Wish I'd seen this yesterday, but perhaps it's not too late to email in some impact on the New Jersey Senate's vote today on S-2249 , a family leave bill that would include adoptive parents.

This could be groundbreaking, so if New Jersey is your state and you'd like to see adoptive families get the same benefits as those making their kids from scratch, email the heads of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, Sens. Bernard Kenny (SenKenny@njleg.org) and Sharpe James (SenJames@njleg.org).

To read all about it, see musings:mamahood&more, the blog where I picked up the news. She has a great template there, too, which will save composition time.

Summer of Hope, a program that brings older orphans from Philippines to the US for 4-week summer visits that often lead to adoption, is looking for business sponsorships to help with the kids' travel expenses.

Corporations and such may donate and register for sponsorship online here.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an award-winning producer of educational materials, has released its first publication for parents and is available for a $5 shipping and handling fee.

Beyond the Golden Rule: A Parent's Guide to Preventing and Responding to Prejudice, will help parents address the difficult issues of bias, stereotypes and racism their children face in an increasingly diverse world.

There's been some good news on that stagnating shipment of clothing for Namibian orphans I wrote about recently. Seems Bank Windhoek stepped up and paid the import duty on the stuff before officials sent it back to Luxembourg where it had come from.

Glad to hear it. I do hope those contributing to organizations providing for children in other countries give some thought to what happens beyond the warm fuzzies of donations.

Not that this really qualifies as "stuff needing attention", but if you're looking for yet an additional way to 'celebrate' your international adoptions, how does another tattoo sound?

Angelina has her kids' birth country coordinates on her arm now.

I'm going to have to show this to Mark, as he's planning on getting another while we're in either Singapore or Cambodia in August. All our names in Khmer is one idea, but this lat-long thing is a cool idea. Heck! Maybe I'll even get one more ... if I can still find someplace not too saggy by then. I'll be 56, after all.