Heard around social media and IRL (in real life) this week …
Oh, it is just soooo great to hear some positive stories here in this Facebook group about adoption! It always seems like everyone had a bad experience!
It really seems like you focus on having been adopted more than is necessary. Why can’t you just get over it?
I’m afraid that this person's experience sounds too much like a typical ‘angry/whiny adoptee,’ perhaps it shouldn't be published.
And then this …
A Read more [...]
When I was a jet-setting/child-free/business woman (turns out, not as fabulous as it seems), and well before the prolonged U.S. recession, I ignored the pre-flight safety warnings, frantically typing one last email before the airplane doors closed.
But, man do things change when you become a parent.
Travelling with my kids recently, we sat enraptured as the flight attendants (somewhat sarcastically) described the safety features of our 'roomy seven-thirty-seven.' They'd barely finished Read more [...]
Whew, where’d we leave off?
When last we met here on the cyber plains, the post, Slaughter Nick for President, the Movie ~ A Serbian Cult Hero Overthrowing the Single Story, explained the link between a 1990s Canadian TV actor, the dangers of telling a “single story,” and the sanctions in ex-Yugoslavia.
Atheist Rap, Protest Slogans and Serbian Humor
How did Rob Stewart find out he was such an icon, almost two decades after the fact?
Let's go step-by-step to learn Read more [...]
Nov 18 13
Slaughter Nick for President, the Movie ~ A Serbian Cult Hero Overthrowing the Single Story
Question: What do a 1990s Canadian TV actor … the dangers of telling a “single story” … the sanctions in ex-Yugoslavia, and (waaaaaiiiit for it) … adoption have in common?
I know, right? I toooootally didn’t expect it, either.
“Laura, do you know who Nick Slaughter is?” my husband asked.
“Who?” I responded.
“I guess not.”
“Am I supposed to know?”
“We’re going to his movie premiere next week, and he’ll be there, too."
“Sounds posh,” I Read more [...]
Left out, not part of the in crowd, excluded, ignored … however you want to characterize it. It's an adoptee trigger, although I imagine even non-adoptees can be sensitive to it.
But recently, I’ve seen adoptees posting on Facebook groups about feeling left out. Not being included in a social activity, a family activity, can be a real trigger—leading to anger, depression, sadness, and more.
It’s so hard to know whether we have an “adoptee issue,” or whether the issue is a result Read more [...]
Nov 11 13
How ARE Women Treated in Serbia?
"We don't know how they treat their women in Serbia."
Wait, what?
The (Serbian) teenage son of a close friend asked if he could bring his girlfriend on his yearly visit to the Balkans. The son reasoned that since his girlfriend was over 18; it wouldn’t be an issue with her parents.
Major miscalculation.
You see, the girlfriend and her family are decidedly American. And Catholic, to boot. I doubt they realize that Croatia is a Catholic country.
When all was said and done, the Read more [...]
While An-Ya and Her Diary is a work of fiction, this touching story of a young international adoptee's journey to find her place in her new family will give much needed insight into the adoptee perspective.
The emotions and experiences that author Diane René Christian captures--solely within the construct of the diary of a young international adoptee--are wide-ranging, simple yet deep. An-Ya is a girl on the cusp of teenagehood, an orphaned child with a talent for languagues, a person who had Read more [...]
In Serbia, plastic bags are a commodity.
In the US, plastic bags are the enemy of the now-ubiquitous “go green” mentality of liberal corporate America.
Not that either is a bad thing. Just keepin’ it real here.
No, no, I totally get the math.
Plastic bags + landfills = thousands of years of chemicals and shit in the ground.
But in Serbia, since vendors pay for their own plastic bags, they don’t give them out all willy-nilly.
I have seen cashiers stuff three one-liter Read more [...]
A Conversation with Deanna Doss Shrodes, pastor, blogger, writer and all around amazing person.
Primary rejection.
Secondary rejection. [Tertiary, and so on.]
Being rejected by our adoptive families.
Being rejected by our first families.
Facing the "mere" potential for rejection ...
It's a huge topic. Recently, when a mutual friend faced the possibility of rejection from her first father, due to a misunderstanding, she was devastated. It was our friend's pain that inspired yesterday's Read more [...]
I use Grammerly's plagiarism checker because … glaring typos attract zombies.* (Happy Halloween Week!)
Lots of people have been asking about my trip to Maryland, how I viewed America, have I changed?
It was strange and familiar, bittersweet and frustrating. Long enough, and it went by too fast. My perspective has changed in ways I didn’t expect.
I admit, I was looking forward going to a huge grocery store. I dreamed of the plethora of options, the quiet anonymity, and the clean, Read more [...]
