Memnison Journal

China Daily is reporting that the Chinese police are starting to put together a national DNA database to help combat child trafficking and help lost children; 107,000 kids and 35,000 from anxious parents. The database is composed of blood samples taken by the police from missing children’s parents, children suspected of having been abducted or [...]

As you can imagine, the champions (my Mere and her pairs partner Eric) are in seventh heaven – as I write this, Susan and Mere are on their way home to us, bearing a new gold medal.   And, of course, all their stuff. The last year, in dealing with Mere getting serious on roller-skating competitive [...]

Meredith and Eric took first place at the National Championships with a flawless, beautiful performance… stunned the people online and the commentators with **OMG WHO ARE THESE GUYS!!!** reactions. They can’t go to World Championships until the elder is 14, which is next year. But my god, they were the best I’ve ever seen them, [...]

At the present, my LEFT foot surgery has been rescheduled for the 5th of July; hopefully nothing else will blow that out of the water.  My RIGHT foot – well, went to see a podiatrist on that, and he took new X-rays of my foot that show how crippled up it looks (which never fails [...]

This one is a weird amalgam of the Dayton Daily News article and the Newsweek one.  For one thing, it thinks that we used to live in Dayton; the last time I lived in Dayton was 1977, thirty years ago, long before I married Susan. It also notes a 2009 picture of the twins as [...]

Above is a weird line from another Chinese article on the twins that appeared in the Hong Kong news for Yahoo; from the “(Ming Daily) on December 22, 2009 on Tuesday 05:10″ The article (English translation via Babelfish translation) follows after the cut.  It seems to be a boil-down of the Newsweek article.

…from the Dayton Daily News (my hometown paper) about the twins.  This was a surprise, really, and will beyond any doubt be the end of the stories. Part of it is that it’s all been said – there’s not a lot more to add.

Dayton Daily News article; the reporter’s adopted child from China was first raised by a foster family in China, who the child hadn’t forgotten -and who hadn’t forgotten her.  Great story about how the foster family and the adoptive family got in contact… Considering the whole thing with the twins and sisterfar, this hits home [...]

http://bit.ly/6bT2Os  (from the Newseum, possibly not good after tonight – front page of today’s Daily Herald) IL_DH (pdf of the page – big center layout of photos of the girls)

The local suburban daily newspaper, the Daily Herald, is reprinting the Newsweek story on the twins with different photos: http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=342760

http://www.newsweek.com/id/225492/page/1 The Power of Two: http://www.newsweek.com/id/225098 Photo gallery of the kids, etc.  The Intro picture is particularly stunning. This has been in the works since spring.  Newsweek came in with a Pulitzer-award winning photographer who was fresh from covering the White House and Obama and Bush to do the shots.  The interviews mostly were around [...]

The article I’ve been talking about in the recent past is about to come out; more details when it’s actually available.

Meredith’s 10th birthday (and that of her twin sister Mer, of course) is today, and we are having a series of birthday parties for her; the first included Susan’s aunt(s) at their home in Elgin over the weekend, and the next is a just-the-household one tonight, and then this Saturday night, Mere has five pals [...]

Child stealing and smuggling rings in China, including a bust in the twins’ home town. Shanghai Daily _ 上海日报 — En.. (PDF. 28 k – pdf’d version of story)

Set of Flickr photos of Meredith at her softball games, including photos with her cousin Kay and her sister Mer. Twins upon twins: The Gentle twins (good friends of Meredith’s from school who are also on her softball team) and Meredith and Mer at the game. The team saw Mer as their ‘good luck mascot, [...]