It's time to look back at the ten most popular posts from 2011. I left out Open Adoption Bloggers projects (roundtable prompts, blogger interviews, interview project, etc.), since people visit those posts for the sake of finding writing by someone other than me!
December 31, 2011
December 29, 2011
Review: The Magic Room
 |
| My mama's dress |
The latest read in the BlogHer Book Club is The Magic Room by Jeffrey Zaslow. The "magic" mirror-lined room of the title, where brides go to pose in potential dresses, is found upstairs at family-owned Becker's Bridal in tiny Fowler, Michigan. Zaslow alternates the story of four generations of Becker family store workers (this was the most interesting part, for me) with profiles of recent brides who visited the store.
Prior to reading, I wondered if my lack of wedding dress shopping experience might make it hard for me to connect with the book. But in the end it was the author himself who was the stumbling block. I never got past his disdain for women who had sex or even (gasp!) children prior to marriage (They shouldn't wear white? Are you kidding me?); his near-fetishization of four sisters who chose not to kiss anyone until engaged or married; his unexamined fondness for a "traditional" past in which daughters deferred to their parents and people stayed married, no matter how awful those marriages were. Nor could I get past the total lack of acknowledgement of the women who were glaringly absent: no bride (or family member, for that matter) is gay in this book, nor (from what I could tell from the pictures) are there any people of color.
In his opening, Zaslow said that he wanted to write about love between parents and daughters. A look at societal changes in various individuals' and families' attitudes around marriage could have been an interesting way to go about that. Instead, the book struck me as judgmental and shallow, celebrating only a narrow set of values and experiences.
Disclosure: This post is compensated as part of the BlogHer Book Club. I got $20 and a book--whoo!
December 28, 2011
Open Adoption Roundtable #33
A straightforward prompt for the end of the year:
What did you learn about open adoption in 2011?
The Open Adoption Roundtable is a series of occasional writing prompts about open adoption. It's designed to showcase of the diversity of thought and experience in the open adoption community. You don't need to be listed at Open Adoption Bloggers to participate or even be in a traditional open adoption. If you're thinking about openness in adoption, you have a place at the table. The prompts are meant to be starting points--please feel free to adapt or expand on them.
Write a response at your blog--linking back here so your readers can browse other participating blogs--and share your post in the comments here. Using a previously published post is fine; I'd appreciate it if you'd add a link back to the roundtable. If you don't blog, you can always leave your thoughts directly in the comments.
***
Excerpts from the responses (so far):
Kate (adoptive mom) in the comments section: "Finally, I realized that I love my daughter's birthparents. Not 'love them 'cause they made me a mom', not 'love them 'cause they're my daughter's birthparents', but actually love these two people for the human beings they are. Huge to realize this. I think it's the essence of family - love without a reason for loving."
Sparklejenna (adoptive mom): "This sums up another thing I have learned through the process of open adoption, and that is that our children don't belong to us, no matter how they come in to our lives. They are these amazing little beings of the universe and we are just lucky to have the opportunity to be a part of their unfolding."
Debbie (first mom) @ Complicated Debbie: "I've learned that my heart is capable of breaking daily over the same things."
Racilous (first mom) @ Adoption in the City: "I think from all the stories I’ve heard this year, all the people I’ve met, I have opened my mind to the far reaches of what adoption can look like. And I am finding a way to not only understand that different isn’t bad, but I have learned that those who may approach things differently than me can teach me a lot if I only open my eyes and pay attention."
Elizabeth (pre-adoptive parent) @ Happy Adoption Story: "This adoption process is going to make me a better person. It already has. I have, in the past, allowed my own insecurities, my tendency to be overly-sensitive, and just plain hurt feelings, make me angry at others. I am quickly realizing that there really isn't going to be much room for that when it comes to this adoption."
Katie (pre-adoptive parent) @ Removing Roadblocks: "This is a big one-I want to spend time with our child's birthmother and her son. They are super-fun to be around and easy to get along with."
Lynn @ (adoptive mom) Open Hearts Open Minds: This year, I learned that relationships in an open adoption, as with any type of relationship, are fluid and evolving.
I am (first dad) @ Statistically Impossible: "I don't have it all worked out. I don't know where this adoption process is going. And I'm not afraid. That's just how relationships go. We never know where they're headed, and in truth, I think I'm glad of that."
Robyn (adoptive mom) @ The Chittister Family: "So, what did I learn about open adoption in 2011? I guess I learned more about what open adoption is like through other people’s eyes."
K (first mom) @ 100 Letters to You: "I hadn't really realized just how much my relationship with O's parents had changed until I started reading through the emails we sent just prior and right after O's birth. We were EXTREMELY close at the time. And now, well, we're just not. But it's a good change for us, and I think we're both pretty comfortable with where we are."
Amy (first mom) @ Ramblings from Real Life: "I learned that open adoption never gets any easier when it comes to emotions. I think that in the past almost eight years I have learned what my emotional triggers are, but there are some that will always pop up that I am not aware of."
MommySquared (adoptive mom) @ Our journey to parenthood and the years that follow: "Also, we did learn never, never close the door on a relationship! We kept that door open never closing it for the possibility of meeting up with our older daughter's birth father...and this summer we reconnected in person spending the day with him, his wife and his daughter during our family visit to Minnesota where he lives and our daughter was born."
Monika (first mom) @ Monika's Musings: "But I learned there is more power in me than I thought. I did more letting go this year in my relationship with my daughter & her parents. This is not to say that I'm abandoning the relationship. However, I'm worrying just a little bit less that the investing I've done in the relationship will be for naught."
Kelly (adoptive mom) @ Making Monkey Soup: "We still haven’t come to a place where we have decided one way or another to open our adoption, but I know that I have people out there who can be a resource for us, and a support group of other parents who have been successful in opening what had been closed foster care adoptions. Just learning that there are families out there who have been able to make an open adoption happen, when the social workers have stated they thought it would be better to keep things closed, makes me feel that my gut feelings about opening our adoption up could work."
Jenna (first mom) @ The Chronicles of Munchkin Land: "But it comes down to this: I won’t apologize for my family. I won’t change how we do things just to make you feel better. I won’t quit doing what I’m doing just so you feel better about the path your life journey has taken."
KatjaMichelle (first mom) @ Therapy is Expensive: "Lesson 2: I have a voice and I need to use it."
Venessa (adoptive mom) @ A Journey of Love: "I am so thankful for that we still have a relationship with the birth mom and birth father. I want them to continue to be part of our daughters story. So no matter what, I will do what I can to make this relationship work. Many people dont agree with me or my husband on this but again, it is our adoption and only we know what is best for us in this situation."
Barb Sobel (first mom) @ Sideshow Barb: "Finally, at 38, I discovered that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. My Jr High math teacher would be proud. Aristotle, too. And my therapist."
DrSpouse (pre-adoptive parent) @ What am I?: "It is possible to be too open - I had a very early lesson in how even seemingly innocuous information can be misinterpreted."
Karen (adoptive mom) @ Karen's Adoption Journey: "Seeing those photos, I realized with a clarity that had escaped me prior to that moment that we did not leave his family behind in Ethiopia. Despite the hardships of distance and communication, we are not two separate families, but rather one large one, joined by our love for one little boy."
Danielle (first mom) @ Another Version of Mother: "I will always be a 'birthmother'. I cannot take back anything that happened to me almost a decade ago. A thought that both comforts me and renders me feeling so helpless that I wish I could crawl into bed and sleep forever."
Amber (adoptive mom) and Ashley (first mom) @ Bumber's Bumblings: "I've been thinking about where to go with this topic for a few days and when Ashley, B's birth mom came for a visit today, it popped into my head. I know you have so enjoyed hearing from her in the few blogs she has written or participated with me on. I randomly asked her the question above today."
Cat (adoptive mom) @ Cat's Litterbox: "If you would have asked me a year ago, if I thought our relationship with his side of our family would be what it is, I would have said no. I didn't think it was possible... but I was also basing my opinions on the way L acted in May and June. She was upset and scared and lashed out and I'm just thankful that we were all able to get past that."
Geochick (adoptive mom) @ An Engineer Becomes a Mom: "It’s up to the adoptive parents to do the heavy lifting. First-parents get the short end of the stick when it comes to adoption. They are often written off as horrible people, after all who would give away their baby? The horrors! That’s not true, but if you’re hearing from home, from your friends, from society in general to forget about the baby and move on, wouldn’t you feel tentative about initiating conversations with the adoptive parents? It’s up to the adoptive parents to reach out and indicate that contact is welcome. "
Kristin (adoptive mom) @ Parenthood Path: "The fact is, D does have two mothers, two mommies. But this was a new test, and I found that sometimes my heart (and insecurities?) makes it a challenge to practice what I preach. That was something important that I learned about my open adoption in 2011."
Meghann (adoptive mom) @ Everyday Miracles: "In 2011 I learned that our everyday life has very little to do with open adoption and is, at the same time, imbued with it. The things we do—going to the library, feeding the ducks at the park, grocery shopping, playing, cooking, reading together, eating, bathing, breathing, sleeping…—none of these has the least to do with adoption. But if it weren’t for adoption, we wouldn’t have anyone to do them with. That realization is constant, even though I am not constantly—consciously—thinking about adoption."
Momo Meg (adoptive mom) @ Momosapien: "I’ve pushed myself to be very clear in my communication with LB’s mom, and to communicate even things that feel challenging to me. As our contact has ebbed and flowed this year, I’ve also given myself a chance to notice those patterns and recognize that they likely have more to do with the cycles in our lives than with anything we have or haven’t done. I’ve attempted to be more present and authentic when we interact, instead of being overwhelmed and nervous."
Camille (adoptive mom) @ Embracing the Odyssey: "Your feelings as an adoptive parent aren’t so important when compared with what is best for your child. And so I know this may offend some folks, but it’s important enough to risk ridicule. I’ve got to say, I don’t understand the people I’ve met who are actively seeking closed adoptions when so much evidence (blogs, testimonials, research studies, etc.) points to the benefits of open relationships."
Coley (first mom) @ Living the Bittersweet Life: "I have learned that the time I have spent cultivating a relationship with Charlie before he was old enough to even reciprocate it was not in vain. He is well aware of who I am and our bond. I now think that had I not invested time and energy into our relationship from the very beginning he might not be as comfortable with me as he is."
Ginnie (first mom) @ Momma's Word Soup: "When we left that lunch I felt like that big weight with "Less Than" stamped on it had been magically lifted from me. I am not Less Than anyone. I am actually More Than many people. I may even be More Than Baby Girl's APs in some ways."
What did you learn about open adoption in 2011?
The Open Adoption Roundtable is a series of occasional writing prompts about open adoption. It's designed to showcase of the diversity of thought and experience in the open adoption community. You don't need to be listed at Open Adoption Bloggers to participate or even be in a traditional open adoption. If you're thinking about openness in adoption, you have a place at the table. The prompts are meant to be starting points--please feel free to adapt or expand on them.
Write a response at your blog--linking back here so your readers can browse other participating blogs--and share your post in the comments here. Using a previously published post is fine; I'd appreciate it if you'd add a link back to the roundtable. If you don't blog, you can always leave your thoughts directly in the comments.
