I am writing this post in a light-hearted manner mainly because, while positive, the rest of the week has been kind of deep and introspective. I thought this would be a great time to delve into one of the lesser known, more-upbeat positive points of blogging as a birth parent. (Especially seeing as how I'm going back to deep and introspective tomorrow!)

But it's true, folks. Freebies exist for bloggers and adoption bloggers are no exception to the rule. While getting freebies shouldn't be your sole reason for blogging, it's just an added perk.

Examples... more

Blogging about adoption as a birth parent can start a dialogue between you and those who are reading. In fact, that's often the point of blogging in general: to start a dialogue. The real benefit for birth parents is when people whom you are close to are reading.

Examples include your spouse, your own parents, your child's adoptive parents or your adult child. Before you freak out and say, "I don't want some of those people reading what I write," I'm going to challenge you with the question of, "Why?"

I understand that we all need safe places to... more

As I continue talking about the pros of blogging as a birth parent, I find it necessary to talk about the healing aspects of blogging and writing next. I could save it for last, as I do find it to be one of the most important reasons behind blogging, but I just want my readers to know and understand this benefit.

The act of writing, whether publicly or privately, can be a catalyst in one's healing. I found an amazing quote as to why that is (meaning, I'm not just making this stuff up!) on... more

I think almost any blogger would agree, birth parent or otherwise, that the number one reason that blogging can be a positive experience is the learning tied into blogging. Let me tell you, I have learned so much in my many years as a blogger. Even more awesome is the fact that I am learning on a daily basis in many different ways.

Here are a few ways that you can learn as a blogging birth parent.

1. You will learn about yourself.... more

To start off my series on blogging as a birth parent, I'm going to spend an entire week looking at the "pros" that come with the territory. (You may be forward thinking enough to guess that I'll hit on the negatives next week.) I thought I'd start off this week with a brief "positive message" to get everyone in the right frame of mind.

Blogging is what you make of it. You also get out of it what you put into it.

There's a lot of meaning in those... more

If you're reading this post, you probably know about blogs. Of course, you could have happened upon this post by accident or Google search for a birth parent related topic and so I will throw a definition of "blog" out there so that we're all on the same page. From the Wiktionary:

A personal or corporate website in the form of an online journal, with new entries appearing in sequence as they are written, especially as dealing with reflections or opinion, and typically incorporating links to other... more

Are you familiar with AllTop? It's a great website. From their "About Us" page, they describe themselves quite succinctly.

"We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web."

Basically, there are headings like Moms and Dads. These headings have their own pages. On these pages, you will find "top blogs" and links to those blogs five most... more

A new year! How exciting! Do I have anything new planned for the birth-first parent blog? Yes and no. What's that mean?

I am stealing from my own ideas. Well, not stealing. I'm just continuing on with some things that I did this year. For example, I will be continuing to review one adoption-related book per month. Hopefully I will get all twelve months in and not get caught off guard at the end of the year. (Like this year!) I will also, in short order, be finishing up the Post-Adoption... more

Like any subject, adoption is full of controversy. With adoption being so personal, people are often prone to fight to the virtual death when someone suggests that something that has happened in the past isn't "right." We saw some of that virtual fighting here on the birth-first parent blog.

Because the good and the bad have to happen in a year and so does the drama! Let's review!

1. I got everyone... more

While there were some great things going on in adoption both personally and in the outside world, 2007 also brought about some not-so-good things. I hesitated in making a list of the stuff that stuck out in my mind that didn't fall under the category of "good," but then went ahead and made it anyway. While I know that there will always be bad things in any subject of discussion, I'm hoping that the following list of things doesn't make it on next year's "not-so-good" list. Hopefully this is... more