Born Twice: My Adoption Story | Mike Morrell

October 30th ? it?s my birthday today. I turn 33. So it?s only appropriate that I delve into something that I?ve never said here before: I?m adopted. I was adopted from birth. And nearly two years ago, I connected with my biological parents for the first time.

I recently sat down with my friend (and parenting blogger) Jeremy Uriz to discuss what it was like to grow up as an adopted kid, and what impact this has on me now. Jeremy has a vested interest in knowing: as of earlier this year, Jeremy and his wife Jennifer became the proud adoptive parents of a toddler from China, Penelope. Let me tell you, she is a cutie, and ridiculously smart, to boot. Jeremy has been chronicling her life, and their life as parents, at Belonging Together. It?s a treasure trove of information and wisdom on parenting, adoption, cross-cultural parenting/adoption, et al.

In our two-part interview ? which you can read as a transcript or listen to as a podcast ? we discuss adoption and parenting from all sides. If you want, you can jump right now to part one and part two ? otherwise, here are some?excerpts?

Jeremy: Recently?you had a unique experience among some adoptive people. We?ll discuss that in a little bit. Let me?just?start out and ask you how sensitive a topic is adoption now?versus?10 or 20 years ago?

Mike: Do you mean how sensitive do I think it is in the culture at large?

J: Yes.

M: I?would say in most corners it?s way more open now than it used to be. My impression is, and what I?ve gathered, is there used to be a culture of almost shame and secrecy around adoption and now people are far more commonly talking about adoption, either if it?s their children that they have adopted or if they are kids or adult children who were adopted it seems more common now. It?s more out in the open.

J: When did you find out you were adopted?

M: I found out I was adopted when I was, I want to say, 4 or 5 years old. I kept pestering my mom about ?birds and the bees? type questions and think I point blank asked her at one point if I grew in her belly. My mom is of the ?I will not tell a direct lie? school of ethics, and though it was an?uncomfortable?topic for her, she decided to give it to me straight. She told me then that I was adopted and that they chose me, my mom and dad chose me, and that they loved me very much because they especially chose me.

J: What were your feelings at the time?

M: ?to hear my feelings, go here for the continuation of Part One.

Jeremy: That brings me to another question. Did you feel there was a piece of you that was in a sense ?filled in? by this connection or did you know it was there, did you not know it was there and you only discovered it when you began speaking to [your birth mother]?

Mike: That?s such?interesting?question. Connecting with both her, and shortly thereafter my?birth father, I did see some aspects in common in terms of they?were?both very opinionated people, they are both?entrepreneurial, and creative. And so?there?were some cool resonances there but it actually wasn?t as?intensely??Oh I found this missing piece of myself? as I think I may have built it up in my mind. I think?there?s?a bit of?allure?that?develops?around adoption that makes you feel like there?s this sort of ache or primal wound or something that once you find?these?people you?re going to have a missing piece of yourself.

I was very fortunate to have a wonderful reunion?experience?with both of my?birth?parents. I know in some cases?the?birth parents?don?t want to be in touch, or they?turn?out to be co-dependent, or?addicts, or there?s all kind of horror stories out there. I?m really?grateful?that none of that was the case with me.

At?the?same time I think that?what it?confirmed that there are some ways in which I am simply unique. So in the ways in which I felt like maybe I didn?t fit in when I was growing up among my parents, my adoptive parents, that maybe if I ever imagined ?well I don?t fit in with them but it?s because?I?m?more like my?birth parents? in some ways I?ve discovered that?I?m?just a unique person on my own two feet. It?s great as an adult to be in a relationship with the parents I?ve always had as well as my birth parents.But I?m relating to all of them really as an adult.

Yeah, its an?interesting?process. It?s not over yet by any means so I?m still along for the journey in this regard.

J: So in some respects it offers you a larger?palate?to work from than other people.

M: Sure.

J: Not necessarily the way people would choose but it?s the hand you were dealt.

M: Yeah, it is the hand I was dealt. [I would add that this is not as grim as it sounds! By and large, I like the upbringing I had, though it's not without its challenges. I am grateful for how things unfolded, and continue to be grateful for how they unfold today with my big, diverse, interesting family...] And I think increasingly in this day and age there are a lot of adopted children, and lots of blended families,?people?who have step parents of one sort?or another, ?I think a lot of us are getting to play with larger palates these days as?we?re?discovering why we?ve?developed?in the way we have and what?s formed our?identity.