***
Excerpts from the responses (so far):
Kate (adoptive mom) in the comments section: "Finally, I realized that I love my daughter's birthparents. Not 'love them 'cause they made me a mom', not 'love them 'cause they're my daughter's birthparents', but actually love these two people for the human beings they are. Huge to realize this. I think it's the essence of family - love without a reason for loving."
Sparklejenna (adoptive mom): "This sums up another thing I have learned through the process of open adoption, and that is that our children don't belong to us, no matter how they come in to our lives. They are these amazing little beings of the universe and we are just lucky to have the opportunity to be a part of their unfolding."
Debbie (first mom) @ Complicated Debbie: "I've learned that my heart is capable of breaking daily over the same things."
Racilous (first mom) @ Adoption in the City: "I think from all the stories I’ve heard this year, all the people I’ve met, I have opened my mind to the far reaches of what adoption can look like. And I am finding a way to not only understand that different isn’t bad, but I have learned that those who may approach things differently than me can teach me a lot if I only open my eyes and pay attention."
Elizabeth (pre-adoptive parent) @ Happy Adoption Story: "This adoption process is going to make me a better person. It already has. I have, in the past, allowed my own insecurities, my tendency to be overly-sensitive, and just plain hurt feelings, make me angry at others. I am quickly realizing that there really isn't going to be much room for that when it comes to this adoption."
Katie (pre-adoptive parent) @ Removing Roadblocks: "This is a big one-I want to spend time with our child's birthmother and her son. They are super-fun to be around and easy to get along with."
Lynn @ (adoptive mom) Open Hearts Open Minds: This year, I learned that relationships in an open adoption, as with any type of relationship, are fluid and evolving.
I am (first dad) @ Statistically Impossible: "I don't have it all worked out. I don't know where this adoption process is going. And I'm not afraid. That's just how relationships go. We never know where they're headed, and in truth, I think I'm glad of that."
Robyn (adoptive mom) @ The Chittister Family: "So, what did I learn about open adoption in 2011? I guess I learned more about what open adoption is like through other people’s eyes."
K (first mom) @ 100 Letters to You: "I hadn't really realized just how much my relationship with O's parents had changed until I started reading through the emails we sent just prior and right after O's birth. We were EXTREMELY close at the time. And now, well, we're just not. But it's a good change for us, and I think we're both pretty comfortable with where we are."
Amy (first mom) @ Ramblings from Real Life: "I learned that open adoption never gets any easier when it comes to emotions. I think that in the past almost eight years I have learned what my emotional triggers are, but there are some that will always pop up that I am not aware of."
MommySquared (adoptive mom) @ Our journey to parenthood and the years that follow: "Also, we did learn never, never close the door on a relationship! We kept that door open never closing it for the possibility of meeting up with our older daughter's birth father...and this summer we reconnected in person spending the day with him, his wife and his daughter during our family visit to Minnesota where he lives and our daughter was born."
Monika (first mom) @ Monika's Musings: "But I learned there is more power in me than I thought. I did more letting go this year in my relationship with my daughter & her parents. This is not to say that I'm abandoning the relationship. However, I'm worrying just a little bit less that the investing I've done in the relationship will be for naught."
Kelly (adoptive mom) @ Making Monkey Soup: "We still haven’t come to a place where we have decided one way or another to open our adoption, but I know that I have people out there who can be a resource for us, and a support group of other parents who have been successful in opening what had been closed foster care adoptions. Just learning that there are families out there who have been able to make an open adoption happen, when the social workers have stated they thought it would be better to keep things closed, makes me feel that my gut feelings about opening our adoption up could work."
Jenna (first mom) @ The Chronicles of Munchkin Land: "But it comes down to this: I won’t apologize for my family. I won’t change how we do things just to make you feel better. I won’t quit doing what I’m doing just so you feel better about the path your life journey has taken."
KatjaMichelle (first mom) @ Therapy is Expensive: "Lesson 2: I have a voice and I need to use it."
Venessa (adoptive mom) @ A Journey of Love: "I am so thankful for that we still have a relationship with the birth mom and birth father. I want them to continue to be part of our daughters story. So no matter what, I will do what I can to make this relationship work. Many people dont agree with me or my husband on this but again, it is our adoption and only we know what is best for us in this situation."
Barb Sobel (first mom) @ Sideshow Barb: "Finally, at 38, I discovered that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. My Jr High math teacher would be proud. Aristotle, too. And my therapist."
DrSpouse (pre-adoptive parent) @ What am I?: "It is possible to be too open - I had a very early lesson in how even seemingly innocuous information can be misinterpreted."
Karen (adoptive mom) @ Karen's Adoption Journey: "Seeing those photos, I realized with a clarity that had escaped me prior to that moment that we did not leave his family behind in Ethiopia. Despite the hardships of distance and communication, we are not two separate families, but rather one large one, joined by our love for one little boy."
Danielle (first mom) @ Another Version of Mother: "I will always be a 'birthmother'. I cannot take back anything that happened to me almost a decade ago. A thought that both comforts me and renders me feeling so helpless that I wish I could crawl into bed and sleep forever."
Amber (adoptive mom) and Ashley (first mom) @ Bumber's Bumblings: "I've been thinking about where to go with this topic for a few days and when Ashley, B's birth mom came for a visit today, it popped into my head. I know you have so enjoyed hearing from her in the few blogs she has written or participated with me on. I randomly asked her the question above today."
Cat (adoptive mom) @ Cat's Litterbox: "If you would have asked me a year ago, if I thought our relationship with his side of our family would be what it is, I would have said no. I didn't think it was possible... but I was also basing my opinions on the way L acted in May and June. She was upset and scared and lashed out and I'm just thankful that we were all able to get past that."
Geochick (adoptive mom) @ An Engineer Becomes a Mom: "It’s up to the adoptive parents to do the heavy lifting. First-parents get the short end of the stick when it comes to adoption. They are often written off as horrible people, after all who would give away their baby? The horrors! That’s not true, but if you’re hearing from home, from your friends, from society in general to forget about the baby and move on, wouldn’t you feel tentative about initiating conversations with the adoptive parents? It’s up to the adoptive parents to reach out and indicate that contact is welcome. "
Kristin (adoptive mom) @ Parenthood Path: "The fact is, D does have two mothers, two mommies. But this was a new test, and I found that sometimes my heart (and insecurities?) makes it a challenge to practice what I preach. That was something important that I learned about my open adoption in 2011."
Meghann (adoptive mom) @ Everyday Miracles: "In 2011 I learned that our everyday life has very little to do with open adoption and is, at the same time, imbued with it. The things we do—going to the library, feeding the ducks at the park, grocery shopping, playing, cooking, reading together, eating, bathing, breathing, sleeping…—none of these has the least to do with adoption. But if it weren’t for adoption, we wouldn’t have anyone to do them with. That realization is constant, even though I am not constantly—consciously—thinking about adoption."
Momo Meg (adoptive mom) @ Momosapien: "I’ve pushed myself to be very clear in my communication with LB’s mom, and to communicate even things that feel challenging to me. As our contact has ebbed and flowed this year, I’ve also given myself a chance to notice those patterns and recognize that they likely have more to do with the cycles in our lives than with anything we have or haven’t done. I’ve attempted to be more present and authentic when we interact, instead of being overwhelmed and nervous."
Camille (adoptive mom) @ Embracing the Odyssey: "Your feelings as an adoptive parent aren’t so important when compared with what is best for your child. And so I know this may offend some folks, but it’s important enough to risk ridicule. I’ve got to say, I don’t understand the people I’ve met who are actively seeking closed adoptions when so much evidence (blogs, testimonials, research studies, etc.) points to the benefits of open relationships."
Coley (first mom) @ Living the Bittersweet Life: "I have learned that the time I have spent cultivating a relationship with Charlie before he was old enough to even reciprocate it was not in vain. He is well aware of who I am and our bond. I now think that had I not invested time and energy into our relationship from the very beginning he might not be as comfortable with me as he is."
Ginnie (first mom) @ Momma's Word Soup: "When we left that lunch I felt like that big weight with "Less Than" stamped on it had been magically lifted from me. I am not Less Than anyone. I am actually More Than many people. I may even be More Than Baby Girl's APs in some ways."
December 27, 2011
Announcing Best of Open Adoption Blogs 2011
The last week of December is always a little quiet on the internet. Folks take time off to catch their breath after the holidays. Sites publish all sorts of "best of" lists for everything from movies to toys. Bloggers look back over the year and sum up a year's worth of writing. Over at Stirrup Queens, Melissa Ford even puts together a "Creme de la Creme" list of infertility bloggers' favorite posts from the year (watch for it on January 1).
I thought it could be fun to work together on a "best of" compilation for open adoption writing for 2011. Put our minds together to collect our most powerful, intriguing, moving, thought-provoking, or just plain well-written pieces about open adoption from the year in one place.
So, without further ado, I announce the (hopefully) first annual Best of Open Adoption Blogs list for 2011!
This is a spread-the-love exercise. In order to submit one of your own posts from 2011 (don't be shy--every blogger has something worth submitting), you need to also nominate a post written by someone else. Most of us are here online because we've been affected by others' writing. This is a chance to pat another writer on the back and tell them how much we appreciate them sharing their lives and thoughts with us. If you don't blog yourself, that's fine. You can still submit something written by someone else.
Use the online form to make your submissions. The list will go up in two weeks, on January 10. I'll continue to add submissions through January 31; in order to have your items included on January 10, be sure to submit them by January 7.
Now, to anticipate some questions:
How do I submit items?
Just fill out the submission form. Feel free to contact me with any questions.
What are the deadlines?
The list will go live on January 10. Anything submitted by January 7 will be included when the list is published on January 10. The form will stay open through January 31 and I'll add items as they come in. So, in short: January 7 is the initial deadline, January 31 is the final deadline.
How many pieces can I submit?
Just one written by you and one written by someone else from 2011. I know it's hard to pick just one piece out of the entire year, but give it your best shot. What this year moved you, got you thinking, or simply floored you with lovely writing?
I don't have a blog or I don't want to submit one of my own posts. Can I still nominate someone else's writing?
Of course! Just enter "N/A" on the form wherever it asks for information about your blog.
Can I submit one of my own posts without nominating someone else?
Sorry, no. We're celebrating our own excellent writing and spreading the love to others. This is an opportunity to point others to writers they may not have discovered yet.
I'd like to nominate an essay about open adoption that I read on the New York Times website. Is that okay?
Sure! It can be any sort of online writing: something written for a magazine, newspaper, commercial website, or someone's personal blog. It just needs to be (a) available to link to in full online, (b) about open adoption in some way, and (c) originally published between January 1 and December 31, 2011.
Is the list judged or will everyone be included?
This is a come one, come all affair--the more the merrier. No voting or panel of judges. I reserve the right to not include an item if I suspect someone isn't honoring the spirit of the project, but I really doubt I'll need to do that.
So look back through those archives for the year and pick out your favorite posts--one written by you and one written by someone else. No matter how big or small the list turns out to be this year, I'm excited to see what wonderful-ness is on it.
I thought it could be fun to work together on a "best of" compilation for open adoption writing for 2011. Put our minds together to collect our most powerful, intriguing, moving, thought-provoking, or just plain well-written pieces about open adoption from the year in one place.
