World Still Mad

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to watch the news. The weight of the suffering in the middle east lies heavily on my heart, sometimes if I am listening to NPR or watching CBS Evening News, I feel like I cannot breathe.

I'm not sure if this is directly related to the fact that I know Lana is out there and I have no control over her life or well being at this moment. Logically, I know she is half a world away from the fighting the middle east, but, she is still within striking distance of Crazy Man Kim Jong Il, and I wouldn't put it past him to use the distraction in the middle east to start lobbing rockets at his neighbors, because, truly he is whack job.

I feel slightly bad about the fact that the situation in Cuba is vaguely reminding me of the Richard Dreyfuss movie, Moon Over Parador, and I start to giggle a little bit whenever I hear about Castro and his brother. (Which is not to say that I think Fidel and his brother are funny, just that I think Richard Dreyfuss is funny in that particular movie. I'll shut up now.) (Also, I have not let go of the hope that someday my beach loving self will have the opportunity to walk along the beaches of Cuba, which are supposed to be among the most beautiful in the world.)

I am trying to concentrate on things I have control of, like my caseload.

Yesterday, I was in the middle of real estate closing, when my cell phone rang. It was my assistant, S~, who said that one of my clients was on the phone, insisting it was a "matter of life and death". It was an ugly matter, involving a custody dispute that involves a young teenager with a life threatening condition. The child hates to be with one of the parents, and, in my opinion, manipulates her condition to make herself more ill when she is with that parent.

It was awful to be in the middle of the situation yesterday, and I felt totally helpless. I am not permitted to speak to the child directly. I could not get a hold of the guardian ad litum (the attorney who is appointed by the court to represent the children), and ended up doing an emergency page of the child's physician, who said he would handle the matter from that point. In the meantime, I tried to finish the real estate closing. It was a rough afternoon.

Anyway, in adoption news, our dossier is at the Vietnamese embassy in Washington D.C. for authentification. My agency estimates it will be there for four to six weeks.

That's all the news for now,
LM