southern comfort

I'm southern. Sure, years of voice coaching and a theater degree beat most of the twang out of my everyday speech patterns, but make me angry and the accent is back in full effect. On days when I feel a little sad I find myself slipping into a slower cadence and lingering a bit longer on certain vowel sounds. My verbal comfort zone is firmly rooted in the sounds of the south, and my culinary tastes feel at home there too. Biscuits and gravy, tomatoes warm from the garden sun eaten with cornbread for dinner, fried okra, pecan pie, and of course, rice. I grew up in a state whose main agricultural product is rice. I wouldn't say that it was an everyday food for us, but we did eat it a lot, and too many carbs be damned, I love rice. Plain white rice. My grandmother often served rice as a side dish, but it was after the meal was completed that the real magic happened. After everyone finished she would pull out several small bowls and sit them on the table. Then she would fill each bowl with the remaining warm white rice, top it with a pat of butter, and sprinkle it with a teaspoon or so of sugar. Manna, I tell you. Manna from heaven. My cousins and I would hardly be able to contain ourselves as we patiently waited for our bowl to be placed in front of us. Slightly sticky rice with pools of melted butter would be good by themselves, but the sugar... sweet and pleasantly crunchy as the sugar crystals pop between your teeth. Ahhhh. Delicious. To this day, nothing brings me more more comfort than a bowl of white rice with butter and sugar. Unconventional I know. Maybe even strange. But given the turmoil of late, I think you could all use a little comfort, southern style.

Rice with Butter & Sugar

1 cup long grain white rice, rinsed
2.5 cups water
1T plus 4t butter
8t sugar

Heat water and 1T butter to boiling in a heavy saucepan. Stir in rice. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover with lid, and simmer for 20 minutes or until all water is absorbed. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Rice will be slightly sticky.

Divide rice into four bowls. Make a well in the center and top with 2t butter and 2t sugar, or more to taste. Enjoy!

We tend to buy turbinado sugar so that's what you see in the photo. I would use that or white sugar, but not soft brown sugar.

deflated but hopeful.

My friends in adoption land have just been dealt a potentially devastating blow. The Department of State issued a statement yesterday which basically suggests that if you do not yet have your I171H then you should reconsider the Vietnam program and switch to another country. Though both the United States and Vietnam intend to resign the Memorandum of Understanding (essentially the rules and regs of US/VN adoption), the current agreement expires on September 1st. Given the time between dossier submission, referral, and travel, the DOS believes it is unlikely that folks who do not yet have their I171Hs would be able to travel to bring home their child before the agreement expires. Though talks have begun between our two countries to draft a new MOU, the new agreement is not expected to be in place by the current deadline, thus a period would exist in which no adoptions would be processed and the program would effectively be on hold.

Our agency is remaining cautiously optimistic.

The issues are many, and I don't intend to get into a deep philosophical or political debate. The editors at Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity can do that much better than I. The purpose of my post is to provide a tiny bit of encouragement.

I know that the Vietnam program was and is the best fit for some. Many of us with sizable school loans cannot meet China's net worth criteria. Perhaps you are too young for one country or too old for another. Maybe you aren't married, or have a medical condition a foreign gov't finds objectionable, or, like many Americans, simply weigh too much to meet the requirements of some programs. All of us who found our way to the Vietnam program arrived there for a reason. Many of us will find that our children are indeed in Vietnam, but others will feel compelled to explore other options and find that they are in the right place for the right child at the right time. Waiting is difficult. Impossible, really. You want to meet your child and expand your family, and you want it to happen quickly and in the way you planned. Period. Believe me, I get that. But it is likely that many of us had different plans before. Many of us found our way to adoption because of other roadblocks that altered our paths. As devastating as the current news may be to your current plan, maybe this is just another roadblock that will steer you in the right direction to your little one.

Maybe there is hope.

Maybe.