So, without further ado, I announce the (hopefully) first annual Best of Open Adoption Blogs list for 2011!
This is a spread-the-love exercise. In order to submit one of your own posts from 2011 (don't be shy--every blogger has something worth submitting), you need to also nominate a post written by someone else. Most of us are here online because we've been affected by others' writing. This is a chance to pat another writer on the back and tell them how much we appreciate them sharing their lives and thoughts with us. If you don't blog yourself, that's fine. You can still submit something written by someone else.
Use the online form to make your submissions. The list will go up in two weeks, on January 10. I'll continue to add submissions through January 31; in order to have your items included on January 10, be sure to submit them by January 7.
Now, to anticipate some questions:
How do I submit items?
Just fill out the submission form. Feel free to contact me with any questions.
What are the deadlines?
The list will go live on January 10. Anything submitted by January 7 will be included when the list is published on January 10. The form will stay open through January 31 and I'll add items as they come in. So, in short: January 7 is the initial deadline, January 31 is the final deadline.
How many pieces can I submit?
Just one written by you and one written by someone else from 2011. I know it's hard to pick just one piece out of the entire year, but give it your best shot. What this year moved you, got you thinking, or simply floored you with lovely writing?
I don't have a blog or I don't want to submit one of my own posts. Can I still nominate someone else's writing?
Of course! Just enter "N/A" on the form wherever it asks for information about your blog.
Can I submit one of my own posts without nominating someone else?
Sorry, no. We're celebrating our own excellent writing and spreading the love to others. This is an opportunity to point others to writers they may not have discovered yet.
I'd like to nominate an essay about open adoption that I read on the New York Times website. Is that okay?
Sure! It can be any sort of online writing: something written for a magazine, newspaper, commercial website, or someone's personal blog. It just needs to be (a) available to link to in full online, (b) about open adoption in some way, and (c) originally published between January 1 and December 31, 2011.
Is the list judged or will everyone be included?
This is a come one, come all affair--the more the merrier. No voting or panel of judges. I reserve the right to not include an item if I suspect someone isn't honoring the spirit of the project, but I really doubt I'll need to do that.
So look back through those archives for the year and pick out your favorite posts--one written by you and one written by someone else. No matter how big or small the list turns out to be this year, I'm excited to see what wonderful-ness is on it.
December 25, 2011
Christmas Wishes
To those who are celebrating Christmas today, may your time be marked by the simplicity of his birth and the magnitude of his purpose.
To everyone who reads here, whether it's a day of celebration or not for you, may you know peace and joy--today and every day. I am so very, very grateful for you.
Photo credit: fras1977 under Creative Common license
December 21, 2011
Wordless Wednesday: Since I Don't Have Your Address
Enter password to view your special-as-a-precious-snowflake holiday greeting
December 20, 2011
Christmas with the Preschooler
Eddie is very into gift giving this Christmas. Very. He sat down a few weeks ago and made a careful list of everyone he wanted to give gifts to, then had me take him around shopping. When we got together with my family last night for a little early Christmas celebration with my brother and sister-in-law he excitedly brought over all the presents we had for them to open before he even remembered they would have things for him, too. It's a nice change from a couple of years ago, when toddler Eddie saw Christmas as little more than an orgy of presents, all for him, him, him!
Mari isn't quite there yet. She's old enough to start experiencing the joy of giving, but if allowed to make her own selections she'd pick out baby dolls for everyone and be done with it. Surely everyone wants a baby doll, right? So her gift process this year looked something more like this: right before ordering a pair of slippers for Todd, I showed them to her and asked if she'd like to give them to Daddy as her Christmas present. "Sure!" she agreed. Rinse and repeat for everyone else in our family.
The Mari plan has its flaws. The other day Todd conspiratorially called her over to the laptop and showed her something on the screen. "Do you want to give these to Mama for Christmas?" he asked.
"Oh, Daddy!" she cried out happily. "That's what I got for you!"
Mari isn't quite there yet. She's old enough to start experiencing the joy of giving, but if allowed to make her own selections she'd pick out baby dolls for everyone and be done with it. Surely everyone wants a baby doll, right? So her gift process this year looked something more like this: right before ordering a pair of slippers for Todd, I showed them to her and asked if she'd like to give them to Daddy as her Christmas present. "Sure!" she agreed. Rinse and repeat for everyone else in our family.
The Mari plan has its flaws. The other day Todd conspiratorially called her over to the laptop and showed her something on the screen. "Do you want to give these to Mama for Christmas?" he asked.
"Oh, Daddy!" she cried out happily. "That's what I got for you!"
December 19, 2011
Anticipated Memories
In a few days, we'll head out to the train station to pick up Mari's first mom, Beth. We will exchange gifts, see some pretty holiday light displays, have dinner with my parents.
Later that evening we'll pile onto the big couch in the family room and pop Elf in the DVD player. It's one of the Christmas movie greats, in my mind, with Buddy's unabashed certainty that he has a place both with the family into which he was born and the family in which he was raised.
This will be the third year we've done this little Christmas visit routine. It would be the fourth, had we not gotten snowed in on Mari's first Christmas. The familiarity of it, the feeling that we don't even have to plan it each year but rather just pick a date, makes me happy. And my favorite part of all is watching the movie together, comfortable and cozy and a little bit sleepy from a day of holiday fun. When we called Beth this year to iron out arrival times and such, she brought it up, too. "Oh, Elf! It's one of my favorite movies. I can't wait to watch it again with you guys."
I think of traditions as memories anticipated. I like that we're creating traditions with Beth, as simple as they are; memories that will be part of what Mari and Eddie's childhood.
Read other adoption bloggers' holiday memories at the latest open adoption roundtable
Later that evening we'll pile onto the big couch in the family room and pop Elf in the DVD player. It's one of the Christmas movie greats, in my mind, with Buddy's unabashed certainty that he has a place both with the family into which he was born and the family in which he was raised.
This will be the third year we've done this little Christmas visit routine. It would be the fourth, had we not gotten snowed in on Mari's first Christmas. The familiarity of it, the feeling that we don't even have to plan it each year but rather just pick a date, makes me happy. And my favorite part of all is watching the movie together, comfortable and cozy and a little bit sleepy from a day of holiday fun. When we called Beth this year to iron out arrival times and such, she brought it up, too. "Oh, Elf! It's one of my favorite movies. I can't wait to watch it again with you guys."
I think of traditions as memories anticipated. I like that we're creating traditions with Beth, as simple as they are; memories that will be part of what Mari and Eddie's childhood.
Read other adoption bloggers' holiday memories at the latest open adoption roundtable
December 14, 2011
Open Adoption Roundtable #32
This topic is becoming something of an annual December tradition for the Open Adoption Bloggers! Last year we wrote about how open adoption intersects with our holiday traditions. Two years ago we wrote in general about open adoption and the holiday season.
This time we are going to focus in on one specific memory and record another small moment in the ongoing stories of adoption in our lives. Share a holiday memory that involves open adoption.
The Open Adoption Roundtable is a series of occasional writing prompts about open adoption. It's designed to showcase of the diversity of thought and experience in the open adoption community. You don't need to be listed at Open Adoption Bloggers to participate or even be in a traditional open adoption. If you're thinking about openness in adoption, you have a place at the table. The prompts are meant to be starting points--please feel free to adapt or expand on them.
Write a response at your blog--linking back here so your readers can browse other participating blogs--and share your post in the comments here. Using a previously published post is fine; I'd appreciate it if you'd add a link back to the roundtable. If you don't blog, you can always leave your thoughts directly in the comments.
***
Cindy (first mom) in comments shares how social media lets her witness her son's celebrations.
Amber (adoptive mom) @ Bumber's Bumblings writes about how meaningful it is to be included in one of her son's first family's annual traditions.
I Was Anne (adoptive mom) @ Tears of/and Joy recalls a poignant Christmas gift to her daughter from her first mom.
Cat (adoptive mom) @ Cat's Litterbox writes about making holiday gifts with her son for his birth families.
Debbie (adoptive and foster mom) @ Always and Forever Family talks about using Skype to open gifts "in person" and spending the holidays with her foster daughters' family.
Venessa (adoptive mom) @ A Journey of Love writes about picking out a gift for her daughter's first parents during this first year of the adoption.
Robyn (adoptive mom) @ The Chittister Family worries about the crises that hit her son's first family during this time of the year.
Racilous (first mom) @ Adoption in the City writes about her shifting thoughts about connecting her son with the holiday traditions from her childhood.
Amy (pre-adoptive parent) @ Jim and Amy Hoping to Adopt takes a moment to imagine what could be in future Christmases.
Momo Meg (adoptive mom) @ Momosapien recalls the bittersweetness of her first Christmas with her daughter, grappling with the emotional and physical distance from her first mom alongside her joy.
Jenna (first mom) @ The Chronicles of Munchkin Land looks back to the fear and hope of the first Christmas after placing her daughter.
Sonya (adoptive mom) @ The Dobbins Boys celebrates the mutual warmth and acceptance in the Christmas celebrations with her son's birth family.
Heather (adoptive mom) @ Production, Not Reproduction appreciates the comfort of familiar holiday rituals with her daughter's first mom.
Prabha (adoptive mom) @ Baby Steps to a Baby Dream reflects on the tiny shifts each year in her relationship with her daughters' first mom, dreaming of what could be in Christmases to come.
Tiffany (adoptive mom) @ Finding K shares how her new daughter's adoption represents hope and perseverance to her during this holiday season.
A Life Being Lived (first mom) @ Carrying a Cat by the Tail talks about the gift tradition she's started that will last throughout the years.
Gstf344 (adoptive mom) @ Heart Full of Love remembers a moment from her son's Christmas birth that is particularly special to her.
This time we are going to focus in on one specific memory and record another small moment in the ongoing stories of adoption in our lives. Share a holiday memory that involves open adoption.
The Open Adoption Roundtable is a series of occasional writing prompts about open adoption. It's designed to showcase of the diversity of thought and experience in the open adoption community. You don't need to be listed at Open Adoption Bloggers to participate or even be in a traditional open adoption. If you're thinking about openness in adoption, you have a place at the table. The prompts are meant to be starting points--please feel free to adapt or expand on them.
Write a response at your blog--linking back here so your readers can browse other participating blogs--and share your post in the comments here. Using a previously published post is fine; I'd appreciate it if you'd add a link back to the roundtable. If you don't blog, you can always leave your thoughts directly in the comments.
***
Cindy (first mom) in comments shares how social media lets her witness her son's celebrations.
Amber (adoptive mom) @ Bumber's Bumblings writes about how meaningful it is to be included in one of her son's first family's annual traditions.
I Was Anne (adoptive mom) @ Tears of/and Joy recalls a poignant Christmas gift to her daughter from her first mom.
Cat (adoptive mom) @ Cat's Litterbox writes about making holiday gifts with her son for his birth families.
Debbie (adoptive and foster mom) @ Always and Forever Family talks about using Skype to open gifts "in person" and spending the holidays with her foster daughters' family.
Venessa (adoptive mom) @ A Journey of Love writes about picking out a gift for her daughter's first parents during this first year of the adoption.
Robyn (adoptive mom) @ The Chittister Family worries about the crises that hit her son's first family during this time of the year.
