Epic Linkage Saturday

Welcome to another edition of Epic Linkage Saturday. Per usual, I don't always agree with everything that everyone I link to says. Just some food for thought from the blogs I was able to browse this week. Please post your own links in the comments section and let everyone know what you've been reading and writing about this week


Adult Adoptees


"I Should Know Better..." at The Adopted Ones Blog

How difficult is it to separate the act of “adoption”, from “how adoption is practiced today in domestic infant adoption”?

"She's Still Mine" at Everyone Shut up but Me
"Remember this: she is still my mother. do not disrespect her. do not bad mouth her. do not tell me i'm better off without her."


"Family and Loss" at Marginal Perspectives
"As I have said elsewhere, all I know is that adoption guaranteed me a different life, not one better or worse. It did guarantee me the loss of my identity, and that has been hard."


"Good Mother" at Just What the Hell am I Supposed to Call This?
"A 'mom' calls you every year on your birthday (at exactly 5:05pm) and says, 'It's officially your birthday. I love you.'"


"Preventing Adoption--Prevent Teen Pregnancy Day" at Austin Holistic Parenting on a Dime
"I dream of creating compassionate, intimately researched support to create an environment where if a women is in an unplanned pregnancy she is connected with all available community support in the area as well as client centered, solution focused counseling that will explore her obstacles and assist her with developing into the mother her child needs."


"Dealing With Anger" at Insert Bad Movie Title Here
"Anger is a funny thing. For me, it’s been a roller coaster and I’m trying so hard to move past it. I have up days and down days. I know I will need to fully understand the problem, which is a rather large one before I can start to worry about putting the anger behind me completely."


"Stories of Adult Transnational Adoptees and their American Parents" at Yoon's Blur
Melissa writes about a research project being conducted that is gathering input from Adult Adoptees and adoptive parents.

"I Want Both Sides" at Faded Footsteps
"The question 'Would you throw that all away?' is merely the reverse of the equation: Having unintentionally “thrown” away my birth name, birth culture and blood family." 


"Selflessness" at Once Was Von
"For adoptees, being created as the objects of a selfless act, there is a huge cost"


"The Best Advice I Ever Got" at Neither Here Nor There
Peach on the best advice she's ever received, and it's from her moms.


First Mothers


"Here We go Again" at Adoption Truth
"Instead of honoring a mother for her “difficult decision” to give her child up, we should be mourning the fact that any mother, anywhere, faces such situations that they actually feel as if they have no other choice but to lose their child."


"Screw Birthmother's Day!  I am Officially Rebelling" at Musings of the Lame
"No matter how loved or celebrate by those in life, Mothers Day is a reminder for what is not. It serves as a reminder for the years lost. For years of handmade presents that went to another mother who took your place. Of course, I don't find that having a separate segregated holiday makes that any better."

"It is What it Is" at Life of Mom....After Loss to Adoption! (first mom & foster alumni)

"The road not chosen is the one we always wonder about..... What happens after that.... well, it is what it is.  Time does not go back."

"Why I'm not Celebrating 'Birth Mother's' Day" at First Mother Forum
"The world's worst "holiday" is just days away--Mother's Day. For many mothers who lost their children to adoption, it is a day of miserable reminders of the children we do not have, and we approach it with all the joy of someone on her way to her own execution."

Adoptive Mothers


"May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month" at Adoption Talk
In honor of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Malinda will be blogging about Asian American Pacific Islander heritage throughout May.


Foster Alumni


"They are the Moons Shining Over me" at To Tell the Truth--Please Stand Up
"When I think back on my life and how I not only survived the darkness that shrouded much of my childhood and a chunk of my young adulthood, I know that it was that I was incredibly blessed by having many mothers and many moons that shown over me."


Donor Conceived Individuals


"What Price Baby Bliss? " at Mercatornet by the blogger at Donated Generation
"The use of donated gametes deprives the child of their biological father/mother and associated kin, their heritage and place in the world, their identity, and a family medical health history which can be vital for their physical well-being. Not only does this provide ethical and moral concerns, it also contravenes the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which all countries except the US and Somalia have signed."


"Goodbye to one of our own" at Confessions of a Cryokid
An entry about Alison Davenport, a Donor Conceived person and blogger who recently passed away after a battle with cancer.


"Who Am I Today?" at Connect It
"To be honest, I do a lot of fantasizing about the identity of the donor. Not all of it is a self-serving motivational tool. A greater part of it is a futile attempt to quench an insatiable thirst for knowledge that I do not have. I say “thirst” because the urge to know feels that instinctual, carnal, like an itch that my mind relentlessly and unsuccessfully tries to scratch. it's this sense that I need to lay my eyes on him, see him, so I can be whole. Imagining him is the only way to put my mind at peace."


Other Blogs/Sites


"How Aid Fails Women: a Conversation with William Easterly" at Feministe
"So, to peddle this stereotype of the helpless, pathetic woman that can’t do anything on her own – that’s really destructive and will definitely result in bad aid. Whereas if we find ways to let women tell aid givers what they need so that they can help themselves, that’s going to be much more successful."


The Month of May.....

• National Foster Care Awareness Month
• Asian American Pacific Islander Month
• Mother's Day (05/08)
• National Mental Health Month

Happy Saturday! Don't forget to post your links!

I try to include a lot of perspectives in the blogs I link to each week. Adult Adoptees, First Mothers, Adoptive Parents, Adoption Reform / Family Preservation blogs, Donor-Conceived Individuals, Foster Care Alumni and blogs about race, privilege, women's issues, and feminism. A category, or several, being absent from time to time doesn't mean I am not going to include that category in the future. It just means that I did not get to read as many blogs this week as I would have liked to.  And, I am admittedly partial to Adult Adoptee blogs.

Photo credit: Salvatore Vuono