The best of the internet this week in infertility and adoption.
- Picture of parenthood
- The Miscarriage Diaries video. This simple short video of still pictures of women who’ve experienced recurrent miscarriages moved me. Looking at their faces, you get that, but for the grace of God, it could be any one of us, which of course, is exactly her point. Good stuff.
- Blog written by a woman who has recently lost about 70 pounds but still identifies as fat. She is also a first mom who placed her child as a teen, and she ends by saying she still identifies as a birthmother even though she’s now in her 40s. The identities we develop as children or adolescents often become a part of us, even when they no longer fit Being a parent to her first child certainly does still fit, but being fat does not. Not sure what to make of this as a parent or as a human. It’s interesting to contemplate what part of our identity we have outgrown, yet still believe.
- So many of the adoption videos online are by adoptive parent, probably for good reason since they are celebrating the forming of a family. This video is unique because it is by a birth mom. I usually prefer videos that are more than a collection of pictures put to music, but this one does a good job of showing the joy and sadness of being a first mom. The flowers and card her parents sent her while she was trying to decide what to do brought me to tears! It’s also a beautiful representation of how open adoption can and should work.
- OK, this is kind of cheating since it has no relation to adoption or infertility, but I loved it and thought maybe someone else would too. An exhibit at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan titled The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936-1951 In 1936 a group of photographers documented the squalor and splendor of everyday life in New Your City during the depression and WWII years. The pictures are on display through the end of March, but you can view them online at the museum website. The website also has the neat feature where you can see a modern picture taken at the same location as the old picture to give you a feel for the changes that have taken place.
Image credit: Tom Carmony
Thank you for the plug. A point of clarification: Society says I am a “birth” mother yet I identify as a mother. Society would say I am no longer fat yet I feel I am. I never identified as “just” a birthmother. I was always her mother, still am, even if I did not raise her. She, her adoptive family, and most of society would likely tell me I am wrong to feel there just like they would say I am wrong to feel I am fat when I no longer am.
Suz, thanks for the clarification and for the thought provoking blog. By the way, congrats on the major weight loss!