J: Now this particular question is going to be important for me and anyone reading, or for a lot of people reading this. What do you feel adoptive parents should know about their adopted children? Is there something about the experience? For Jennifer and I we can?t relate in some respects to?the?experience Penelope has. What is it that parents should know in this circumstance?

M: ?to hear my life-changing advice for adoptive parents, continue on over to Part Two.

?

?How about you? Have you adopted children? ARE you adopted? What?s your story? I?d like to hear, here

Source: http://www.mikemorrell.org/2012/10/born-twice-my-adoption-story/

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US could soon overtake Saudi Arabia as world's biggest oil producer; output is booming

NEW YORK, N.Y. - U.S. oil output is surging so fast that the United States could soon overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest producer.

Driven by high prices and new drilling methods, U.S. production of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons is on track to rise 7 per cent this year to an average of 10.9 million barrels per day. This will be the fourth straight year of crude increases and the biggest single-year gain since 1951.

The boom has surprised even the experts.

"Five years ago, if I or anyone had predicted today's production growth, people would have thought we were crazy," says Jim Burkhard, head of oil markets research at IHS CERA, an energy consulting firm.

The Energy Department forecasts that U.S. production of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons, which includes biofuels, will average 11.4 million barrels per day next year. That would be a record for the U.S. and just below Saudi Arabia's output of 11.6 million barrels. Citibank forecasts U.S. production could reach 13 million to 15 million barrels per day by 2020, helping to make North America "the new Middle East."

The last year the U.S. was the world's largest producer was 2002, after the Saudis drastically cut production because of low oil prices in the aftermath of 9-11. Since then, the Saudis and the Russians have been the world leaders.

The United States will still need to import lots of oil in the years ahead. Americans use 18.7 million barrels per day. But thanks to the growth in domestic production and the improving fuel efficiency of the nation's cars and trucks, imports could fall by half by the end of the decade.

The increase in production hasn't translated to cheaper gasoline at the pump, and prices are expected to stay relatively high for the next few years because of growing demand for oil in developing nations and political instability in the Middle East and North Africa.

Still, producing more oil domestically, and importing less, gives the economy a significant boost.

The companies profiting range from independent drillers to large international oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, which increasingly see the U.S. as one of the most promising places to drill. ExxonMobil agreed last month to spend $1.6 billion to increase its U.S. oil holdings.

Increased drilling is driving economic growth in states such as North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Montana and Texas, all of which have unemployment rates far below the national average of 7.8 per cent. North Dakota is at 3 per cent; Oklahoma, 5.2.

Businesses that serve the oil industry, such as steel companies that supply drilling pipe and railroads that transport oil, aren't the only ones benefiting. Homebuilders, auto dealers and retailers in energy-producing states are also getting a lift.

IHS says the oil and gas drilling boom, which already supports 1.7 million jobs, will lead to the creation of 1.3 million jobs across the U.S. economy by the end of the decade.

"It's the most important change to the economy since the advent of personal computers pushed up productivity in the 1990s," says economist Philip Verleger, a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics.

The major factor driving domestic production higher is a newfound ability to squeeze oil out of rock once thought too difficult and expensive to tap. Drillers have learned to drill horizontally into long, thin seams of shale and other rock that holds oil, instead of searching for rare underground pools of hydrocarbons that have accumulated over millions of years.

To free the oil and gas from the rock, drillers crack it open by pumping water, sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure, a process is known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."

While expanded use of the method has unlocked enormous reserves of oil and gas, it has also raised concerns that contaminated water produced in the process could leak into drinking water.

The surge in oil production has other roots, as well:

? A long period of high oil prices has given drillers the cash and the motivation to spend the large sums required to develop new techniques and search new places for oil. Over the past decade, oil has averaged $69 a barrel. During the previous decade, it averaged $21.

? Production in the Gulf of Mexico, which slowed after BP's 2010 well disaster and oil spill, has begun to climb again. Huge recent finds there are expected to help growth continue.

? A natural gas glut forced drillers to dramatically slow natural gas exploration beginning about a year ago. Drillers suddenly had plenty of equipment and workers to shift to oil.

The most prolific of the new shale formations are in North Dakota and Texas. Activity is also rising in Oklahoma, Colorado, Ohio and other states.

Production from shale formations is expected to grow from 1.6 million barrels per day this year to 4.2 million barrels per day by 2020, according to Wood Mackenzie, an energy consulting firm. That means these new formations will yield more oil by 2020 than major oil suppliers such as Iran and Canada produce today.

