children lose their heritage by being taken to other countries because of adoption can be true. I have seen children still living in their original country with their adoptive American parents have no connection to their culture,... more