Racilous (first mom) @ Adoption in the City writes about her shifting thoughts about connecting her son with the holiday traditions from her childhood.
Amy (pre-adoptive parent) @ Jim and Amy Hoping to Adopt takes a moment to imagine what could be in future Christmases.
Momo Meg (adoptive mom) @ Momosapien recalls the bittersweetness of her first Christmas with her daughter, grappling with the emotional and physical distance from her first mom alongside her joy.
Jenna (first mom) @ The Chronicles of Munchkin Land looks back to the fear and hope of the first Christmas after placing her daughter.
Sonya (adoptive mom) @ The Dobbins Boys celebrates the mutual warmth and acceptance in the Christmas celebrations with her son's birth family.
Heather (adoptive mom) @ Production, Not Reproduction appreciates the comfort of familiar holiday rituals with her daughter's first mom.
Prabha (adoptive mom) @ Baby Steps to a Baby Dream reflects on the tiny shifts each year in her relationship with her daughters' first mom, dreaming of what could be in Christmases to come.
Tiffany (adoptive mom) @ Finding K shares how her new daughter's adoption represents hope and perseverance to her during this holiday season.
A Life Being Lived (first mom) @ Carrying a Cat by the Tail talks about the gift tradition she's started that will last throughout the years.
Gstf344 (adoptive mom) @ Heart Full of Love remembers a moment from her son's Christmas birth that is particularly special to her.
December 12, 2011
Another One for the Toolbox
I picked up this retort from a co-worker of mine last week and am pocketing it away for future use. Thought some of you might appreciate it as well.
Someone dropped that dreaded phrase, "I'm not a racist, but [insert racially loaded statement here]," and he came right back with, "Hm, I wonder someone who was racist would think about that?"
Someone dropped that dreaded phrase, "I'm not a racist, but [insert racially loaded statement here]," and he came right back with, "Hm, I wonder someone who was racist would think about that?"
December 06, 2011
Marking Her Territory
Marian's aunt--Todd's sister--is an artist with a penchant for thought-provoking installations and performance pieces in public spaces. I can only think Mari hopes to follow in her aunt's footsteps. She is in a streak of coloring on anything and everything, at every opportunity, clearly in an effort to remove the barriers between artwork and its audience by forcing an interaction within the context of the everyday experience.
Either that, or she is being a pesky three-year old. I prefer to think of her as an artist-in-training.
If a pen, pencil, crayon, or marker is on the loose and Mari goes silent, you can bet that you'll soon find something in the house all marked up. A partial list of things on which Marian has colored...in the last week:
In a similar (although much less destructive) streak with Eddie when he was little I sappily announced that love is slowly losing control of your tidy house and not minding one bit. As tired as I am of wiping marker off the wall, and as much as I'm looking forward to Mari eventually making better choices in this arena, there is still a part of me that wouldn't trade this for anything.
Either that, or she is being a pesky three-year old. I prefer to think of her as an artist-in-training.
If a pen, pencil, crayon, or marker is on the loose and Mari goes silent, you can bet that you'll soon find something in the house all marked up. A partial list of things on which Marian has colored...in the last week:
- Todd's guitar
- Stair wall
- Bathroom counter
- Our bed sheets
- Her bed sheets
- Her bed
- Preschool sign-in sheet
- Preschool tables
- Her medical forms
- Eddie's bedroom door
- Eddie's book
- My bras
- Family room cabinets
- Herself
- Her brother
- The barrels of the markers themselves
In a similar (although much less destructive) streak with Eddie when he was little I sappily announced that love is slowly losing control of your tidy house and not minding one bit. As tired as I am of wiping marker off the wall, and as much as I'm looking forward to Mari eventually making better choices in this arena, there is still a part of me that wouldn't trade this for anything.
November 30, 2011
New OAB Blogs - November 2011
The open adoption blogs list grows every month and sometimes additions get lost among all the awesomeness. Hopefully these monthly round-ups of the new blogs from the month will help folks connect.
Here are the blogs added in November:
FIRST PARENTS
Living Through Today: Some days are good days. And some days you just have to live through. This is my journey through life as a birthmother.
Emotions of Adoption: This blog is for me to express how I feel and my thoughts of being a blind birth mother. Questions and comments are welcome.
ADOPTIVE PARENTS
Mandy Gets a (simple) Life: I am an adoptive mommy of 2, both from open adoptions.
Our Journey to New Heits: We are learning the art of parenting (God’s way), coupled with mastering the dance of open adoption. It’s exciting. It’s exhausting. It’s frustrating. It’s fulfilling. It’s real. It’s raw. It’s as God designed for our family. And it’s all right here.
Momosapien: Musings about my life as one of two white adoptive parents to a biracial daughter through transracial, domestic, open adoption. Documenting the life and times of this queer family.
Elizabethtown: I write about life with a biological son and an adoptive daughter--from dealing with poop to learning how to respond to folks who stare at our multi-ethnic family. I'm an adoption and orphan care advocate and really like comfortable shoes.
A Tale of These Four: We are parents to two of the most beautiful children through adoption. Both are open adoptions.
JessieJingles: Adoptive Mom shares happenings in our household. We have an open adoption with our eldest child's birth family. We are navigating our way into that relationship and life as a family.
Start Spreading the News...: We are so excited and ready to adopt a little bundle of joy, and are anxiously awaiting to witness our sweet little guys face to finally hold his baby brother or sister!
The Whine and Cheese Life: Reflections on parenthood, adoption and life with a preschooler.
Dearest Jessica: A blog about a family growing together though adoption from the foster care system. We cover regular parenting issues, attachment challenges, special needs children and the fun of everyday life!
One Urban Nest: The ongoing life chronicles of one queer family cohabiting in an urban nest. This family of five is led by two matriarchs, Gus and Otto. Our house is shared by three kidlets: an older sibling pair we adopted through a public, domestic adoption, and a wee baby conceived and born at home.
Finding K - A journey of love through infertility, cancer and open adoption: I am a 30-something woman living in SoCal who has faced infertility and ovarian cancer which eventually exposed me to the amazing world of open adoption. This is my personal story of faith and strength that led me to my newborn daughter, K, and the angelic birth parents who united our family.
Our Unconventional Oven: Follow us on our journey through open private adoption and foster care adoption.
PRE-ADOPTIVE PARENTS
Fearlessly Infertile: We're a military family that is pursuing domestic infant adoption. We're homestudy approved and less than a month away from going active with our agency.
Fortunes Full: My name is Lindsay and I'm a mom to two year old W, a wife and a mom-in-waiting to an open, domestic adoption. We're waiting to be chosen by a birth mother and documenting the process and emotions involved.
Ellen + Shelley's Adoption Adventure: Hi! You know that old adage "Opposites Attract"? Well, we are pretty much living proof of that. But despite our differences, we share many common beliefs and goals, one of which is our desire to grow our family through open adoption. So this is our story; a little bit nerdy, a little bit witty, probably a little bit angsty, but always full of love...
Happy Adoption Story: We are a happy, fun-loving family of 3 hoping to soon be a family of 4! I am writing this blog to document our adoption journey from the very beginning, and also to get the word out about our adoption plans.
Seeking Fatherhood: Two wanna-be dads' eye-opening, maddening, thrilling adventures in the foster care/adoption system in California.
Just Let Go: This blog chronicles our journey from recurrent pregnancy loss to domestic infant adoption. I rant, I rave, some people think I'm funny ;)
Here are the blogs added in November:
FIRST PARENTS
Living Through Today: Some days are good days. And some days you just have to live through. This is my journey through life as a birthmother.
Emotions of Adoption: This blog is for me to express how I feel and my thoughts of being a blind birth mother. Questions and comments are welcome.
ADOPTIVE PARENTS
Mandy Gets a (simple) Life: I am an adoptive mommy of 2, both from open adoptions.
Our Journey to New Heits: We are learning the art of parenting (God’s way), coupled with mastering the dance of open adoption. It’s exciting. It’s exhausting. It’s frustrating. It’s fulfilling. It’s real. It’s raw. It’s as God designed for our family. And it’s all right here.
Momosapien: Musings about my life as one of two white adoptive parents to a biracial daughter through transracial, domestic, open adoption. Documenting the life and times of this queer family.
Elizabethtown: I write about life with a biological son and an adoptive daughter--from dealing with poop to learning how to respond to folks who stare at our multi-ethnic family. I'm an adoption and orphan care advocate and really like comfortable shoes.
A Tale of These Four: We are parents to two of the most beautiful children through adoption. Both are open adoptions.
JessieJingles: Adoptive Mom shares happenings in our household. We have an open adoption with our eldest child's birth family. We are navigating our way into that relationship and life as a family.
Start Spreading the News...: We are so excited and ready to adopt a little bundle of joy, and are anxiously awaiting to witness our sweet little guys face to finally hold his baby brother or sister!
The Whine and Cheese Life: Reflections on parenthood, adoption and life with a preschooler.
Dearest Jessica: A blog about a family growing together though adoption from the foster care system. We cover regular parenting issues, attachment challenges, special needs children and the fun of everyday life!
One Urban Nest: The ongoing life chronicles of one queer family cohabiting in an urban nest. This family of five is led by two matriarchs, Gus and Otto. Our house is shared by three kidlets: an older sibling pair we adopted through a public, domestic adoption, and a wee baby conceived and born at home.
Finding K - A journey of love through infertility, cancer and open adoption: I am a 30-something woman living in SoCal who has faced infertility and ovarian cancer which eventually exposed me to the amazing world of open adoption. This is my personal story of faith and strength that led me to my newborn daughter, K, and the angelic birth parents who united our family.
Our Unconventional Oven: Follow us on our journey through open private adoption and foster care adoption.
PRE-ADOPTIVE PARENTS
Fearlessly Infertile: We're a military family that is pursuing domestic infant adoption. We're homestudy approved and less than a month away from going active with our agency.
Fortunes Full: My name is Lindsay and I'm a mom to two year old W, a wife and a mom-in-waiting to an open, domestic adoption. We're waiting to be chosen by a birth mother and documenting the process and emotions involved.
Ellen + Shelley's Adoption Adventure: Hi! You know that old adage "Opposites Attract"? Well, we are pretty much living proof of that. But despite our differences, we share many common beliefs and goals, one of which is our desire to grow our family through open adoption. So this is our story; a little bit nerdy, a little bit witty, probably a little bit angsty, but always full of love...
Happy Adoption Story: We are a happy, fun-loving family of 3 hoping to soon be a family of 4! I am writing this blog to document our adoption journey from the very beginning, and also to get the word out about our adoption plans.
Seeking Fatherhood: Two wanna-be dads' eye-opening, maddening, thrilling adventures in the foster care/adoption system in California.
Just Let Go: This blog chronicles our journey from recurrent pregnancy loss to domestic infant adoption. I rant, I rave, some people think I'm funny ;)
November 29, 2011
All I am Going To Say About That
Normally my wish (hope? want? desire?) for a third child is like winter rainfall in here in the Northwest: ever-present, occasionally annoying, mostly just a forgettable part of the background.
Lately it has been like a hurricane.
Lately it has been like a hurricane.
November 28, 2011
You Cannot Be Valedictorian of Everything
I'm traveling for work this week (hello, Los Angeles sunshine!). It means full days and missing home, but also stretching out in a quiet hotel bed with a novel at hand and no laundry or dishes waiting to be washed.