U.S. oil and liquids production reached a peak of 11.2 million barrels per day in 1985, when Alaskan fields were producing enormous amounts of crude, then began a long decline. From 1986 through 2008, crude production fell every year but one, dropping by 44 per cent over that period. The United States imported nearly 60 per cent of the oil it burned in 2006.

By the end of this year, U.S. crude output will be at its highest level since 1998 and oil imports will be lower than at any time since 1992, at 41 per cent of consumption.

"It's a stunning turnaround," Burkhard says.

Whether the U.S. supplants Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest producer will depend on the price of oil and Saudi production in the years ahead. Saudi Arabia sits on the world's largest reserves of oil, and it raises and lowers production to try to keep oil prices steady. Saudi output is expected to remain about flat between now and 2017, according to the International Energy Agency.

But Saudi oil is cheap to tap, while the methods needed to tap U.S. oil are very expensive. If the price of oil falls below $75 per barrel, drillers in the U.S. will almost certainly begin to cut back.

The International Energy Agency forecasts that global oil prices, which have averaged $107 per barrel this year, will slip to an average of $89 over the next five years ? not a big enough drop to lead companies to cut back on exploration deeply.

Nor are they expected to fall enough to bring back the days of cheap gasoline. Still, more of the money that Americans spend at filling stations will flow to domestic drillers, which are then more likely to buy equipment here and hire more U.S. workers.

"Drivers will have to pay high prices, sure, but at least they'll have a job," Verleger says.

___

Follow Jonathan Fahey on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-could-soon-overtake-saudi-arabia-worlds-biggest-211015790.html

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Cleveland Co. football field damaged by herd of goats

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LAWNDALE, N.C. -- A Cleveland County high school football field will be off limits for at least another week, after a prank involving a herd of goats raised health concerns.

Burns High School head football coach Matt Beam found the goats, from the school's FFA program Friday morning. The goats didn't damage the actual field, but created a big mess outside the end zone and on the track.

?You can just imagine twelve goats, staying out here five or six hours, what kind of mess you're going to get," said Beam.

The team had to move its final home game of the regular season that night after health officials urged the school to shut down the stadium. The precaution comes in wake of the deadly E. coli outbreak linked to animals at the Cleveland County Fair earlier this month.

Crews are busy disinfecting the area while the school waits on tests to see if their goats are infected.

"You hope students didn't have all this in mind when they did it, but obviously this is a good example of unintended consequences that have ripple effects," said Principal Aaron Allen.

Wednesday's soccer game and Thursday's JV conference championship game have already been moved to other schools. Coach beam hopes this will all be resolved by Nov. 2 in time for the team's first play-off game.

"We've worked endlessly all year long to get to this point and we don't want to have to move our game because of a senseless prank," said Beam.

Principal Allen said he has a good idea of who's responsible. The school used social media to track those leads. They'll work with county officials to determine how they will we punished.

Source: http://charlotte.news14.com/content/local_news/charlotte/666845/cleveland-co--football-field-damaged-by-herd-of-goats

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Troy Figure Skater Qualifies for Sectional Championships - Troy, MI ...

Two figure skaters from the Onyx-Suburban Skating Academy in Rochester Hills qualified for the Midwestern Sectional Championships. ?They will take place in Nov. 9-13 in Strongsville, OH.?Sectionals are the qualifier for the U.S. National Championships.?

Jessica Pierce, age 13 and a student at Shelby Jr. High, won the Regional competition in the Juvenile level.

Michelle Chen, also 13, won the bronze medal in the Novice level. She attends Larson Middle School.

Both Pierce and Chen have been skating since age six.?

"This is a huge accomplishment for the Rochester club, which sent the largest number of skaters to the regional championship in the country," coach Lindsey Weber said.

Source: http://troy.patch.com/articles/troy-figure-skater-qualifies-for-sectional-championships

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Tips For Buying Real Estate In A Challenging Market | Eric Chua - First

You just need to know the best ways to be a buyer in the market, whether you are an investor or a first time home buyer. Read the advice provided in the article below if you are looking to simplify your process of purchasing real estate.

If you wish to buy real estate for an investment, find a broker or real estate agent to help. You will have access to more resources through these people. Most commonly, real estate brokers use software designed for quickly searching MLS listings so that they can help you find prospective properties much more easily than you can do on your own. These tools can help you find what you need without having to look through the MLS yourself, and you may find better deals.

