One Year Blogging

It all began April 8th, 2006, my first official blog post on WordPress. It’s kind of funny how I got here. Can you believe I used to be an eBay junkie? Yeah, I tried my hand at selling “stuff” on eBay. The first couple of months I did pretty well selling some of our old stuff. But then I had to try to find stuff to sell, and that didn’t go so well. I got involved in the community and met someone trying to develop a co-op model for eBay sellers. I joined in her co-op and took a web design class she offered.

At this point, I had already discovered that I did not have the knack for finding yard sale treasures that other people wanted. I racked my brain for weeks trying to come up with a purpose for my website. I finally gave up on the idea of finding something profitable to sell, and decided to make it a sort of ministry for women dealing with infertility. I initially started with a Yahoo blog as an extension of the website - to drive traffic to the site. But I had no way of knowing whether anyone actually read my entries there, and folks couldn’t leave a comment unless they were a member of Yahoo 360.

Then I discovered WordPress through my friend Mark, of Sacred Journey. I saw how easy it was for folks to comment, and for me to track statistics. So, I moved the two posts I had written at Yahoo over to WordPress, then wrote Joy & Wonder, my first WordPress post. Literally within minutes of that post, I had my first comment from Shirley Buxton. I was hooked. Little did I know how much this little venture would change me.

It was April 20, 2006 that I wrote that infamous post about the adoption choice. That is when I first met KimKim, Jenna, and Dawn, among others. And since then I have met many others from the various sides of the adoption triad. These folks through their comments here and the writing on their blogs, have changed my perspective. I can honestly say I have a whole new outlook on adoption. I call it my adoption education.

Amazingly, one year later, I have learned so much, yet have tons more to learn. I don’t think this is an education one ever completes. I will never graduate and recieve a degree or certificate. The education continues throughout life. But I can’t call it an education if it is not applying to my life. Yes, this blog has impacted my life. I don’t think I would have ever written the latest letter to J, B’s first-mom, encouraging more opennes and direct contact. That probably would have never occurred to me before.

Then there’s the somewhat terrifying prospect that she might actually takes us up on that some day. I take comfort in the knowledge that I wouldn’t be walking that road alone. Of course there’s my God, ever present with strength and wisdom for the asking. And there is also each of you out there sharing your stories and listening to mine. We truely spur one another on along the way. You are why I’m still here blogging, one year later. I thank each of you for that.