The Fabulous Jon Stewart

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is one of the MUST SEE in my family especially now when we can get the east coast HD feed at 8pm instead of 11pm (sorry, most days I cannot stay up that late.... ).

He did another awesome segment about the Democrats yesterday and was spot on... here's just a short transcription of what he said (for the full impact, watch the segment embedded below)

"If this lady loses, the health care reform bill that the beloved late senator considered his legacy, will die. And the reason it will die... is because if Coakley loses, Democrats will only have an 18 vote majority in the Senate, which is more than George W. Bush ever had in the Senate when did whatever the fuck he wanted to...It's not that the Democrats are playing checkers and the Republicans are playing chess. It's that the Republicans are playing chess and the Democrats are in the nurse's office because once again they glued their balls to their thighs."

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Happy Christmas! Joy throughout the Holiday Season.

2009 has been, for us a wonderful year. We started the year as new parents to Alicia. With the help and encouragement of family and friends, we found our bearings and grew into the role of parents. Changing diapers and/or bottle-feeding while still sleeping became a practical reality in our daily life.

As the months passed, as Alicia continued to thrive and grow, we started planning for our religious wedding ceremony while waiting for the California Supreme Court to rule on Proposition 8, a ballot measure placed during the 2008 election to take away the marriage rights of same sex couples. At the end of May, however, the court released its decision: they refused to invalidate Proposition 8. They did, however, rule that the 18,000 couples that were married in 2008 continue to be valid. We are in that category as we had a civil ceremony last year on June 17th, 2008. We are disappointed at the ruling of the Supreme Court and continue to work to support the work of others to overturn Proposition 8.

In June, Amos’ entire family came from Singapore to visit and attend the wedding ceremony. While Amos’ parents visited with Alicia last year for a month, this was the first time that the rest of his family traveled from the other side of the world to meet Alicia. Naturally, our beautiful girl stole their hearts. Mickey’s families came to San Francisco to attend the ceremony too. In fact, Mickey’s niece, Meghan read a poem titled “Miracle” by poet, Bill Wright. We shared this poem 14 years ago in Bangkok when we realized that we were in love and want to spend the rest of our lives together.

The wedding ceremony was very special to both of us as well as to our families. A Wedding Banquet Celebration followed, that was fun filled, and filled with delicious food! So many people made sacrifices to join together to celebrate and to witness our nuptials from all over the world and close to home. We are so thankful and touched by the outpouring of love and support. To make it more special, Alicia reached another landmark on our wedding day – starting to walk on her own.

The ceremony and the dinner would not have been possible if not for the excellent planning of Roger. Our wedding ensemble were designed and meticulously put together by Roger’s partner Esteban. Rev Terri Echelbarger honored us by solemnizing our marriage … again (yes, this is our fourth time over the past 14 years that we’ve affirmed our commitment)
Following the wedding, we made a short trip to Yosemite before leaving for Singapore for Alicia’s first international trip. Alicia had lots of fun playing with pepper and brownie, my sisters’ dogs and visiting Amos’ friends and their kids, but Singapore was hot and humid and Alicia had a difficult time adjusting to the weather. Returning, Alicia had an even more difficult time adjusting to life without A-ma and A-kong (grandma and grandpa.)

Alicia came to us last year on Friday of Labor Day weekend, and since her birthday is only six days before Christmas, it is inevitable that her birthday will be frequently rolled into Christmas celebration. So we started what we expect to be an annual tradition of having a “Homecoming party” during Labor Day Weekend – to Celebrate Alicia (away from the usual holiday rush.)
Finally on December 2nd, we were able to make the journey to court and have the judge sign the paperwork to finalize the adoption. The adoption finalization in the judge’s chambers went by very quickly but the judge was real friendly and made the both of us feel real calm and welcome. The feeling of the finalization is similar to our feelings last year when we were finally legally married in the state of California. It just made official what we know in our heart, that Alicia is our precious little daughter and we cannot imagine our lives without her smile, her laughter and her precious hugs.

In the New Year, Congress is scheduled to consider legislation for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). As most of you know, we have been activists in this area working to pass a bill called the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) to allow an American to sponsor their same sex partner for a green card. While Amos is lucky to be able to secure a green card through his employment, many of other couples aren’t so lucky. We want to leave you with a request – we hope you will join us in making sure that when CIR is being debated next year, you will stand up and help make sure that LGBT Families are recognized as legitimate families in the legislation. Most opposite sex binational couples do not have to face the choice between love and country and same sex couples should not face that choice either. We hope that you will support this legislation. For more information, please visit Out4Immigration – http://www.out4immigration.org

As the year closes, we count our blessings and we remember and are grateful for the people in our lives that love and support us, to find stability, to live in San Francisco, to have a healthy, happy and beautiful daughter, to have a friends who circle us with love and support, and to have food on the table even as the economy tanked – we are lucky.

We hope all of you have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukka, Happy Kwanzaa and a very good 2010.

Amos, Mickey and Alicia Lim – Christmas 2009

The journey of foster/adoption has been an eye opening process for our family and gave us a better understanding of how the budget crisis in California is destroying lives, young lives that need help. With the drastic cut in social services and early intervention for babies from age 1 – 3, we are finding that services that were supposed to be provided for kids with various stages of developmental delays have been reduced or eliminated. While Alicia qualified for services before July of this year, the drastic cuts mean that other kids who would otherwise qualify for services will no longer have access to the essential services that will affect their future developmental potential. We believe this is tragically shortsighted of the Governor and the California Legislature and hope that they will come to realize the impact on future generation growing up, and act to restore funding to support and defend the most vulnerable among us.

