- Dawn started writing about adoption in 2002. In blog years, she's way overdue for a Lifetime Achievement Award.
- She gives of her own time and money to run Open Adoption Support, so that those of us in open adoptions can have a safe place to give and receive help.
- Her writing kicks ass.
- If she's named the overall best blog, she'll donate the $1,000 prize to Ethica, an independent group doing great advocacy work on behalf adoptees, children in care, first parents and adoptive families. They're a rare jewel in the adoption world.
- For once I'd like to see this sort of messy adoption narrative get mainstream recognition (and The Bump practically defines "mainstream"). I don't think she knows this, but waaay back in the day, reading Dawn's blog made me really defensive. I was wholly invested in the idea that there was a Right Way to do adoption that could make it positive for everyone involved, and that there were black-and-white distinctions between birth parents and adoptive parents and their place in an adopted child's life. Everything I heard from Agency #1 or was reading reinforced that. But here was this adoptive mom who was totally my kind of people in her parenting and politics and feminism, with an adoption that looked a lot like ours on its face. And she was arguing that there is actually a whole lot of grey--advocating for openness while pointing out that it doesn't make everything better, pushing at the boundaries of my ideas about everything from naming to sharing motherhood to revocation periods. It took awhile sitting with those thoughts--and experiencing the reality of our own family's adoption--but eventually my own ideas became more nuanced and flexible. And I really think I'm a better adoptive parent and open adoption participant for it (although heaven knows I still have a ways to go). I can't help but wish that voices like hers were out in the mainstream where I could have stumbled easily across them in the vey beginning.
- If she wins, adoption blog trolls will disappear.*
* What? You've never heard an impossible campaign promise before?
1 comment:
Wow, Heather as I emailed you I am really stupid right now (and making typos even though I'm typing slowly - ugh) but I wanted to right away thank you for this and tell you how moved I am. Especially because I adore your blog and feel like basically I could just press SHARE in my google reader permanently for you all the time. So often what you write is something I didn't even know I thought until I read it here and you also write so eloquently that your posts are always a pleasure. I feel lucky to know you!
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