Dear Friends,  

At least two families have court dates before the end of 2013. It's been a long, hard wait for the families, not to mention the children. The good news is that both of these families should be united with their new children in time to celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday together! Several families are awaiting their I-800A and their I-800 approvals, so there should be another group of court dates before very long.

Sometimes, people ask about buying "neat stuff" in Burkina for future use and keepsakes. Of course the most important things you can do for your child as well as you entire family is to take lots of photo and then - this is the tricky part when balancing all of your personal responsibilities - turning these photos into a "memory book" in one form or the other. Some people have used online or big-box-store offers to create "real," hardbound keepsake books. Others make beautiful scrapbooks/life books with handwritten texts. Some create computerized still and moving picture "shows" complete with soundtracks (be sure to make some back ups!). If possible, find out what you are able about your child's biological family and personal history. The trail grows cold quickly and it is hard to recover information not gathered early. The images and stories you preserve will be with you for a lifetime, as well as the for lifetime of your child. One cannot overestimate the psychological importance of these gifts for your new child. If your child has no known history, do your best to document the sights, sounds, and "feelings" of the land of his or her birth. Adoption is a concept born of loss, and the best any of us can do is to mitigate those losses the best we can.

For your child, you can purchase some local music CDs to help keep the sounds and rhythms of his or her language fresh. There are a number of mellow sounding West African instruments that make mesmerizing music.

Ok, so what else might be fun, instructive, and meaningful? For the moms and grandmas and doting aunts, there is beautiful jewelry for you to purchase and then wear proudly once you're back home. Brass, beads, and bone are some of the options. A bit pricier, there are some local stones that are handset by local craftsmen. Street jewelry, which has a classy chunkiness to it, can be purchased cheaply, very cheaply by U.S. standards. Even the more upscale pieces start at around $20. There are also beautiful brass and wooden sculptures, musical instruments, and, of course, baskets.

For the dads and grandpas, how about a custom made shirt? You'll need to decide this near the beginning of your trip but you can choose the fabric, get measured, and have a lovely "Hilo Hattie Burkina Style" shirt in a few days. Cost, about $25-$30.

For friends and future use, there are lovely batik greeting cards, textiles, and soaps. There are also carved masks and other types of beautiful artwork.

An old friend and surrogate brother, Goodtime Bobby Fulghum, wrote a book years ago which noted that all the social graces we really need are ones we learned in kindergarten. He was a kid in Waco, TX in the 40's and I grew up on Capitol Hill in Seattle in the 50's. We've often had divergent ways of seeing things but I did agree with his premise regarding preschool etiquette. Playing fair and being nice are important.

I'm coming at this the long way around because money is a very tough thing for most of us to tackle head on. Here's the thing: Ruth told me that some of the traveling families have not "made good" on their commitment to pay Ruth for the food, accommodations, and gas expended while on their journey to meet their new children. Ruth and I both recognize that this is a very, very powerful time for families and that mundane things like money can be easily forgotten. I also know that Ruth is not the kind of person to hold a family hostage at the Sacred Crocodile Pool until they pay up. So what I'm trying to say is that if you stayed in either of Ruth's houses and/or ate food you didn't purchase or made expensive (gas is through the roof), then please take a look at the Travel Packet you received and figure out what you owe her. That would be the right thing to do. Thank you.

Checks should be made out to Ruth Cox and can be sent to the following address:

Amy Shaw

176 Heatherland Dr.

Bethalto, IL 62010