Try asking the seller to aid you in closing costs or giving financial incentives. It is common to ask the seller to ?buy down? the interest rate for a year or two. A seller is less likely to negotiate over the sale price if financial incentives are attached to an offer.

TIP! You can get a precise price range for how much you should spend on your investment thanks to an online calculator. The debt to income calculator will take your current income and your debts and then calculate the payment that you can afford.

Look for parking areas near the home you are considering buying. Especially for walk-ups and other homes that don?t have a driveway, you will need street parking. Without a good amount of parking near your house, you might have to park far away, and this can be troublesome in a number of situations.

If you want to buy a portion of a building, or perhaps the entire building, to open your own business, be sure that the building is in a nice, safe neighborhood. If you have a bad location, you will have a smaller customer base. Talk to a professional to find the best locations.

A house that is close to a busy road should be avoided if possible. These properties are a bit cheaper than surrounding properties, but once you listen for a bit, it should be obvious why. You will eventually have to sell the property at a bargain price.

TIP! When picking an agent for your home search, see how long they lived in that area. For those unfamiliar with the area, advice about the roads or neighborhood itself will be sparse.

So you want to find a place to purchase, but firstly you have to have a real estate agent who?s qualified. You need one you can trust. You want an agent that can show a great track record of helping people find homes they want for good prices. Be certain to study up on him or her, and find someone that will always keep you in mind.

If you are serious about buying a house, measure it first. You need to make sure public records for square footage match the listing. If the discrepancy between the numbers is more than a hundred square feet, think twice about making an offer on this listing or start investigating why the discrepancy exists.

Be aware of developments in the pre-foreclosure market. If you can allow the time required to find investment properties, properties which are in pre-foreclosure may be an excellent investment choice for you. A pre-foreclosure home is one with owners who have been late on their loan payments, putting them at the risk of losing their house. Lenders will give you lists of homes that are about to enter foreclosure. Another strategy you can use is advertising that you are paying cash for houses. Whichever method you use, when you?re talking with the person who currently owns the property, you need to discover how much he or she owes, and offer this person potentially several thousand dollars over that amount. This is often a steal, because most home owners don?t owe the bank what the home is worth.

TIP! It is essential to hire a trustworthy real estate agent. The Better Business Bureau is a great resource, along with a number of other Internet resources.

Buying insurance for your home should be your very first step, before actually moving anything into the house. If you put this off your insurance will not cover anything that happens, disaster can happen at any time!

Before you buy any real estate, make sure you do your research. Lots of people are too eager to get into the real estate market and end up making bad purchasing which causes them to lose a great deal of time and money. There are many questions that you?ll want to find answers to before buying, such as the character of the neighborhood, the area?s crime rate, zoning, the age of any buildings, and tax rate.

TIP! You should be pre-qualified for a mortgage before you even start to look for a home. You don?t want to discover the home you love without being able to pay for it.

If a seller doesn?t accept your offer on the home, don?t be surprised if they still manage to make the home affordable for you. The seller might take care of a portion of your closing costs, or make some other improvements to the house for you.

A period of uncertain employment is really not the best time for you to look at purchasing a home. After you sign all the mortgage documents, you are responsible to make that payment each month, no matter what. If your work future is in jeopardy, ensure you can make your monthly payments for a few months without this income in case you?re laid off.

To be successful in your endeavors, you need to know how to correctly get into the market. The best way you can gain success is by being knowledgeable in the subject. This article has provided you with helpful information, so use it! You can now deal with the rest of the story!

TIP! You will need to have a good down payment for your mortgage company. If you do not, you may be stuck paying more through PMI, or Private Mortgage Insurance.

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Source: http://www.maynaseric.com/tips-for-buying-real-estate-in-a-challenging-market

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89% Robot & Frank

All Critics (80) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (71) | Rotten (9)

"Robot & Frank" hits all the right notes - romantic, fantastic, tragic and sweet.

There's a warm and poignant interplay between the co-stars.

Langella ... is tremendous.

It may not seem like an even playing field pitting an actor as powerfully intense as Frank Langella opposite a robot, but that's the game plan behind the waywardly endearing, slightly futuristic fantasy Robot & Frank.

Much of Robot & Frank is (frankly) resistible, including the climactic narrative twist, but there is also a likeable oddness that transcends the sentimental contrivance.

An endearing movie about a human and his mechanical new buddy.

Deserves credit for bringing comic fantasy close to sensitive reality

If Miranda July tackled an episode of Tales of the Unexpected the results might be something close to what's on offer here.