Alice in Wonderland - Extended Trailer

Alice in Wonderland - Extended Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

A war hero in support of Marriage Equality!

Here is a WWII Hero who spoke out in support of Marriage Equality.

Watch the video and listen to the testimony...

All I want to say is, Thank you Mr Spooner. You don't know me but in my family, you are a hero!

What President Obama Needs to Address tonight.

First off, I want to congratulate President Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I pray this exerts pressure on him demonstrate leadership on all fronts in the pursuit of peace.

As he prepares to make his big speech in front of Human Rights Campaign Annual Dinner in Washington DC tonight, here are some of the things that I would like to see him speak about:

• Stand up and speak more firmly for a public option for the Health Care Reform. One of the things that is barely spoken off during all this debates is how a public option will be good for the LGBT Community and those who are HIV+. While many of them rely on their private health insurance to pay for their medications and doctor's visit, a great many HIV+ patients depend on government assistance programs to provide health care. If we have a public option, we would not have to rely on the fickle funding formulas of the Ryan White Act or AIDS Drugs Assistance Program to pay for the medication.
  
  
• Speak strongly and follow up with action to push congress to pass the following gay rights bills.
  
  
  • - Repeal of Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) - Now, more than ever, he needs to fulfill his campaign promise to Repeal DOMA. With 5 states enjoying marriage equality and a few other states providing recognition of LGBT relationships, the time has come for the federal government to fully recognize these relationship and provide FULL FAITH AND CREDIT on a federal level so that the committed couples can enjoy the 1,138 federal rights and responsibilities that comes with marriage.
    
    
  • - Repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) - I will never understand why anybody would want to join the military… that said, people do and I respect their service. DADT is a bad policy and should be abolished - short and simple. All the rhetoric about unit cohesion if we allow gays in the army is just that: (empty) rhetoric… Gay men and women are already serving in the armed forces and rather than protect them, the policy forces honorable men and women to lie in order to serve. Lying is contrary to every code of honor. DADT is wrong and needs to be addressed now.
    
    
  • - Passage of Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) - President Obama responded to a HRC questionnaire last year during the primary indicating that he supported this bill. He however did not sponsor the bill when he was in the senate. The bill has an excellent chance of passing this time around either as a stand alone bill or through a Inclusive Comprehensive Immigration Reform. What the bill does is add 3 simple words "or permanent partners" after spouse in immigration law. Those 3 simple words will, allow an American who is LGBT to sponsor his/her partner, who is a foreigner, for a green card. Under this gratuitously discriminatory Immigration law, there are more than 40,000 couples struggling to continue stay in US, while tens of thousands more couples have either left the country to live in exile or try to maintain a long distance relationships. The time has come for President Obama to take a stand and tell congress that this is unacceptable and MUST change! Couples should not be made to choose between Love OR Country - this is wrong and needs to be addressed now.
    
    
  • - Inclusive Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) - unless you have been through the immigration process or know of someone who is going through it, you would have no idea why there are so many undocumented immigrants living here or that it is so difficult to navigate the system. In short, you will have no idea that our immigration system is broken beyond repair. The philosophy behind Immigration in the US is family reunification - however, LGBT families are not recognized as families by the federal government and therefore unable to take advantage of this principle to sponsor our partners for a green card. It is important that the CIR introduced in January 2010 be an inclusive one - meaning it is one that recognizes LGBT families as a family unit. Rep Mike Honda has already introduced Reuniting Families Act (RFA) which includes the language of UAFA in his bill and we are told that Rep Gutierrez will be introducing an immigration bill in the coming weeks. President Obama needs to demonstrate leadership and speak out for an inclusive immigration reform bill that includes LGBT Families.
    
    
  • - Speak out AGAINST Amendment 1 in Maine and FOR Referendum 71 in Washington - last year, the Yes on Prop 8 put out a brochure targeting certain communities stating that President Obama is against Gay Marriage and implied he is supporting Proposition 8. How much impact did that mailer have on the targeted community, we will never know… but we did loose to Prop 8 and with it the right to get married. It is, therefore, important for him to speak on the stage tomorrow AGAINST Amendment 1 and FOR Referendum 71 - Since our foe's are already recycling the materials from their Prop 8 campaign, I am sure that the mailers with President Obama's face and his quote that he does not believe in gay marriage will be sent to these two states and WILL affect the election in those two states… so he need to step up right now and speak out! Bigotry and hatred are wrong and needs to be addressed now.

Alicia playing in the backyard with her slides

grandma and granpa

Alicia's learning how to pronouce "ah gong" and "ah ma", grandma and grandpa in hokkien - at least for now she remembers what they look like, by pointing at the picture of my mom and dad on the wall.... my baby is growing up. Her hair is also growing long... :)

Mickey and I cannot believe that she is now 16 months old and have been with us for 9 months already! She is our love and joy and we really cannot remember our lives without her - while our lives have turned upside down, she has filled our days with laughter and joy and she continues to amaze us everyday with new stuff...

ah gong and ah ma will be reunited with alicia soon... in a couple of weeks.