The thought of cracking open my laptop right now makes me cringe. (I am tip-tapping this out on my iPod; NaBloPoMo compels me.)
I had my roughly annual breakdown the other night, ugly crying into my pillow, exhausted by the responsibilities I carry right now, certain I am failing at all of them, fearful that the only value I have is in being found competent by others.
In the light of day I don't know if I better see reality or just better ignore it.
The thought of cracking open my laptop right now makes me cringe. (I am tip-tapping this out on my iPod; NaBloPoMo compels me.)
I had my roughly annual breakdown the other night, ugly crying into my pillow, exhausted by the responsibilities I carry right now, certain I am failing at all of them, fearful that the only value I have is in being found competent by others.
In the light of day I don't know if I better see reality or just better ignore it.
November 27, 2011
Three Beautiful Things #24
Another Sunday means another three beautiful things post, winter-is-arriving edition:
- Peanut butter toast. Enough said.
- My happy mittens:
- The arrival of Advent, with its rituals and scents and sights, that annual reminder that no matter how deep seems the darkness, how complete seems the silence, there is still yet hope.
What are you finding beautiful today?
November 26, 2011
In the Window
A little over one year ago, Eddie sat in the bay window of our front room, blinking into the sunlight as he waited and watched for his little sister (Kelly's daughter) and her (or, rather, their) grandparents to arrive.
"I have two sisters and you only have one brother!" he told Mari that morning.
By the next day I was kneeling before him to tell him he actually had two sisters and one brother, feeling his weight as he clung to my neck and thought about that new fact.
This morning he climbed into the bay window again. This time he waited for that little baby brother to come to our house, to play with our toys, clamber over his adoptive parents' laps, and laugh in the sunlight.
BabyBrother and his family were in our home--in our lives--in a real and wonderful way today. My heart is overflowing.
"I have two sisters and you only have one brother!" he told Mari that morning.
By the next day I was kneeling before him to tell him he actually had two sisters and one brother, feeling his weight as he clung to my neck and thought about that new fact.
This morning he climbed into the bay window again. This time he waited for that little baby brother to come to our house, to play with our toys, clamber over his adoptive parents' laps, and laugh in the sunlight.
BabyBrother and his family were in our home--in our lives--in a real and wonderful way today. My heart is overflowing.
November 25, 2011
Anyone But You
There was an open adoption roundtable last year that asked what you don't want shared in your open adoption relationships. I started a response but never published it. In a nutshell, it said that there's not much I wouldn't want shared with me if it were shared honestly. If folks were willing to trust me with something, I would want to hear it. We all know that a relationship in which everyone just pretends everything is peachy keen is about as deep as a rain puddle, which is not what I want for our open adoptions.
Everything that is, except for this one thing.
I didn't ever want to know that one of the kids' first parents regretted placing their child with us. Us specifically, not adoption in general--not that they wished they hadn't placed their child at all, but that they wished they had chosen different adoptive parents. If Beth, Ray, or Kelly feel that way, they have every right to their feelings, I just want to live in ignorance. If there are issues to raise with me, raise them; specific things I could change, by all means let me know. But if deep down you feel that you picked the completely wrong parents for your child and nothing will ever change that, I hope I never know. It's hard to imagine any good coming out of knowing; I wouldn't know where to take a relationship from there.
Four months after that roundtable and the post I never published, we learned that Eddie had a little brother whom Kelly placed for adoption. And it felt like I was indirectly being told the thing I hoped never to hear.
I didn't know then, and still don't know now (nor do I think she has any obligation to tell me, to be clear) why she didn't ask us to raise BabyBrother. In my head I know there could be any number of reasons. But the deep, tender (and self-centered) part of me read it only as rejection of me and her decision to entrust Eddie to us in the first place. Because it is not that Kelly would never place another child for adoption, it's that she apparently did not want him adopted by us. She got her chance for a do-over and picked better this time around.
And that is what tears me up inside when I think about BabyBrother's adoption, what I'm still searching for a way to process: that if I had done something differently, said something differently, been someone different during the five years we knew Kelly before BabyBrother was born, that Eddie would have one of his biological siblings here with him, a brother in more ways than one. But she didn't want him with us.
There are very few true failures I feel I've had in my life, failures that couldn't somehow be at least partially made right. But this is one of them. And I've been astounded by how deeply it's shaken me.
(Again, I want to make it clear that my feelings are my own and I don't hold Kelly in any way responsible for them. Nor am I questioning the decisions she made around BabyBrother, which she had every right to make completely independent from our family. This is about my emotional reaction to the adoption, which hit me intensely and has not lessened over time. This is me trying to understand it and process it for myself so that it doesn't affect my long-term relationship with my son's first mother. I owe it to Eddie to have the healthiest relationship I can with Kelly and this is work I need to do on my side in order to have that.)
Everything that is, except for this one thing.
I didn't ever want to know that one of the kids' first parents regretted placing their child with us. Us specifically, not adoption in general--not that they wished they hadn't placed their child at all, but that they wished they had chosen different adoptive parents. If Beth, Ray, or Kelly feel that way, they have every right to their feelings, I just want to live in ignorance. If there are issues to raise with me, raise them; specific things I could change, by all means let me know. But if deep down you feel that you picked the completely wrong parents for your child and nothing will ever change that, I hope I never know. It's hard to imagine any good coming out of knowing; I wouldn't know where to take a relationship from there.
Four months after that roundtable and the post I never published, we learned that Eddie had a little brother whom Kelly placed for adoption. And it felt like I was indirectly being told the thing I hoped never to hear.
I didn't know then, and still don't know now (nor do I think she has any obligation to tell me, to be clear) why she didn't ask us to raise BabyBrother. In my head I know there could be any number of reasons. But the deep, tender (and self-centered) part of me read it only as rejection of me and her decision to entrust Eddie to us in the first place. Because it is not that Kelly would never place another child for adoption, it's that she apparently did not want him adopted by us. She got her chance for a do-over and picked better this time around.
And that is what tears me up inside when I think about BabyBrother's adoption, what I'm still searching for a way to process: that if I had done something differently, said something differently, been someone different during the five years we knew Kelly before BabyBrother was born, that Eddie would have one of his biological siblings here with him, a brother in more ways than one. But she didn't want him with us.
There are very few true failures I feel I've had in my life, failures that couldn't somehow be at least partially made right. But this is one of them. And I've been astounded by how deeply it's shaken me.
(Again, I want to make it clear that my feelings are my own and I don't hold Kelly in any way responsible for them. Nor am I questioning the decisions she made around BabyBrother, which she had every right to make completely independent from our family. This is about my emotional reaction to the adoption, which hit me intensely and has not lessened over time. This is me trying to understand it and process it for myself so that it doesn't affect my long-term relationship with my son's first mother. I owe it to Eddie to have the healthiest relationship I can with Kelly and this is work I need to do on my side in order to have that.)
November 24, 2011
The Simple Things
One of the nice things about having a six year old is that you've had enough years to turn repetition into tradition. This Thanksgiving morning the kids woke up all excited, knowing there were pumpkin cinnamon rolls baking and soon we'd sit around the table, gobbling down rolls and making our big thankfulness poster. This year we drew a row of handprint turkeys across the bottom and filled the rest with all sorts of people and things for which we're grateful.
This probably crosses into only-the-parents-find-it-amusing-please-put-away-that-seventieth-picture-of-the-baby territory, but I wanted to capture some of what Eddie and Marian contributed. I love hearing about the tiny things that make them happy.
This probably crosses into only-the-parents-find-it-amusing-please-put-away-that-seventieth-picture-of-the-baby territory, but I wanted to capture some of what Eddie and Marian contributed. I love hearing about the tiny things that make them happy.
- Building Legos
- Gourds
- Blankie
- My stuffed animals
- Rubber bands
- Chairs and rugs
- Fire
- Nativity set
- My pants
- Rice
- Toy story undies
- Target
- Lollipops
- Library
- Outside
- Glue
- A blue sweatshirt
- Colors
November 23, 2011
Wordless Wednesday: Thanksgiving Eve
(I'd give a credit, but it's bounced around the Internet so many times I haven't the foggiest idea where it originated)
November 22, 2011
Five Confessions
- I totally watch Gossip Girl. In fact, I'm watching it right now.
- I totally say "totally."
- And "dude."
- I am also eating Christmas cookies. Two days before Thanksgiving.
- After telling the kids we couldn't open them until Friday.
November 21, 2011
Why I Do This, Part Three
Read parts one and two before reading this, if you haven't already.
This story has been coming out jumbled and I feel like I'm twirling around without actually saying what I want to say. But press on we will! Somewhere in this mess I'll hopefully convey why I feel so strongly about social media as one (of many) valuable means of post-adoption support and education.
Sometimes people talk about the fact that they went online to find an adoption support network for themselves as a failure of the agency/professionals to support them. That is not exactly my view.
I do not think that all post-adoption support needs to come from professionals. In fact, I’d even say most of it shouldn’t. I think of the role of an adoption agency somewhat like I think of our family's pediatrician. The pediatrician definitely has a role to play in maintaining my children's emotional and physical health, an important one. I rely on her professional knowledge when the kids are sick. I trust she has expertise that I don’t to spot potential health problems and I put a lot of weight on her advice. When the kids were babies and things seemed fragile and swiftly changing, we saw the pediatrician more often. But now that the kids are older and we have some parenting experience to rely on, we don’t need the pediatrician as much aside from crisis points and occasional check-ups.
But there is so much to parenting than looking after their basic health. There are all the day-to-day choices I make about discipline and food and education and potty training and values. There are the idea swapping, asking for emotional support, and plain old venting I need to do sometimes. And for help with all of those things I don’t turn to the pediatrician. Instead, I turn to my friends and family members who share my values. I turn to books or magazines. Sometimes I search for information or folks with similar experiences online.
In my mind, the adoption professionals are like the pediatrician. When things are fragile and new, they should get us off on the right track. They should be there to help us with counseling or mediation when we hit big adoption road bumps. They should be skilled in pointing us to other resources. Their convening power can be used for community building and advocacy, especially on the local level. But for day-to-day adoption support, I don't need an agency counselor, I need friends--friends who "get it."
Finding friends who not only have personal experiences with adoption, but who value openness and share my ethics would be really hard, if I were searching just in my little city. But online I've found my adoption tribe in spades: on Twitter, in my feed reader, in my email. They're a mish-mosh of adoptive parents, adult adoptees, and first parents. Even the "adoption friends" I have locally are people I first met online. And my tribe's combined knowledge and experience is phenomenal.
How many times have you heard someone say they found support online that they'd never been able to find offline? That they found people who shared their circumstances or values or worries? People who could offer up a quick word of encouragement or advice in the middle of a visit? People who challenged them to take a risk or see something from another perspective? How many times have you said it yourself? Just think of the difference we're making for each other.
I don't think any one of us has all the answers. I think precious few among us deserves any "adoption expert" label (I'm certainly not one of them). But all of us put together? We can be a life-changing resource for each other.
