Taiwan presidential election

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/presidential%20election/2008/03/23/148413/Jubilation-over.htm

So it looks like the KMT party won the presidential election....I don't know how this will affect things in Taiwan, but I know that KMT is somewhat more "pro China" than the opposition party--so there probably will not be any huge disputes between the mainland and Taiwan anytime soon, so that is good.

ASIA?

So now we are considering an agency called ASIA (Associated Services for International Adoption). I'll post their website link under the 'agencies we are considering' area. I think they may work out really well...they work with the orphanage Chung Yi, and the process is a little bit different. I'm still learning, but as I find out more I'll post about it! Marci, the woman with ASIA that I've been talking with, is really nice and responds really quickly to my emails - that is always a good sign :)

No more FHSA for us :(

So I got an email from the Florida Home Studies and Adoptions agency (who I have been in contact with several times so far in 2008), telling me that since January of this year they are only working with residents of Florida. WTF? They tell me this in March?? So I'm disappointed, as they were our front runner. Right now we're down to one option now (Commonwealth), and that makes me uncomfortable. I am off to research other agencies so we can hopefully have two options once again..........

Confucius Institute

For anyone local to the Kansas City area, the KU Confucius Institute sounds really awesome! They have Chinese New Year and Dragon Boat celebrations, summer school culture and language classes for kids, language classes for adults, etc. In the month of March they are having a Chinese film festival on Saturday mornings which is just a couple blocks from our house! Check out their website, I'm excited to have found it (I heard about it on NPR):
http://www.confucius.ku.edu/index.shtml

I also found a link about the Chinese garden that is being planned for Kansas City! http://www.chinagardensociety-kc.org/ChineseGarden_KC.htm
I don't know where it will be located exactly, but it definitely sounds like it's going to happen! I'm really excited about that.

And I also found a website for the Kansas City Chinese Association which sounds really neat: they are hosting the film festival http://www.kcca-ks.org/main/home.html
I am very happy to have so many Chinese cultural things here in town that my family can go to and experience :)