That’s right, today is my one year anniversary of blogging at Adoptionblogs.com, as hard as it might be for even me to believe! In place of the usual New Year’s eve party last December 31st, I was home watching the ball descend at Time’s Square on television, and posting my very first blog entry. I admit that I missed the ringing in of the new year because I was so anxious to get started on what I hoped would be a very exciting adventure sharing... more

On the weekend edition of Good Morning America each weekend they have a segment called “Your Week in Three Words.” I love this segment. Viewers send in a short video of themselves explaining what happened during their week in a creative way in just three little words.

For example, one week in the video, you see a lady’s hand and on her palm is written “I said” and then her hand turns over and you see the top of her ring finger with the letters “Y-E-S” and a shiny engagement ring. They make a montage of the videos that viewers send... more

So what would I plan to say meeting potential adoptive parents in person? How ‘honest’ could I be without sounding somehow anti-adoption? That is certainly something I think about.

The first thing I might do would be to ask how many of them planned on adopting a ‘healthy’ newborn with no issues. Once most of them raised a hand I might be very blunt and ask them to all please leave and forget about adopting.

I know, sounds awful of me. In all honesty though I now know all too well that any child who is placed for adoption,... more

It certainly seems like such a long time has passed since my husband and I adopted our first child! We have come a long way from being that same young couple in need of honest adoption related information, and we have learned more than a few things about the realities of adoption.

More than once over the years I have found myself wishing that I could go back (the better informed me of today) and take the young me by the hand and tell her the brutal, honest truth. I would now have so much to say about the emotions, grief, loss inherent... more

Even though the Christmas holidays are stressful and emotional, I still love them. Ever since I was a child, Christmas has always been my favorite holiday and even still now that I am dealing with the emotions that go along with being a birthmother at the holidays, I still enjoy Christmas.

But as I grow older each year after the holidays, I find myself depressed, down, and blue. There is typically so much anticipation, excitement, and emotion involved in Christmas and then it’s pretty much all over in one day. Plus, as birthmothers we are dealing with the emotions... more

Do you make a New Year’s Resolution or goal for the New Year? Sometimes in the past I have made resolutions for the New Year, but like many people I feel they can be a tad bit intimidating at times. Many people feel that by starting resolutions at the beginning of the New Year, you have a fresh start or a clean slate, so to speak. Which is true, but it can also be very overwhelming for some to try and suddenly make a big change in your life just as one year fades out and another one... more

As there are only a few days left in 2007, I have been reflecting back over the past year and all the things that have happened in my life that personally relate to adoption. It hasn’t been a terrible year but it hasn’t been the best either.

The biggest thing that happened adoption related in my life was that Charlie’s Mom and Dad separated in January, although I didn’t mention it publicly until September. One of my reasons for making an adoption plan in the first place was because I already had... more

Since there are only a few days left in 2007, I was thinking over all that I have written in the past year and I clearly have posts that are my favorites. Narrowing it down wasn’t easy, but I came up with a list of my five favorite posts from ’07.

1. Grief Will Not Win: In this post, I shared a quote that I had just come across. “You can let the grief control you or you can control the grief.” ~ Author Unknown I then go on to say how each day when I wake up, I feel like I have a... more

Visits with my son are bittersweet. While I love the time I get to spend with him, I always dread having to say goodbye and leave him or have him leave me or us leaving each other if we are in a neutral location, whatever the case maybe.

Recently I was having a discussion with some other birthmothers and we were discussing “saying goodbye” versus saying “see you later.” It may seem like something small and just a play on words but for me personally changing my mentality and seeing our separating at visits as more of a “see you later” than an actual goodbye has been helpful... more

First of all, let me wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas. I hope that you were able to spend the day (or at least part of it) with loved ones. I hope you had a peaceful day as well.

My Christmas was nice; busy, but nice. It started out busy because of all the things that I must do as the Mom of another child, one that I am parenting. Ya know, stuffing the stockings and all that. It's days like today that I am all the more thankful for the child I am parenting because he takes my mind off the one that I am not. Often times through out the day today, when... more