So far the niftiest thing about this contest is that my traffic just shot straight up — that’s always fun. So I wanted to share out some of that mad traffic love by doing a link fest for your favorite adoption-oriented blogs. I’m going to leave this post sticky for the duration of the contest and I ask you to leave links to your favorite adoption blogs in the comments (including a little shout out about why you love them). And for those of you wandering in thanks to The Bump, please feel free to leave your own recommendations and also check ours out.
For folks who haven’t been here before, my particular loves are adoption blogs that give me a new way to think about adoption, i.e., ones that go beyond the “adoption is awesome” trope and dig in to really think critically about adoption and what we can do to make it more ethical and better serve our kids. I’m not going to link here because there are way too many and I’d be afraid of leaving someone out but you can check out my google shares either on my sidebar or by clicking here. Most of my shares are about adoption, feminism or race (and some are just for fun).
Oh and please vote for me lots and lots.
Possibly related posts:
Commenting on my own post, I learn a lot by following the shared items of Ungrateful Little Bastard (Teresa) in my google reader. You can check her shares out here:
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/theresa.ulb
Easy reading? Not usually. Thought provoking? ALWAYS.
Hey thanks. I’m a google-reader-addict, but I can quit anytime.
She’s not writing as much any more, but I consider Not Mother’s archives a must read. (She’s a first mom in an open adoption.)
And Heather is being modest because her blog is awesome AND also is home to the Open Adoption Blogs blogroll so is a gateway drug to other blogs!
Heather’s blog:
http://unproductivereproduction.blogspot.com/
And the blogroll:
http://openadoptionsupport.com/links/open-adoption-blogs/
Aw, I’m blushing!
Some other adoptive moms who often make me think that haven’t been mentioned yet:
Malinda at AdoptionTalk, Margie at Third Mom (the blog title alone used to make me defensive!), and Atlasien at Upside-Down Adoption. Tonggu Momma’s Sunday link round-ups always have good stuff, too.
This is hard. For every one you list, there are ten that get left out.
I’ll edit! Don’t worry! And see what I did there? I knew I’d leave people out so I’m putting you guys on the spot! [insert evil cackle here]
Hey Dawn,
I’m writing in to say I’ve been reading you and I check in often. Shouting out about my own blog, thisadoptedlife.blogspot.com
I write about life seen through the eyes of an adult adoptee. Looking to have more readers, so come on over! (I saw that you had me on your share sidebar at some point–thanks!)
Nicole, I wanted to make your link clickable!!
http://thisadoptedlife.blogspot.com
(You are already in my feedreader — I am a fan!)
So glad that i found your site! I found you via The Bump…
One of the blogs i follow is the http://www.firstmotherforum.com It is a blog that i have followed for awhile; as a adoptive mom, i’ve learned SO much from that blog. Lorraine is very blunt and although i don’t always agree with her, i continue to learn from her, Jane and Linda who also contribute to the blog.
Issy, your daughter is lovely! I follow the firstmotherforum blog, too — it’s a great resource!!
I voted for you. And if I could do it more than once, I would.
Though it may not make some sense to others, you are one of the adoptive moms who helped me so greatly in my journey of understanding my own experience with adoption.
I sat for so long in anger, not realizing, or even caring how it was affecting me, until I finally took the time to read your blog (with a few other great ones)and finally having the words, emotions, and genuine feelings reach out with enough force to bring to a point where understanding and a need to learn were more important than harboring the anger that was holding me back.
Even without “The Bump” you have had my vote for a long time.
Cassi, thank you for your kind words. You are also in my feedreader!!
http://adoptiontruth-casjoh.blogspot.com/
And I wanted to give a link to Celeste’s project linked in your sidebar:
http://themothersproject.com/home.html
I love the firstmotherforum that Issy left the link for.
It’s a really great meeting ground. I get a lot of validation there. I think the writing is good, was one of the writers a professional writer?
I am voting for you a lot. I want you to win. I particularly don’t want the other blog to win because they want to go to Korea to get a baby.
Also want you to keep the money because you deserve abundance.
Sending you good energy Dawn.
Pound Pup Legacy!!!!
http://poundpuplegacy.org/
The blatant truth that the “industry” doesn’t want YOU to know.
I voted for Malawi in this!
http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/37659
It was a tough call though. Everyone was so deserving.
There are so many fantastic foster adoption blogs, but one of my favorites is Yondalla’s Thoughts from a Foster Family, featuring anecdotes and ethical musings about the teens (most of them gay) who’ve been in long-term foster placements with her family and the straight boy there currently who’s probably going to be adopted.
