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Showing posts from December, 2011

2011 in Review

So here we are on the penultimate day of the year. I survived the Christmas holiday . I even went to church. More on that in a future post (possibly). The last week or so has been a wonderful combination of relaxing and productive. I admit that I haven't blogged much but I've been busy with other projects at home.   In thinking about the close of the year, I considered a collection of lists. I've been enjoying all the other Top 10 Lists populating the Internet these days but when I considered my own, I felt horribly inadequate. I've only seen from 1/3 to 1/2 of the movies that people are talking about on their 10 best list. I don't think I even saw 10 movies in the theater this year. I wouldn't be a good authority on movies. I've read a lot of books this year but I've already reviewed those books on my blog . You can always find me on Goodreads to get an idea of what I liked or didn't like.  Music. Well, I listen to a lot of music and my tast

Finding Peace at Christmas

People have been checking in with me and Roger a lot lately.  There is the usual banter: "Are you looking forward to Christmas ?" (Um. Sure. I guess.) "Are you ready for the holidays?" (Yeah. We kind of play it low-key in our house. You know.) "How are you doing?" (I'm hanging in there.) Some questions come out of run-of-the-mill small talk. I realize every day how many people I work with or see who don't even know my story. They don't know my truth . And sometimes it's just too difficult to explain. Other comments come from genuine concern. We have a gentle and supportive circle of friends. It is helpful. I am glad that other people remember.  I think about it every day.  I have thought a lot about how much I wanted to push myself during the holidays. Roger and I have had many discussions.  Do we put up a tree? (the answer this year was no)  Do we send Christmas cards? (not this year)   Do we give gifts? (not really)  Do we

A year of memes

Can you believe that it's been a year since I started my blog? My first post was December 13, 2010 (Yes, I realize that's technically not until next week but I'm writing about it now. Deal with it.) Here's a few stats for the math nerds: 88 posts (this one will be 89) 26,000+ pageviews 352 Twitter followers Where do these readers come from? While most of you hail from the U-S of A, I've had people in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Germany, India, Romania, the Philippines, and the Netherlands read this blog (hi y'all!) This was my most popular pos t, thanks in part to some interesting conversation generated within the comments. This was the next most popular post  but I think this poem was my favorite post of the year. I read an article on Mashable today about the most popular Facebook status updates of 2011 (Facebook's memes , if you will). It looks like I covered about half this list.   For your review: Here are my comments o

On Newsstands Now!

Something to do while you are out this weekend pursuing your holiday shopping: Step 1: Get the latest issue of Richmond Magazine  at your favorite local Richmond retailer Step 2: Turn to page 79. Step 3: Read my essay on generosity in the Richmond community. It's part of the Best of Richmond feature article.  (The rest of the magazine has some great articles too, including a piece on the lack of community services available for adults with autism in the Richmond area.)

The First Moment

December 1st is one of those days for me. I don't know if all mothers mark this day, but for me it is one that I will never forget. This was the day in 2004 when I realized I was pregnant. This was not an easy journey. We had been trying to get pregnant for over three years. Many medical tests, fertility treatments, and months of disappointment later, we had essentially given up. The doctors had said that without major medical intervention (i.e. in vitro or use of an egg donor), we would probably not get pregnant.  I wasn't ready for that battle. My body was tired. I was emotionally tired. We didn't have the money and I didn't feel like I could handle the emotional ups and downs of an in vitro process.  In early 2004, we decided that our best option was to pursue adoption. Roger and I enrolled in foster/adoption classes with a local agency and we had started what we thought was our journey to parenthood.  I put away the pregnancy tests and we started talking about h