Langella provides a formidable central presence, both stubborn and endearing, while Sarsgaard injects warmth and humanity into Robot.

An hysterically funny, breathlessly paced and moving meditation on old age and existence, topped by an award-worthy turn from Frank Langella. One of the year's best.

Jake Schreier and scriptwriter Christopher Ford go well beyond the initial fun of the robot conceit to craft a thoughtful film musing on both the ageing process and our relationship with technology.

A little gem of a movie about aging and obsolescence that is also a very modest sci-fi cautionary tale.

... a marvel of the highest order. Robot and Frank manages to seamlessly blend comedy, science fiction and drama into a film that is hilarious, truly original and utterly heartfelt

This blend of sentiment and genre fancy is not unlike something Ray Bradbury might have contrived for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Robot & Frank is an airy, engaging flight of fancy. It's also part caper film, part character study, and part allegory about aging. Robot & Frank shouldn't work, but it does.

..never hits the easy and obvious beats of a buddy comedy; there's no sentimental bonding between man and mecha man. Similarly, though it feints toward romance, the relationship ... resolves in an unexpectedly bittersweet way.

"Robot & Frank" is a study of a man who lives with his past mistakes but can't shake how truly alive they made him feel when he was making them, regardless of what they cost him.

Hodgepodge of moods built around an unlikely story of friendship between a man and his service robot, the film carries itself confidently, with occasional moments of significant emotion.

They get the robot right, with fluid movement (by dancer Rachael Ma) and canned warmth in its user-friendly voice (performed by Peter Sarsgaard).

What a weird, winning little movie is Robot & Frank.

The chief spectacle here -- and it's a good one -- is Langella in gruff, curdled mode, an underappreciated master actor slipping seamlessly into a bespoke role.

"Robot & Frank" is so endearing it's easy to forget it's science fiction.

The movie is sweet and agreeably unambitious, derailed only by an egregious third-act twist.

More Critic Reviews

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/robot_and_frank/

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Greens Attack Inland Revenue IT System Outsourcing... | Stuff.co.nz

The Greens are questioning Inland Revenue's multi-million dollar IT contract with a French company specialising in outsourcing work to Asia.

But Revenue Minister Peter Dunne has accused the party of "negative political opportunism", saying the Greens have criticised the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) for building an IT system internally while attacking his department for using a reputable international company.

The IRD is using the Australian-based division of France's Capgemini for the first phase of its transformation project, paying the company $10.6 million in the last financial year.

In a briefing to Dunne last year, it estimated the overall project to upgrade its IT systems could cost up to $1.5 billion over ten years.

Capgemini's Australian division employs almost 1000 staff, 500 of whom are based in India.

Its Sydney-based chief executive Paul Thorley has said the company favours using 30/70 onshore/offshore staff ratio for software testing. For the life of an IT application, that ratio was about 40 per cent onshore and 60 per cent offshore.

"Free markets usually operate for a reason, they operate that way because it's the best answer for shareholders," he told Computer World magazine this month.

Greens co-leader Russel Norman said the Inland Revenue had failed to create a level playing field for New Zealand IT companies bidding for work.

"The whole approach of IRD has been to make it very difficult for the New Zealand IT industry to participate and get the contract.

"If we give a bit of support to the IT industry here now, they can become major export players and in the long term become an important part of the economy but we need to help them a little bit at the beginning."

Using an overseas company meant all profits from the contract went offshore, he said.

The IRD handled sensitive data and revelations this week about security flaws at the MSD showed the Government needed to take extra care with IT systems, Norman said.

Dunne said Inland Revenue was "absolutely confident" it was using the right company.

"One of the key criteria we had was contracting an organisation with experience in guiding a large public sector organisation through a major business transformation. That is what we have done."

Taxpayers expected the Government to get the "best deal possible in every sense", Dunne said.

"I find it extraordinary the Greens were slamming MSD for having built its IT system internally and blaming that for a very serious privacy issue now being faced, and in virtually the same breath they come in from the other extreme against Inland Revenue.

"I think the two extremes clearly demonstrate what is going on here - harping, negative political opportunism."

However, Norman said MSD could have used a New Zealand company rather than cut costs by developing software internally.

Dunne said Capgemini would be considered for the next phase of the IRD's project if it submitted a tender.

- ? Fairfax NZ News

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Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7826774/Inland-Revenue-IT-outsourcing-questioned

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