{"id":10577,"date":"2009-12-17T05:48:42","date_gmt":"2009-12-17T12:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=10577"},"modified":"2009-12-17T05:48:42","modified_gmt":"2009-12-17T12:48:42","slug":"christmas-and-natasha-only-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10577\/christmas-and-natasha-only-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas and Natasha – only in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

2009 has changed me. It has been a year of struggle, victory, and in the end… of complete thankfulness for all of the good things that I have in life. Living in America is one of those good things. Living with a family that loves me unconditionally is another. One of the lessons that I learned from this last year was to redouble my efforts to pay it forward and to give back.<\/p>\n

I received an email last Sunday night from my friend Nancy Schafer that her efforts to host a child from an orphanage in the Ukraine had paid off and that 11 year old Natasha would be flying here on the 16th of December for an 18 day stay and hopefully to find an adoptive home here in the USA. <\/p>\n

My mind raced back to my own family and then directly back to Greg’s Ramblin Gamblin Willy story about Anastasia.<\/a> I am not a guy that likes Latin much and this to date was my favorite post that Greg has written. If you have not read it yet, please do. If you have, it is worth another read.<\/p>\n

“Do your worst. I will not kneel.” has become a mantra that has stayed with me. And now when I thought of an 11 year old flying over 24 hours straight with no parents to meet an unknown person (as great and kind as I know Nancy is, she is an unknown to Natasha) I knew that I must try to help out in my own small way to make her stay here more enjoyable and hopefully help raise enough awareness so that she might enjoy the blessings that I have:<\/p>\n

Living with a family that loves her.
\nLiving in a free country.
\nBeing free from the restraints of a caste system so that her dreams can in fact become a reality.<\/p>\n

For those who may not think that America is truly the land of opportunity, I would simply contend that we build fences to keep people out while others build those same fences to keep people in. People are dying to get INTO our ‘hood. We Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2009 has changed me. It has been a year of struggle, victory, and in the end… of complete thankfulness for all of the good things that I have in life. Living in America is one of those good things. Living with a family that loves me unconditionally is another. One of the lessons that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-real-estate","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17794,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17794\/overnight-news-scaling-our-efforts-makes-us-richer-but-its-making-the-effort-that-makes-us-rich\/","url_meta":{"origin":10577,"position":0},"title":"Overnight News: Scaling our efforts makes us richer, but it\u2019s making the effort that makes us rich.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Single people produce about as much wealth as they consume. Married fathers produce around five times as much wealth as they consume. The wealth of the West emerges not from scaled productivity \u2013 the Dc innovations the marketplace worships \u2013 but from the friendly Ds competition among fathers to better\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5026,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5026\/to-condi-with-sweetness\/","url_meta":{"origin":10577,"position":1},"title":"To Condi, with sweetness","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"[I wrote this essay six years ago. I knew even then that Rice wouldn't run for president -- she's much too smart for that. Too bad, though. She would have been a great president, a great argument for everything America can be. I don't see this promise in Barack Obama\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/82\/why-stop-at-recycling-the-newsprint\/","url_meta":{"origin":10577,"position":2},"title":"Why stop at recycling the newsprint?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"It's deja vu all over again at the Arizona Republic. Magazine names Willo district one of top cottage communities it says in Wednesday's paper:They're busting their buttons in the downtown Phoenix neighborhood of Willo. Cottage Living magazine has named the historic district as one of the \"Top 10 Cottage Communities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=gregswann-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000EGCIXC","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17849,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17849\/overnight-news-if-america-was-already-broke-and-now-its-half-again-more-broke-then-what\/","url_meta":{"origin":10577,"position":3},"title":"Overnight News: If America was already broke, and now it\u2019s half-again more broke \u2013 then\u00a0what?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I noted that, \"One third of all American dollars are less than a year old.\" What's the implication? Since the quantity of available economic goods doesn't change much, from year to year, it is reasonable to suppose that soon the dollar will have lost around a third of its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17615,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17615\/overnight-news-if-america-had-a-rioting-contest-everyone-would-lose-but-still-which-side-would-win\/","url_meta":{"origin":10577,"position":4},"title":"Overnight News: If America had a rioting contest, everyone would lose. But: Still: Which side would win?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"On January 6th, America's having a house party \u2013 or something like that. I don't have a link to share yet, but the President has invited his supporters to Washington to remind Congress who owns half of the privately-held firearms in the world. Trump's Tweet says: \"Be there, will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18131,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18131\/overnight-news-gas-lines-will-give-biden-voters-the-living-ones-at-least-more-opportunities-to-regret-voting-for-inept-corrupt-befuddled-marxism\/","url_meta":{"origin":10577,"position":5},"title":"Overnight News: Gas lines will give Biden voters \u2013 the living ones, at least \u2013 more opportunities to regret voting for inept, corrupt, befuddled Marxism.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to the new age. What a contrast, huh? Trump was not supposed to have won the 2016 election \u2013 also rigged, but without the late-night emergency fall-back ballot dumps. But the consequence of his having won is that Americans at least have a decent comparison, if not an actual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10578,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10577\/revisions\/10578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}