That's why I spend my nights copying and pasting entries onto the open adoption blogroll or dreaming up ridiculous projects. I want to open up spaces in which it's easier for people to discover new perspectives or make real connections with others in open adoptions, because my parenting was changed for the better when I did. It is all in hopes that somewhere in that big list of open adoption blogs something will resonate for a reader and she'll leave a comment and begin to form her own tribe. Someone will read a roundtable response and think, "Wow, I've never thought of it in that way before." Someone will click with her interview partner and a new friendship will bloom. And we'll all be a little more open-hearted, a little better educated, and little less alone.
This story has been coming out jumbled and I feel like I'm twirling around without actually saying what I want to say. But press on we will! Somewhere in this mess I'll hopefully convey why I feel so strongly about social media as one (of many) valuable means of post-adoption support and education.
Sometimes people talk about the fact that they went online to find an adoption support network for themselves as a failure of the agency/professionals to support them. That is not exactly my view.
I do not think that all post-adoption support needs to come from professionals. In fact, I’d even say most of it shouldn’t. I think of the role of an adoption agency somewhat like I think of our family's pediatrician. The pediatrician definitely has a role to play in maintaining my children's emotional and physical health, an important one. I rely on her professional knowledge when the kids are sick. I trust she has expertise that I don’t to spot potential health problems and I put a lot of weight on her advice. When the kids were babies and things seemed fragile and swiftly changing, we saw the pediatrician more often. But now that the kids are older and we have some parenting experience to rely on, we don’t need the pediatrician as much aside from crisis points and occasional check-ups.
But there is so much to parenting than looking after their basic health. There are all the day-to-day choices I make about discipline and food and education and potty training and values. There are the idea swapping, asking for emotional support, and plain old venting I need to do sometimes. And for help with all of those things I don’t turn to the pediatrician. Instead, I turn to my friends and family members who share my values. I turn to books or magazines. Sometimes I search for information or folks with similar experiences online.
In my mind, the adoption professionals are like the pediatrician. When things are fragile and new, they should get us off on the right track. They should be there to help us with counseling or mediation when we hit big adoption road bumps. They should be skilled in pointing us to other resources. Their convening power can be used for community building and advocacy, especially on the local level. But for day-to-day adoption support, I don't need an agency counselor, I need friends--friends who "get it."
Finding friends who not only have personal experiences with adoption, but who value openness and share my ethics would be really hard, if I were searching just in my little city. But online I've found my adoption tribe in spades: on Twitter, in my feed reader, in my email. They're a mish-mosh of adoptive parents, adult adoptees, and first parents. Even the "adoption friends" I have locally are people I first met online. And my tribe's combined knowledge and experience is phenomenal.
How many times have you heard someone say they found support online that they'd never been able to find offline? That they found people who shared their circumstances or values or worries? People who could offer up a quick word of encouragement or advice in the middle of a visit? People who challenged them to take a risk or see something from another perspective? How many times have you said it yourself? Just think of the difference we're making for each other.
I don't think any one of us has all the answers. I think precious few among us deserves any "adoption expert" label (I'm certainly not one of them). But all of us put together? We can be a life-changing resource for each other.
That's why I spend my nights copying and pasting entries onto the open adoption blogroll or dreaming up ridiculous projects. I want to open up spaces in which it's easier for people to discover new perspectives or make real connections with others in open adoptions, because my parenting was changed for the better when I did. It is all in hopes that somewhere in that big list of open adoption blogs something will resonate for a reader and she'll leave a comment and begin to form her own tribe. Someone will read a roundtable response and think, "Wow, I've never thought of it in that way before." Someone will click with her interview partner and a new friendship will bloom. And we'll all be a little more open-hearted, a little better educated, and little less alone.
November 20, 2011
Three Beautiful Things #23
Another Sunday, another three beautiful things list. Let's call this the oh my, aren't we glad NaBloPoMo ends in ten days edition.
- Blanket on lap, book in hand, tea at the ready, fire in the fireplace
- A clean and empty kitchen counter
- A home filled with the buttery sweet smell of a baking pie
November 19, 2011
Why I Do This, Part Two
This probably won't make much sense unless you've read part one
So when we last left off, Eddie was a wee babe and I was faking it in the hopes I would one day make it in our open adoption with his birth families. I was confident open adoption was best for Eddie and sure that the internal struggles I was having with it were all because I was a horrible person. I was bound and determined to make this best damn open adoption ever, no matter how much I had to pretend that everything was happy and wonderful.
(This never would have worked, by the way. Kids can see through their parents' false emotional fronts like they have x-ray vision. And in the end I would have emotionally closed myself off to his first parents, which would have tanked the whole thing.)
Then at some point I found people writing about adoption online. There weren't many of them back then. It was an accident--a click off a click off a completely unrelated blog. For the first time I heard other adoptive moms expressing some of my deepest joys and sorrows about adoption and fertility, some of them things I hadn't even been able to put into words before. I read about open adoption from the perspective of first moms. From adopted adults I got insight about what it was like to live as an adoptee in a non-adoption world. Some of it made me feel defensive. But I kept coming back, because something told me the things that made me defensive were probably the things on which I needed to dwell.
Back then I especially needed to hear from adoptive parents who ahead of where I was emotionally and philosophically in this open adoption gig to help me get out of my stuck place. They weren't afraid of the things I was afraid of, like Eddie's first parents ever expressing regret or Eddie ever being sad about adoption (because, remember, I had been taught open adoption prevented those things). And they challenged me to see how being a confident adoptive parent meant opening myself up to the reality that I shared parenthood with my child's birth parents, that it was my job to make space for him to explore in whatever ways he needed what it meant to be a child of two grafted family trees. I was trying to stuff us into the box of "totally normal nuclear family, nothing out of the ordinary, just with some extra players" when we weren't that at all. We were an adoptive family--something equally valid, equally whole, but different.
It wasn't an overnight thing. Sometimes I'd click away from a blog, angry. Sometimes I'd read something brilliant that made everything shift into place and wonder why our pre-adoption training had been so shallow. But dealing with the fear and dealing with my narrow definitions of motherhood that weren’t going to work in adoption finally allowed me to relax in our adoption and embrace my adoptive parent role. It made all the difference for me.
The support I found online wasn't just philosophical, but also practical. It was my only window into what other open adoptions looked like, because I didn't witness any in a day-to-day way in my offline life. One small example: as I read posts from first moms writing about visits with their children, I noticed that a lot of them mentioned wishing they had time alone together, or how significant it was if they did get that time. We started looking for ways to build that into our visits, even if it was just finding an excuse to go to another part of the house when Eddie was a baby. It was something that had not even crossed my mind at that point, but hearing from another's perspective changed how we thought about our visits.
I owe a great debt to adoptive mothers like Karen, Dawn, Abebech, AfrIndie Mum, Lilysea; first moms like Kateri, Poor_Statue, Paragraphein, Claud; and adopted adults like Theresa, Mia, Addie, Harlow's Monkey. My family is stronger because of the time and effort they put into writing online those many years ago.
Part three coming on Monday
So when we last left off, Eddie was a wee babe and I was faking it in the hopes I would one day make it in our open adoption with his birth families. I was confident open adoption was best for Eddie and sure that the internal struggles I was having with it were all because I was a horrible person. I was bound and determined to make this best damn open adoption ever, no matter how much I had to pretend that everything was happy and wonderful.
(This never would have worked, by the way. Kids can see through their parents' false emotional fronts like they have x-ray vision. And in the end I would have emotionally closed myself off to his first parents, which would have tanked the whole thing.)
Then at some point I found people writing about adoption online. There weren't many of them back then. It was an accident--a click off a click off a completely unrelated blog. For the first time I heard other adoptive moms expressing some of my deepest joys and sorrows about adoption and fertility, some of them things I hadn't even been able to put into words before. I read about open adoption from the perspective of first moms. From adopted adults I got insight about what it was like to live as an adoptee in a non-adoption world. Some of it made me feel defensive. But I kept coming back, because something told me the things that made me defensive were probably the things on which I needed to dwell.
Back then I especially needed to hear from adoptive parents who ahead of where I was emotionally and philosophically in this open adoption gig to help me get out of my stuck place. They weren't afraid of the things I was afraid of, like Eddie's first parents ever expressing regret or Eddie ever being sad about adoption (because, remember, I had been taught open adoption prevented those things). And they challenged me to see how being a confident adoptive parent meant opening myself up to the reality that I shared parenthood with my child's birth parents, that it was my job to make space for him to explore in whatever ways he needed what it meant to be a child of two grafted family trees. I was trying to stuff us into the box of "totally normal nuclear family, nothing out of the ordinary, just with some extra players" when we weren't that at all. We were an adoptive family--something equally valid, equally whole, but different.
It wasn't an overnight thing. Sometimes I'd click away from a blog, angry. Sometimes I'd read something brilliant that made everything shift into place and wonder why our pre-adoption training had been so shallow. But dealing with the fear and dealing with my narrow definitions of motherhood that weren’t going to work in adoption finally allowed me to relax in our adoption and embrace my adoptive parent role. It made all the difference for me.
The support I found online wasn't just philosophical, but also practical. It was my only window into what other open adoptions looked like, because I didn't witness any in a day-to-day way in my offline life. One small example: as I read posts from first moms writing about visits with their children, I noticed that a lot of them mentioned wishing they had time alone together, or how significant it was if they did get that time. We started looking for ways to build that into our visits, even if it was just finding an excuse to go to another part of the house when Eddie was a baby. It was something that had not even crossed my mind at that point, but hearing from another's perspective changed how we thought about our visits.
I owe a great debt to adoptive mothers like Karen, Dawn, Abebech, AfrIndie Mum, Lilysea; first moms like Kateri, Poor_Statue, Paragraphein, Claud; and adopted adults like Theresa, Mia, Addie, Harlow's Monkey. My family is stronger because of the time and effort they put into writing online those many years ago.
But beyond changing my headspace, I needed peers. I needed "adoption friends," not just writers I admired from afar. That actually took much longer to develop. For a long time, years really, I was a lurker, only reading blogs without commenting or writing myself. (Which is fine, I embrace lurkers! You are more than welcome here.) I was getting a lot out of reading in the online adoption world, but it wasn't helping me feel less isolated in tough moments. I read posts like this one when I found myself sobbing in the bedroom during a weekend with Eddie's first mom and just want to reach back in time and give myself a giant hug. I mean, listen to me:
If I were someone else, I would tell me not to be embarrassed. It was where my heart was at at the time, and I needed to deal with it so it wouldn't affect my actions toward K. But I need to figure out some way to honor those feelings and work through them in a way that doesn't leave me feeling so isolated. More than anything this weekend I wanted a peer I could call who would tell me, "I've felt that way, too. It's ok. You're doing fine." Or tell me to get over myself if that's what I needed. The point is I wanted to know there was someone who had been there before me. ... I read stories of so many adoptive parents who express nothing but joy over their relationships with their children's first parents. They make me happy. They also make me wonder what is wrong that sometimes this is all incredibly draining for me?
