There is more news from Cambodian here, and here, and adoption-related news of a more general nature here on the Adoption News Blog.

Anyone planning to be in Cambodia, here's a heads up: Stay away from Puffer Fish on the menu.

Two people have died in Takeo province after munching down on salted puffer fish imported from Vietnam and sold in rural markets.

It's not the whole fish that's a danger ... Wasn't there a Simpson's episode about this way back when? It's ringing all sorts of silly bells in my head ... but the ovaries, liver and intestines contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can "produce rapid and violent death."

Since I'm pretty sure it would be really hard to tell if someone slipped a puffer fish ovary onto the plate, you're probably better off giving the whole fish a pass.

For taste of a different kind, here's a lovely story of art, life and history about a École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts-educated man who chose to celebrate his art in Cambodia.

Adopted by a French family after fleeing Cambodia after the Vietnamese invasion drove the Khmer Rouge to ground, he spent weekends with his biological family, so navigated two worlds as he grew.

“With my arts knowledge, I wanted to see how I can share and give what I had learned in France to my people,” says the idealistic artist. Growing up in France, Lim used to hear about the sublime Angkorian Empire and the glory of Khmer arts. But when he finally returned to Cambodia, he was shocked.

“There was no presence of any art or style, people didn’t even speak very well. They were just trying to feed themselves,” says Lim, who initally worked as a painter and did a few exhibitions in an art gallery.

The story of how he became the art-design director for Artisans d'Angkor is a wonderful read.

For another story of a Khmer whose beginnings would not have predicted how big a contribution he'd end making to his people, this story is about a tot who had been sent away from home to escape abuse, eventually turning to a Buddhist temple for education.

From there, he became a monk and has now founded a collection of educational movements to help kids who are "victims of domestic abuse or poor young people trapped in lives of menial labor or the sex industry."

He is now visiting the US and China, telling his story and raising awareness for the programs he started.