If you've been following this blog or if you've met me, then you may be aware of my "issues" with mental health.
And by issues, I mean, I completely lost my mind in what was diagnosed as a bipolar breakdown in 2001. Enough is enough already Laura, we get it!
In the ensuing years, I worked as a sales person for a medical device company. It was a fast-paced, stressful job that I really loved. I didn’t tell anyone about my bout with mental illness because I didn’t want people questioning Read more [...]
It's a valid question, in more ways than one.
When I read Time commentator Eric Kleinenberg's Air-Conditioning Will Be the End of Us, I had to laugh. The point of the article was to highlight just how much Americans rely on A/C, how much energy it eats up, and how bad it is for the environment. He writes
After all, despite our other green tendencies, most Americans still believe that the wise way to use air conditioners is to crank them up, cooling down every room in the house — Read more [...]
Dear Veronica,
I am a Lost Daughter, just like you.
I am an adoptee, although my adoption did not garner nearly as much legal and media attention as yours did back in 2012 and 2013.
You may be wondering, though ... What is a Lost Daughter?
Heck, I didn’t even know what one was until recently.
The Lost Daughters began as blogging forum, founded by an amazing adoptee, social worker, writer and activist named Amanda Woolston in the early 2010s. Over a short period of time the Read more [...]
Jul 29 13
The Dreaded, Deadly Promaja
The word, promaja, literally “draft,” is feared across Serbia.
Before moving here, I assumed it was "merely" that annoying air that whisks under the crack in the front door in the wintertime.
Um ... No.
The joke goes that promaja has felled even the heartiest of Serbian soldiers. (Maybe it's a "saying," and it's only me who thinks it's funny. Yeah, probably that.)
In the Balkans, promaja is taken to the extreme. Or perhaps this is not extreme, this is normal, depends on how you Read more [...]
When adoptees speak their truth, they inevitably expose themselves to the genuinely curious, the beningly ignorant, and yes, the blatantly misguided.
Actually, there is such a thing as a stupid question ...
... if by stupid you mean uninformed, or "characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish; senseless: a stupid question." -- thank you, dictionary.com, I thought so.
It happens; sometimes we simply don't know just how much we don't know. Like all the White people who are Read more [...]
Jul 22 13
Different Rules, Same Play-Date
In my house, some rules are non-negotiable ... when you come home, you take your shoes off and you wash your hands. Yes, with soap.
What with my kids' recent obsession desire to have as many play-dates as possible, I've had to pick my battles and adjust my expectations.
As I mentioned last week in my post about the different dressing expectations between Serbia and the US, my children are generally perceived as dangerously close to contracting pneumonia underdressed.
But, as much as Read more [...]
What can be done to help internationally adopted kids?
This was my take-home question after reading the Lost Daughters conversation about Kathryn Joyce's The Child Catchers, Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption.
I was wondering what could be done for those adoptees who are already in the thick of growing up separated not only from their original family, but also their original culture, ethnicity, language, foods, even smells and tastes.
The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption Read more [...]
When my kids were babies, their (American) pediatrician said I could dress them as I dress myself.
It made perfect sense to me.
If the weather is nice and I’m wearing one layer, the same is sufficient for them. The idea being, kids run a bit warmer than adults, plus they’re wearing a diaper (and I, for the record, am not).
Then, I moved to Serbia. Where this is quietly considered child abuse.
Rules, rules, rules
Here, unless a child is jumping into a body of water and therefore Read more [...]
Jul 11 13
3 Ways First Mothers Commit Soul Suicide
Um. Yeah. Today's post is a little rough, folks. They ran out of puffy hearts and fairies at the market this morning.
On a Facebook forum, a commenter posited that first moms who reject their children who cannot move beyond their own pain, grief, loss, shame, anxiety and fear … end up committing a form of soul suicide. And in doing so, they take a piece of their child with them.
Because who among us could say that parts of their mother aren’t inside them?
I’ve been trying to Read more [...]
In pondering the potential pitfalls in the pursuit of happiness apparently alliteration makes me happy, it's important to recognize when enough is in fact enough ... lest we fall prey to never being satisfied.
Many of the comments from my interview with Is This All There Is? author Patricia Mann* echoed these sentiments. In Happiness or Contentment?, we discussed whether settling for contentment is in fact "settling" at all.
Today Patricia and I are talking again, about family and career Read more [...]