I've been hesitating over this post, not wanting to look like a self-centered tool. I can't seem to wrangle the words to express what I am trying to say. But I want to put it out there so that if someone else has found herself there she can know that she isn't alone.I had been blogging in earnest probably eight months or so at that point. It was 2007. That might have been one of the first times I was really vulnerable about what I was feeling; you can see how hesitant I am, how much I qualify everything. And if you look at the comments on that long-ago post, people showed up and showed me that I wasn't alone. Some of them told me they had felt similar things (and some of those surprised me, because they were ones I thought felt nothing but joy). It was a turning point for me, the beginnings of my online community, people I could email (or Tweet or chat with) about challenges. And ever since then I've been able to move through our open adoptions knowing that whatever comes our way, people have my back. I'm not alone.
Part three coming on Monday
November 18, 2011
Last Interview Project Post, I Promise
You rock. Seriously. Even skimming though interviews as I caught up on links yesterday, I could tell how much thought and effort went in to them. A huge thanks to everyone who participated and everyone who's reading along and leaving comments.
This is when blogging on the down-low kind of bites. I'm so proud of what we pulled off yesterday, but I can't tell anyone but Todd about it 'round here.
Now if you'll excuse me, Todd is back from his trip to his relative's funeral, the kids are sound asleep, the rain is falling on the rooftop, I just dozed off in between writing sentences, and my nice warm bed beckons.
This is when blogging on the down-low kind of bites. I'm so proud of what we pulled off yesterday, but I can't tell anyone but Todd about it 'round here.
Now if you'll excuse me, Todd is back from his trip to his relative's funeral, the kids are sound asleep, the rain is falling on the rooftop, I just dozed off in between writing sentences, and my nice warm bed beckons.
November 17, 2011
Interview Project - November 2011
Below, in no particular order, are the wonderful participants in the Adoption Bloggers Interview Project! They will be posting their interviews over the course of the day. Be sure to browse through!To help with your browsing, links to blogs in general are italicized and links to specific interview posts are not. I will update with links to interview posts as they come in.
- Letters to You & Open Hearts Open Minds
- Weaving Love Untangling Confusion & Production, Not Reproduction
- Our Journey to Parenthood and the Years That Follow & Art from the Lost Planet
- Mother Issues & Reservado Para Futura Mamá
- Write Mind Open Heart & A Few Sprinkles Short of a Sundae
- Surprised By Hope & Bumber's Bumblings
- Sheeps Eating Me & Living Through Today
- Not A Visitor & One Inch of Grace
- growfamilygrow & Weathering the Storm
- Monika's Musings & motherparadox
- Monkey Soup & Never Mind the Distance
- Marginally a Mother & Embracing the Odyssey
- Sideshow Barb & Adoption of Jane
- Sweetridgesisters & Adopting the Spectrum
- Baby Steps to a Baby Dream & Therapy is Expensive
- Making Our Family Complete & My Angels From God (auto-music warning)
- Life Unexpected & A Birth Mother's Love
- One More Day & iWrite
- Letters to a Birthmother & Simple Perfect Life
- Little Bird & Living the Bittersweet Life
- Another Version of Mother & Betty Anne & Scott
- Everyday Miracles & Becca Blogs
- Love Is Not a Pie & LovedBE
- Endure for a Night & Momosapien
- Blessings in Disguise & The Spinning Goth
- Jim and Amy Hoping to Adopt & (w)rite here
- White Sugar, Brown Sugar & The Chronicles of Munchkin Land
- From Empty Womb to Overflowing Heart & Eyes Wide Open: My Journey into Motherhood
- My Hope Fulfilled & Bring Hope Home
- The Great Wide Open & Ramblings from Real Life
- American Family & Adoption Makes Seven
- Today's the Day & My Fascinating Life
- Consumed by Love & Parenthood Path
- Finding a Family & Mandy Gets a (simple) Life
- Waking Up Infertile & A Tale of These Four
- Two Women Blogging & The Not So Secret Life of an Adoptee
- Many Lives & Chris and Amy Thompson
- The Chittister Children & A Birth Mother Voice
- Marriage 2.0 & Ala Carte Baby
- Insert Bad Movie Title Here & Unofficial Mom
- Earth Stains & Everybody Wants a Cupcake
- Noah's Ark & Meandering Steph
- TTABaby & Adoption Journey
- Statistically Impossible & The R House
- Life in the Last Frontier & Dearest Jessica
- Regular Midwesterners & Adoption Ain't for Sissies
- Tears of/and Joy & I Should Really Be Working
- Fertility Alphabet Soup & Mamacandtheboys
- Tortoise Tales & SocialWrkr24/7: Eyes Opened Wider
- Good News Adoption & Our Blog Spot
- Sweet Little Nest & Motherhood Meets Me
- Our Little Hope & My Little Lantern
- Led By Love & Filling Our Castle
- Thriving Despite Us & The Adoptive Mommy Diaries
- Our Family Building Adventure & Kiki Plus 3
- Bread and Bread & Sincerely, Jenni
- Semi-Feral Mama & Pocket Full of Prose
- idiotgirlslifepostadoption & The International Mom
- Seriously?! & Got Love, Been Married, Where the Hell's the Baby Carriage
- Adoption in the City & Not Quite Juno
Interview with Jasmine of Weaving Love Untangling Confusion
One of the Interview Project's goals is to get us reading outside of our usual blog circles. That was definitely my experience this time. I met a very kind blogger whose writings I don't know that I would have come across otherwise. As you'll see, I think she took a big risk throwing her name into the virtual hat to be paired with a random blogger. I hope you'll take in her interview with an open mind and give her a respectful welcome in the comments.
Jasmine, who started writing at the beginning of the year at Weaving Love Untangling Confusion, is an artist, a wife, and a mom to two children. She was adopted as a baby after spending her first four months in an orphanage and grew up in a closed adoption. She reunited with her first parents five years ago.
The unusual twist in her story, which is also the focus of much of her blog, happened this year when her (adoptive) mother passed away. As she was intensely grieving, she and her (biological) father became very close and genetic sexual attraction entered into their relationship--an experience she notes is "rare, but very real."
The term "genetic attraction" describes an intense attraction between two people who are (knowingly or unknowingly) biologically related but did not meet until adulthood. "Genetic sexual attraction" (GSA) is that, but with an added sexual component. Jasmine wrote to me that it is "a natural response to a broken situation" when biological family members have been separated, whether by closed adoption, the use of donor gametes, or other reasons. One helpful description I came across is that there can be very intense emotions that can happen in reunion, including a need to bond and connect. In some cases, for some people, the only way the adult brain knows how to categorize those intense emotions is as attraction.
Reading through Jasmine's blog, I really came to admire her bravery in sharing her story so honestly. That takes guts. And as someone who frequently fails in self-care, I was so impressed by her unwavering commitment to find healing, health, and wholeness for herself, her marriage, and her bio family relationships after a tumultuous and confusing year.
And now for the interview:
Jasmine, who started writing at the beginning of the year at Weaving Love Untangling Confusion, is an artist, a wife, and a mom to two children. She was adopted as a baby after spending her first four months in an orphanage and grew up in a closed adoption. She reunited with her first parents five years ago.
The unusual twist in her story, which is also the focus of much of her blog, happened this year when her (adoptive) mother passed away. As she was intensely grieving, she and her (biological) father became very close and genetic sexual attraction entered into their relationship--an experience she notes is "rare, but very real."
The term "genetic attraction" describes an intense attraction between two people who are (knowingly or unknowingly) biologically related but did not meet until adulthood. "Genetic sexual attraction" (GSA) is that, but with an added sexual component. Jasmine wrote to me that it is "a natural response to a broken situation" when biological family members have been separated, whether by closed adoption, the use of donor gametes, or other reasons. One helpful description I came across is that there can be very intense emotions that can happen in reunion, including a need to bond and connect. In some cases, for some people, the only way the adult brain knows how to categorize those intense emotions is as attraction.
Reading through Jasmine's blog, I really came to admire her bravery in sharing her story so honestly. That takes guts. And as someone who frequently fails in self-care, I was so impressed by her unwavering commitment to find healing, health, and wholeness for herself, her marriage, and her bio family relationships after a tumultuous and confusing year.
And now for the interview:
November 16, 2011
So Cal Meet Up!
Thanks to the lovely Kristin's organizational skills, an actual get-out-of-the-house-and-have-a-drink Los Angeles meet-up is on the books! Bloggers, blog readers, friends and family of bloggers are all welcome. We'll be meeting up at Magnolia on Lake in Pasadena on Tuesday, November 29 at 7:00 p.m.
Let us know in comments or by email if you're going to join in the fun so we can adjust the reservation.
November 15, 2011
Why I Do This
The things I've been lucky enough to be part of in our little corner of the internet make me so happy, you don't even know. The Interview Project. Open Adoption Bloggers. The Open Adoption Roundtables. I love what we together have turned those projects into.
They also take a lot of time to organize. Time I could be spending with my family or my friends. Or, ahem, the pile of clothes in permanent residence on my bedroom floor. Todd is ridiculously supportive, but I know sometimes he wonders if it's worth it, especially when I'm creeping into bed at 3:00 a.m. after matching up interview partners or glued to my computer screen during those scarce hours we have when the kids are asleep. I wonder myself sometimes if I'll look back and wish I had chosen differently.
But the thought of not working on those projects, not writing here, not reading your blogs--it deflates me. Because I believe so strongly in the ways we are collectively using social media to augment and create adoption support and education. And I can't imagine not being a part of it.
Social media changed the very shape of my family. Todd and I went into open adoption waving our pom poms and cheering to beat the band. We were open adoption cheerleaders to the core. I haven't lost that certainty that child-centered openness is the healthiest approach, but I want to bury my face in my hands at how naive our enthusiasm was. We really thought that open adoption solved everything; that there were problems and long-term pain the way infant adoption used to be practiced, but open adoption had changed that. (Agency #1 was responsible for a lot of that view, but I won't put all the blame on them.)
Because open adoption was a magical panacea, my mental version of a successful open adoption was one in which no one struggled. Everybody involved would be confident, happy, and secure. Reality hit for me shortly after Eddie was born. Being around his first family, especially Kelly, pushed all sorts of buttons I was horrified to find that I had. Then a really awkward thing happened with Kelly's parents and I was scared that if I responded the wrong way I'd blow my son's chance to grow up knowing his family of origin. I worried a lot. I chastised myself a lot. I was frustrated, anxious, and feeling like something must be wrong with me because my experience didn't match the success story I had in my mind.
I tried reaching out to the agency, more than once. They were the opposite of helpful. No one was talking about these sorts of challenges at Agency #1 or in the literature they recommended. I didn't feel like I could talk to my friends about it, because I worried they'd pity me and not understand why we wanted to forge on with open adoption. Todd and I were pretty much the sum total of each other's adoption support. So I pushed it all down inside and pretended everything was great, all the while knowing there was no way I could do this for years on end.
Our naivete almost cost us so much in our open adoption.
This post is already too long. Part two tomorrow.
They also take a lot of time to organize. Time I could be spending with my family or my friends. Or, ahem, the pile of clothes in permanent residence on my bedroom floor. Todd is ridiculously supportive, but I know sometimes he wonders if it's worth it, especially when I'm creeping into bed at 3:00 a.m. after matching up interview partners or glued to my computer screen during those scarce hours we have when the kids are asleep. I wonder myself sometimes if I'll look back and wish I had chosen differently.
But the thought of not working on those projects, not writing here, not reading your blogs--it deflates me. Because I believe so strongly in the ways we are collectively using social media to augment and create adoption support and education. And I can't imagine not being a part of it.
