Beautiful Things #19

Three beautiful things, gratitude edition:

1. You! You all are beautiful for what you made of the Interview Project. In the beginning, I told myself that if we managed ten pairs-- just twenty bloggers--I'd consider it a success. I even had a mental list of people I'd beg to participate if I had to. Instead we had over thirty pairs! To everyone who participated in an interview, shared the project on their blog, posted a link in a forum, or visited the participants' sites--thank you, thank you, thank you. You blew me away with your enthusiasm and insightfulness. I hope you all made some lovely new connections.
   
   I've got some ideas for the future, and I'd love to hear yours, too. If you have any feedback on the project, definitely let me know.
   
   
2. More sincere thanks to every single person who reached out after the hey-my-life-just-imploded post. Each comment and email was like a little hug. My life is still wackadoodle, and it will be for the near future, at least. I haven't yet found the new normal; I'm sorry I haven't been around as much. But the family is physically healthy, God is near and the cherry trees are blossoming. No small things, those.
   
   
3. Did I mention the cherry blossoms? We had a string of beautiful spring days earlier this week and I took some long walks around our neighborhood.  Passing close by some of the snowy white and pink trees, I felt like all the things that have been weighing on me this month were a bit lighter. There is something about their fleeting loveliness each year--they come and go in a week or two--that makes me feel like there is always the possibility of renewal if only you wait and watch.

An Interview with The Egg Drop Post

I was lucky enough (thanks to random.org) to be paired with Eva of The Egg Drop Post. I had been following her for a couple of months, but really enjoyed reading through her blog from the beginning.  She is originally from the Caribbean, and now lives with her wife, Nadia, on the East Coast. They recently jumped into domestic adoption after several years of trying for a pregnancy. Even though they're still in the home study phase, you'd think Eva had been part of the adoption world for years. In her Teachable Moments series, you can see her handle people's awkward questions and comments like a pro. She also created The Ultimate Adoption Book Club, an online book group that's kicking off next month with a discussion of The Blind Side. Y'all know how much I love seeing people come together to talk about adoption online!

You can read her interview of me over at her blog--then be sure to check out some of the other participants!

Interview Project - March 2010

Below, in no particular order, are the wonderful participants in the Open Adoption Bloggers Interview Project! They will be posting their interviews over the course of the day. Be sure to browse through!

• I Should Really Be Working & A+A Adopt a Baby
• Endure for a Night & Adoption Journey
• American Family & Adoption of Jane
• Communities don't get built... & Open Adoption @ Adoption.com
• Domestic Infant Adoption @ Adoption.com & All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
• Eyes Wide Open: My Journey Into Motherhood & Always and Forever Family
• Mama C and the Boys & Adoption A'int for Sissies
• The Warrior Princess Diaries & You Can Only Imagine Where Hope Might Take Ya
• My Adoption Coach & Confessions of a Mean Girl Turned Mommy
• Gates Place & Dear Sweetheart
• The Birth Mother Voice & Evil Mommy
• Today's the Day & Eyes Opened Wider
• Surprised by Hope & Forever Knit 2gether
• Mother Issues & Four Gardners and Me
• Letters to a Birthmother & From Another Mother
• Our Adoption Adventure - The Many Faces of KJ & From the Mind of a Bmom
• The Adoptive Mother & Grace Comes By Hearing
• this woman's work & Heart Cries
• The Path to Parenthood & Henry Street
• The Sought-After & In His Easy Yoke
• Seeking God Knows What & Liable to Change
• My First Gray Hair & life from here: musings from the edge
• Pocket Full of Prose & Making Our Family Complete
• Weebles Wobblog & The Night Kitchen
• Therapy Is Expensive & Not Quite Juno--My Adoption Story
• Someone's Daughter & Once Was Von
• See Theo Run & Our Life in the Desert
• Sturdy Yet Fragile & She's everything that you've been hoping for
• The Mommy Journals & The Adoptive Parent
• off my mind. but from my heart & Coming Clean: Confessions of a Secret Birthmom
• Production, Not Reproduction & The Egg Drop Post
• Simple Perfect Life & From Foster Child to Social Worker

Climbing Toward After

Once upon a time, when you could read all the infertility blogs over your lunch break there were so few, there was a writer who called herself Getupgrrl. I know some of you are nodding and smiling right now, while most of you are probably saying, "Who?"

She was a amazingly gifted writer. Stunning. She once wrote a post titled, "The Sound of the World Splitting Apart." I won't try to describe it because it has been years--six?--since I first read it and I couldn't do it justice. It was one of a handful of posts I've read over the years that  have never fully shaken from my memory. It was about a turning point in their battle with infertility, about a day when they received a diagnosis that closed off any possibility of pregnancy. But beyond the specifics it was about an instant when everything changes. When the world tears apart all around you, sending you tumbling into the chasm between before and after, and you know nothing will ever be the same.

I heard that sound recently, the sound of my world splitting apart. I don't know how, or if, I'm going to write my way through it. It is all rather unbloggable. But if I'm quiet right now, that is why.

Reminder

It's the last day to sign up for the Interview Project, so don't wait! I'll be pairing everyone up this weekend.

I've had a few folks write in asking if they can participate if they are waiting to adopt/don't have the kind of contact they'd hoped for/aren't in a sterotypical open adoption/etc. YES. As far as I'm concerned, if you write about openness in adoption, you're in. That goes for the roundtables, too. The whole point is that all of us are coming at openness from our own unique perspective, so we each have things to share and things to learn.

In fact, I think I'm going to make a new category in the blogroll who aren't comfortable claiming the "open adoption" label, but are practicing (and writing about) openness in adoption. Stay tuned.

PS This is my 500th post! Only took me three years. Heh.