This is what I’ve been reading this week online. What about you? Please post your own Best of the Net in Infertility and Adoption in the comments so the rest of us can read. Feel free to post your own blogs as well.
- The Devastation of Pregnancy Loss: A Profile of Courtney Cheng This is one of the best things I’ve read in the last few weeks that totally captures the totality of what being infertile really means. I wanted to stand up and cheer. She captures eloquently the hope turning into despair with each subsequent miscarriage. What I so appreciated was that she addressed specifically the financial burden, which is so often either omitted or glossed over in discussions about infertility for most people in the US.
- Reflections on our Adoption This blog post captured something special for me. The family has been home almost a year with their now two year old daughter, adopted from Russia. The mom is ruminating in this blog about the new normal—no longer striving and praying to become a family, but now living as a family.
“Angelina will be two the end of this month, and we are amazed how much she’s grown and changed since we came home last March. I was recently reflecting about all we went through to adopt Angelina. All of the tests (how many tb tests must a person take?), paperwork, money spent, traveling and anxiety that we went through for the approx. 14 month long adoption process. While we were in the throws of the process, the adoption defined us; it was all we talked about and all we thought about. We shared what we were going through with everyone we met – regardless of whether that person wanted to know or not.
Now, only 10 short months later, that experience seems like a world away. The three of us are tight; we are indeed a family. When we meet people, or talk about our daughter, we no longer feel compelled to volunteer information about the journey we went on to become a family. And while we are extremely proud of how we became a family, and of our daughter’s Russian heritage, we now feel it is no one’s business but ours. I guess we are developing our own identity as a family; no longer singularly defined by our adoption experience. We are a family. Period. It is awesome.”
- Jimmy and Christine Moore have been trying for years to get pregnant. Last April they finally turned to embryo donation. I think it took a couple of tries, but they finally got pregnant with twins. Jimmy is one of our Creating a Family community. I was thinking of him last week for some reason and emailed to ask how the pregnancy was going. He sent me this video. They lost the babies in August at 7 weeks gestation. I was wiping my eyes after seeing this video.
- Nineteen Years Ago by Carolyn Nash. Carolyn was single in her mid 30s when she adopted Abel from foster care. Abel came with significant baggage. Carolyn was forced to address her own baggage in order to help Abel. They have finally reached a good place. She views Abel’s adoption, and their subsequent growth together and separately, as the best thing that ever happened to her. Oh, six years ago she adopted another son from foster care who is remarkably free of “issues” and is a typical adorable six year old.
Image credit: amberlynnlane
Hi Dawn,
Just wanted to let you know that the next profile of “Faces of ALI is up!
http://jjiraffe.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/faces-of-adoptionlossinfertility-sarah-in-three-acts/
And it’s another home run! Thanks for letting us know.
Excellent choices.
If you’re like me, you run across so many many good things on the internet (and even more trash). It’s a nice way to share the good stuff.
I loved this!
Thank you so much for featuring the first Faces of ALI profile, of Courtney Cheng. I decided to launch this series after becoming increasingly disheartened by mainstream media coverage, which seemed to focus only on the rich and whimsical cases of ALI on the fringe. I thought a feature on real people going through their journeys, showing both the emotional and financial toll might help better make our case to the public. Well, a girl can try, right? Thanks again 🙂
JJiraffe, we need all the help we can get to help people understand the reality of infertility. The assumption by way to many folks, is that if there is a problem, you go to the doctor and they can fix it. Oh, and the fix costs no more than your average co-pay. WRONG! I loved you piece. Let me know if you do another one.