Two amazing southern adoptive moms to children who’ve survived horrific trauma are Tudu, whose children recently testified in a sex crimes trial against their biological family and who nonetheless has seen them benefit from an open adoption, and Lisa, who does an incredible job parenting two girls she’s adopted from the foster care system, both of whom have suffered from severe Reactive Attachment Disorder.
I’ll also use this as an opportunity to draw attention to Corey at Watching the Waters, who has adopted children from Haiti and writes with tremendous insight about attachment issues and even about why her family needs to disrupt her son’s adoption and find him a safe home in a way that strikes me as reasonable and respectful.
Thanks for these, Thorn, you know that other than Yondalla I’m out of the foster-to-adopt youth! Also shout out to your waiting parent blog:
http://motherissues.wordpress.com/
Adding Jae Ran’s Harlow’s Monkey-
http://harlowmonkey.typepad.com/
Her ‘Adoptive Parents- be an ally” is a must read!
Off to push some buttons for you
Yes, and Jae Ran’s whole sidebar of links!!
Also yours:
http://anyadiary.blogspot.com/
Beautiful!
Heather’s (PNR) blog IS awesome, and yours as well – two of my constant “must reads.”
Recently I’ve been reading A+A family – a blog by a woman that’s currently matched. But she writes a great deal as she (and her DH!) prepares to be a white couple parenting a non-white child. She does a great series about what every child is entitled to – mostly dealing with race/cultural issues.
I’m loving it
http://aplusafamily.blogspot.com/
Oh thanks! That one’s new to me and happy that you shared it! Also linking to yours:
http://thanksgivingmom.wordpress.com/
No one has mentioned Suz? http://writingmywrongs.com/ Big help to me.
Suz is unflinching — love that. And she has gorgeous boys!!!
Ah… what a wonderful question! Adoption is the single topic I learned the most about since I started blogging and reading blogs five years ago. You were the one who started it for me, obviously, so I’m super excited for your nomination. Then, from your links I started reading several other adoption related blogs.
I want to begin by mentioning three blogs that are no longer available or which lasted just a short while but which were great:
Manuela’s Thin Pink Line (adult adoptee with a beyond traumatic experience of finding out at 25 y.o. about the adoption).
Kim, who still comments here — she just did to this post! — and who’s a first mother in reunion (Kim, if you’re reading this, there’s an Australian woman I know who also gave a daughter up for adoption, some years earlier than you and who’s been in reunion since the daughter was 14 and her a-parents split up, I thought of you when I met her).
Speaking for Myself (please correct the name if I’m wrong, Dawn) was a short-lived blog sharing the most amazingly heartbreaking story of a birth mama with an open adoption gone awry (all the way to court with restraining orders). I hope she comes back someday and publishes the book she dreams of writing. She used to comment here and elsewhere too…
There’s also Chicagomama, who blogged about adopting from China and whose Baby Book entries are available at American Family’s blog (another one in this list).
OK, I’ll post this and try to be back with some other links…
I think Manuela still blogs privately, right? KimKim says she is OFF BLOGS now. And she said she’s not going to be reading here for awhile. If you email me, Lilian, I’ll give you her email.
Chicagomama’s Lifebook archives (excellent!)
http://american-family.org/category/chicagomamalifebooks/
And of course AmFam herself!
http://american-family.org
Manuela was blogging privately for a while, but she quit that too… (it might still be up for those who have the password, but she hasn’t updated anymore. I haven’t checked in a while). I have KimKim’s email, if she hasn’t changed it, I may email her the part of the comment that concerns her.
Let’s see if I have time to come back with my links (they don’t overlap with what’s already here!).
I think I am reading all of you in preparation of our way in the future, open, special needs adoption out of foster care. (husband ignores this premonition I’ve had). Thank you to all of you for telling your stories.
And as someone trying to do special needs adoption from foster care, I’ve learned a lot from your blog. I feel more comfortable dealing with physical problems like kidney disease because I’ve seen you do it. Somehow I find the psychological stuff easier to prepare for, but you’ve been a great help balancing it.
Thanks Thorn, but I think that you will be fine because it seems you will face any problem head on!
I’m writing to thank you for an article I believe you wrote that appeared in Yoga Journal in December 2006. It’s about forgiving yourself when the “other” won’t forgive.
I’ve read it about four times, but tonight I “got” some of it… and the relief it offered was great. I do thank you for that story. It helped.