May 11, 2007
- Tessa and Reed are both in pre-school.
- My family has just moved from a old Victorian home that has only one bathroom. We moved because it had become agonizingly apparent that the old Victorian no longer worked for a family of 4 potty-trained people.
- My brother-in-law has suddenly become paralyzed from the eyeballs down. I and other family members are taking turns doing overnight stays in his rehab hospital so he always has one of us with him. He is there so he and my sister can learn to navigate his life from a wheelchair.
- I have just started a yoga practice.
- Adoption forums are where I’m getting a more expansive education on the topic, from the first parent and adoptee viewpoints. I am shocked to find that Adoption isn’t what I thought it was.
- I begin reading bloggers who are writing about infertility and adoption, and on a whim I start this blog.
May 11, 2020
- Both Tessa and Reed have spent the last 2 months doing high school classes from their Chromebooks. Neither got a prom and one will have to wait several months for a graduation ceremony.
- Our home is a good place for us quarantine in. It makes possible a decent balance of togetherness and separateness. And it has enough bathrooms!
- My brother-in-law no longer needs a wheelchair and has been fully-abled for many years.
- I still practice yoga. Online if I must.
- I still learn about Adoption from all angles, but not at all from forums (dead) and not so much from personal blogs (dying breed). Newer forms of a previously unheard of thing called “social media” now host much of the conversation.
- We are in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic. Everything is disrupted and everything that was once on autopilot must be re-thought. We are understanding at a deep level how interconnected we are, how much our choices affect others.
What an amazing time span to be journaling!
Looking Forward & Looking Back
I can’t help but wonder what the next 13 years will bring? What more changes will come?
Who will I be in another one-three?
Lori Holden, mom of a young adult daughter and a young adult son, writes from Denver. She was honored as an Angel in Adoption® by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.
Her first book, The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole, makes a thoughtful anytime gift for the adoptive families in your life. Her second book, Standing Room Only: How to Be THAT Yoga Teacher is now available in paperback, and her third book, Adoption Unfiltered, is now available through your favorite bookseller!
Find Lori’s books on her Amazon Author page and catch episodes of Adoption: The Long View wherever you get your podcasts.
20 Responses
Happy happy happy anniversary. Your little blog is having its Bar Mitzvah this year 🙂 It’s amazing to think how much has changed — online and offline — since you started blogging so many years ago. Here’s to many more years online.
Oh, yes! Bring on the mazel tov!
Thank you for the prompt to start. And to keep going.
Happy blogaversary! Many changes in the last 13 years, but I’m glad that you remain constant. Can’t wait to see what the future holds…
Thank you, a, for hanging out with me for so long!
Congrats on 13 years blogging and bringing wisdom and comfort to others. I love this comparison of changes, and so pleased to read about your BIL too. I wonder whether we will look back on this in 13 years and see enduring changes, or will we forget that it happened?
Isn’t that an interesting question? I, too, am wondering how the covid era will look in the rear-view mirror. It’s hard to imagine while in the thick of it! Thanks for being alongside me on this blogging journey.
Congratulations on 13 years of blogging beautifully! So many changes. I love your compassion, your knowledge, and your quest to understand other viewpoints and grow. 💗💗💗 So grateful to know you!
Thanks so much, Jess. I feel the same about YOU.
Congratulations! What an eye opening difference!
Thanks, Beth! I recall that one of our early meetings was at a blogger event. I still have the water bottle, lol.
Happy blogoversary, Lori! Wow, your blog is a teenager! (lol) — & mine will be too, later this fall! I love the structure of this post & may borrow it in the future! 😉 I have learned so much from you over these past 13 years. Here’s to many, many more!
I’m so happy to be near- twinsies” with you in blogging!
Congratulations on 13 years of sharing stories and insights Lori! I really admire your courage to share your life. Your words have helped so many. Keep on writing!!
Isn’t it interesting that blogging — my teenager and your hut — reconnected us after all these years?
It’s amazing to see both what changes and what persists. Congratulations on 13 years of making the world a more connected place through the thread of language. <3
What a beautiful statement, Justine. Thank you for being here with me ❤
A very happy blogoversary Lori! I’m beyond grateful for this space and for you. Wishing you so many more fruitful years of writing and exploring.
And I’m likewise grateful for you, Cristy. I have loved getting to know you through your blog — and especially face to face!
Can you imagine, if you’d kept an idea around like “when you are 18 you can search… we can help you search and find out about them/find out about you.”! Wouldn’t that just be fun and so very helpful to the whole family to fit in at this point? 😀
Such big changes ahead Lori, I’m happy and excited for you all! Good job Mom ♡
I’m a little past the middle of the 13 now, in the next round.
I thought I was speechless and tearful at the HS graduations, the college ones stole my tongue and left me with an enormous smile of pride and great relief, that you could barely see thru the tears! Then the new careers and businesses, travel, houses and spouses and babies….. Oh my, get some rest, and some tissues, and more money, the beginning of big fun is next Lori!!
I could have never imagined the spectacular things all of our many kids have made happen for themselves, for all of us, not in a billion years, I never even came close!
Congrats, Beth, on all the milestones you’ve had the privilege of experiencing so far! And thanks for this reminder that every transition is both the ending of one journey and the beginning of the next.