Social media changed the very shape of my family. Todd and I went into open adoption waving our pom poms and cheering to beat the band. We were open adoption cheerleaders to the core. I haven't lost that certainty that child-centered openness is the healthiest approach, but I want to bury my face in my hands at how naive our enthusiasm was. We really thought that open adoption solved everything; that there were problems and long-term pain the way infant adoption used to be practiced, but open adoption had changed that. (Agency #1 was responsible for a lot of that view, but I won't put all the blame on them.)
Because open adoption was a magical panacea, my mental version of a successful open adoption was one in which no one struggled. Everybody involved would be confident, happy, and secure. Reality hit for me shortly after Eddie was born. Being around his first family, especially Kelly, pushed all sorts of buttons I was horrified to find that I had. Then a really awkward thing happened with Kelly's parents and I was scared that if I responded the wrong way I'd blow my son's chance to grow up knowing his family of origin. I worried a lot. I chastised myself a lot. I was frustrated, anxious, and feeling like something must be wrong with me because my experience didn't match the success story I had in my mind.
I tried reaching out to the agency, more than once. They were the opposite of helpful. No one was talking about these sorts of challenges at Agency #1 or in the literature they recommended. I didn't feel like I could talk to my friends about it, because I worried they'd pity me and not understand why we wanted to forge on with open adoption. Todd and I were pretty much the sum total of each other's adoption support. So I pushed it all down inside and pretended everything was great, all the while knowing there was no way I could do this for years on end.
Our naivete almost cost us so much in our open adoption.
This post is already too long. Part two tomorrow.
November 14, 2011
Three Books from Three-year Old
I just don't have a post in me today; I'm feeling pressed in by offline responsibilities and some sadness in our family after a relative of Todd's passed away yesterday.
Instead I asked Mari what her three favorite books are. Punt to the three-year old! Here is what she picked:
Instead I asked Mari what her three favorite books are. Punt to the three-year old! Here is what she picked:
  | Tumble Bumble by Felicia Bond, a fun little sing-song, rhyming story that starts with a tiny bug out for a walk and ends with ten new friends bouncing on a bed together. Mari has this one memorized and likes to "read" it to me. It's great for learning about sequencing, too. |
  | Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers: page after page of babies doing everyday things and being loved on. In other words, Marian's perfect book. The illustrations by Marla Frazee are very realistic and lively. I love that as you study the detail you see all sorts of family structures and people represented. A definite must for any multiethnic family, for sure. Marian really likes all the different expressions on the babies' faces. |
  | Hush Little Baby by Sylvia Long is an antidote to the traditional "Hush Little Baby" lullaby, with its litany of material gifts. (Full disclosure: I sang that song all the time to baby Mari, too.) This version focuses on the small comforts all around us, from the evening sky to a favorite quilt: "Hush little baby, don't say a word/Mama's going to show you a hummingbird," and so on. |
November 13, 2011
Three Beautiful Things #22
It is Sunday, so it is time for another beautiful things post.
What is beautiful in your world today?
- The full stillness of a house after all the children have fallen asleep
- A compliment from someone you admire (and secretly want to grow up to be like, just a little)
- A three-year old's sweet, tiny singing voice
What is beautiful in your world today?
November 12, 2011
For the Parenting Tool Box
A quick (and completely unsolicited and uncompensated) plug for Crayola's multicultural art supplies, in shades that more accurately reflect various skin tones than the usual classic colors:
I'm so glad I impulsively picked these up while out shopping one day. They have completely changed the way Eddie approaches coloring books and his pictures of people. Giving kids the tools to portray the world around them is pretty dang empowering.
The colors in the crayon box are all in the 64-count box, but the markers and colored pencils are unique shades. They aren't stocked in the big box stores--at least around here--but I found the whole line in a teaching supply store. They are also available online in more than one spot.
 |  |
November 11, 2011
One Veteran (repeat)
This is something I wrote in 2008. I wanted to re-post it on this Veterans' Day, for my dad.
He doesn't want to be in a parade or be hailed as a hero. But he has the Vietnam ribbon on his car. He gives to Amvets. And every Veterans' and Memorial Day he wears his old Army jacket and remembers.
---
My dad did not support what his country was doing in Vietnam and did not want to fight for a cause in which he didn't believe. Faced with three options--prison, becoming a fugitive, or fighting in a war--he decided that risking his life in the jungle was the least frightening. Soon after graduating from college, he entered the Army.
In my parent's wedding photos, his neck is thick from basic training. My mom and dad spent part of their first year of their marriage on an Army base while he completed officer candidate school. Then she moved back in with her parents while he went off to Vietnam. He went with a single goal: don't get killed. Not to be a hero. Just to not get killed.
Growing up, my dad's veteran status was just another bit of trivia for me. It was the pieces of useful army gear we used when camping and a dad who jumped at sudden loud noises. Already knowing the ending of the story--knowing that he obviously survived to father me--made the information tame. My brother and I would string up his old green army hammock between the trees and spin ourselves around and around.
Several years ago, my dad took my brother and me to visit Vietnam. He wanted to finally learn something about the country he had been in so long ago, experience it without the fear and violence. It was right after I got engaged and my mind was full of dreams about my future life with T. We traveled across the country, taking it in. There are stores where you can still buy the detritus the US military left behind thirty years ago. I bought a green hammock for myself and thought about camping with my own kids someday.
One afternoon, after some searching and help from locals, we stood at the edge of road looking out at an expanse of grass and trees where my dad's base camp once was. There on that strip of gravel under the bright sun, just a few years older than my dad had been, the reality of my father's experience, his youth, his separation from his new wife, finally hit me. My god, they sent my dad to a war.
So this Veterans' Day, thank you to those who willingly sacrifice for the honor of serving their country. And thank you also to the ones who feel forced into service by circumstances out of their control and who find no glory in it. You all have my respect.
November 10, 2011
Adoption Doesn't End
I was flipping through a journal the other day, looking for some notes I had taken during a workshop. On an otherwise blank page I came across this single sentence, hastily scribbled on the diagonal: "Someday Marian will likely be pregnant and I won't be able to share that experience with her."
It was jarring, a little strange to see it. I can't recall now why I wrote it or how I felt at the time. It came in the middle of the presentation notes, completely off-topic, apparently a random thought I felt compelled to get out.
At the time Mari was just a few months old. I would have been settling into the idea of raising a daughter. I sound saddened by this thought. Was I troubled by the idea that we wouldn't be able to swap morning sickness stories, that I wouldn't be able to stand by her side during labor and know what it was like? Reading it now, I don't have any emotional reaction (other than to roll my eyes at my self-centeredness and fretting about something decades away). But clearly it once was, at least for a moment, important enough to me to write down.
Back when we adopted Eddie, I had that "positive adoption language" list memorized. One that I really grabbed onto was saying your child "was adopted" instead of "is adopted," to signify adoption as a past event rather than an ongoing descriptor. I liked that idea that adoption was over and done. Completed.
Then I started listening to people who had been living with adoption a whole lot longer than I had, both birth parents and adopted adults and adoptive parents. Over and again I heard that adoption was an ongoing reality for them, not a distant event. Sometimes it was at the forefront of their mind, sometimes deep in the background. It meant different things to different people and at different times. Often it popped up when they didn't expect it. But adoption had never stopped being part of their lives and their identities.
It's been five years since we finalized Eddie's adoption, over three years for Mari's, but adoption is still as present in my mind as the day they were born. It's always going to be part of the warp and weft of our family life, of my life as a mother, of my children's lives. There's nothing negative about that fact, no reason to avoid it by insisting on the past tense. We are an adoptive family. My children were adopted and are adopted, the same way Todd and I were married on our wedding day but are married every day.
Adoption is still here with us because their first families are here, in our conversations and our lives. It's here in the stories they love to hear about themselves. It's here as my kids work out their self-identities and what it means to be part of overlapping families as they grow. It will be here if they have children themselves one day, as we share grandparent-hood not just with their partners' parents but with Kelly and Ray and Beth. (Won't that be a shock to our kids' partners' parents. Although in this age of blended families, perhaps not so much?) And of course the flip side to that random thought I scribbled years ago: it will be there with Mari if she is pregnant one day, in the different ways she might turn to the mom who carried her and the mom who raised her.
I think that random thought I left in my journal is evidence of a little lightbulb moment for me, one more realization that I'm going to be experiencing new aspects of what it means to be an adoptive parent even when I'm 50, 60, 70. We--Eddie, Mari, their first families, Todd, and I--will be discovering new layers of what it means to be part of these adoptions our entire lives. Sometimes it will be challenging. Sometimes it will be a joy. But it is something we will carry with us, always.
It was jarring, a little strange to see it. I can't recall now why I wrote it or how I felt at the time. It came in the middle of the presentation notes, completely off-topic, apparently a random thought I felt compelled to get out.
At the time Mari was just a few months old. I would have been settling into the idea of raising a daughter. I sound saddened by this thought. Was I troubled by the idea that we wouldn't be able to swap morning sickness stories, that I wouldn't be able to stand by her side during labor and know what it was like? Reading it now, I don't have any emotional reaction (other than to roll my eyes at my self-centeredness and fretting about something decades away). But clearly it once was, at least for a moment, important enough to me to write down.
Back when we adopted Eddie, I had that "positive adoption language" list memorized. One that I really grabbed onto was saying your child "was adopted" instead of "is adopted," to signify adoption as a past event rather than an ongoing descriptor. I liked that idea that adoption was over and done. Completed.
Then I started listening to people who had been living with adoption a whole lot longer than I had, both birth parents and adopted adults and adoptive parents. Over and again I heard that adoption was an ongoing reality for them, not a distant event. Sometimes it was at the forefront of their mind, sometimes deep in the background. It meant different things to different people and at different times. Often it popped up when they didn't expect it. But adoption had never stopped being part of their lives and their identities.
It's been five years since we finalized Eddie's adoption, over three years for Mari's, but adoption is still as present in my mind as the day they were born. It's always going to be part of the warp and weft of our family life, of my life as a mother, of my children's lives. There's nothing negative about that fact, no reason to avoid it by insisting on the past tense. We are an adoptive family. My children were adopted and are adopted, the same way Todd and I were married on our wedding day but are married every day.
Adoption is still here with us because their first families are here, in our conversations and our lives. It's here in the stories they love to hear about themselves. It's here as my kids work out their self-identities and what it means to be part of overlapping families as they grow. It will be here if they have children themselves one day, as we share grandparent-hood not just with their partners' parents but with Kelly and Ray and Beth. (Won't that be a shock to our kids' partners' parents. Although in this age of blended families, perhaps not so much?) And of course the flip side to that random thought I scribbled years ago: it will be there with Mari if she is pregnant one day, in the different ways she might turn to the mom who carried her and the mom who raised her.
I think that random thought I left in my journal is evidence of a little lightbulb moment for me, one more realization that I'm going to be experiencing new aspects of what it means to be an adoptive parent even when I'm 50, 60, 70. We--Eddie, Mari, their first families, Todd, and I--will be discovering new layers of what it means to be part of these adoptions our entire lives. Sometimes it will be challenging. Sometimes it will be a joy. But it is something we will carry with us, always.
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