2009: What a year
Looking back on 2009, I can say that this has been quite a year for me and my family this year. Just to name a few things:
- Celebrated 2 years at SugarCRM
- Wrote my first book, The Definitive Guide to SugarCRM
- Started speaking at several different conferences; SugarCon, DC PHP Conference, and the Ontario GNU Linuxfest.
- Began the process of an international adoption from South Korea with Spence-Chapin.
I’m looking forward to an even more prosperous and rewarding 2010, including speaking at Confoo.ca in March, more writing, welcoming a new child into our home, and turning the big three-oh 
. Happy New Year to everyone!
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About Me
I am software developer, living in Northeast Ohio ( Doylestown to be exact ). Graduating from the Kent State University BS in Computer Science program in 2001, I now work as Community Manager for SugarCRM.
My first contribution to the open source world is an installer for PHP 5.2 and later, build using the Wix toolkit. It will install PHP on Windows systems, as well as configure it and the Web Server ( IIS, Apache, Sambar, NetServe, and Zitami ). It provides an easy-to-use method for getting PHP configured the way you want it and also a tool for easily deploying PHP to many machines thanks to MSI technology.
I'm also an avid writer, publishing articles on IBM Developerworks, Apple Developer Connection, and PHP Architect, and authored the book The Definitive Guide to SugarCRM: Better Business Applications
I am happily married with a daughter and a son, living on a hill surrounded by farm fields.
Interesting year!
Best of luck with your adoption plans. Interesting that you chose Spence-Chapin though. And something of a surprise, admittedly. As I’m sure you know, they’re not entirely controversy-free, and have been accused of pressurising vulnerable third-world women into surrendering their newborn so they could be sold to rich white Americans. Who knows. You’ve probably thought this all through pretty thoroughly anyway.
From what I can tell, most of the adoption irregularities arise from the local governments, rather than the agencies themselves. And a lot of that is getting much better thanks to the Hague Convention.
Korea itself is a very modernized system which is extremely well run; most children put up for adoption there are actually adopted to families in the country rather than overseas. Other countries aren’t quite up to that level of modernization in that area.