marthaj

So happy and excited to hear this news!

I saw this story on the news also, never imagining there was an Abrazo connection. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family, and to all the families who have lost loved ones.

Just in time for Valentine's Day... the beautiful "gift" of new life! Wishing you all much love and happiness.

I think it also says something about the agency itself when folks "come back" as againers. It is certainly a testament to Abrazo's values and integrity. This should certainly help to calm any "fears" prospective birthparents might have about how they will be treated...with dignity and compassion!

I am in my third year of being a Reading mentor/tutor thru the OASIS program, which is for adults over age 50. I am currently mentoring a second grader, and I meet with her once a week. I always start off with a little "How was your week? Did you do anything fun" sort of icebreaker. This past Monday, the student told me she had gone to a birthday party for her grandma. Then she volunteered that her grandma was 47 years old! I just looked at her and smiled, since I am 11 years older than her grandma!! Oh my.....

I get the "grandmother" comment a lot less now that Catherine will be turning 14 this month and is as tall as I am (not that I am "tall," but she can look me directly in the eyes now which is scary!! LOL) Instead I get the "is she your youngest" comment, as it is assumed by my "mature looks" that surely I must have some 20-somethings out there somewhere. I have thought of making up a few siblings for her (the one who ran off to join the travelling circus, the one who joined a roving band of gypsys, the one who lives in a nudist colony.....) but I'm not sure I could pull it off with a straight face. Maybe I'll just use the "why do you ask" answer and see what comes next

The stork has been busy this week!!! And, that's surely the way we like it!

The blue streak is broken! Yea for PINK!!!

Hmmm.....I think Elizabeth is up to something......she is "tickled pink" on the Againers thread, and has promised a "pink surprise" at Camp Abrazo this weekend. Could be totally unrelated, of course, and just the random musings of a devilish mind!!!!!

Deb, perhaps you can think of it as keeping any situation that is not "your own" confidential...ie. if a friend or relative was ill, it may not be appropriate to share all the details of the illness to which you might be privy...or if close friends or relatives were going through a divorce, you would not want to share the details of what led to their divorce. Unfortunately with these days of all things being shared to the world via social media and TV reality shows, we have forgotten in our culture the value of keeping some things private so as to protect the dignity of others. Maybe I am just showing my age by longing for the days gone by when everyone's personal dramas were not so played out for everyone to see...

Was anyone else surprised to learn that Jack Wagner (GH-Frisco Jones, Melrose Place-Dr Peter Burns, musician) was himself a "birth" father? He told the story on Dancing With the Stars on tribute night on Monday. He did not know she even existed (her birth having resulted from a "fling" in the 80's, and her birthmother placed her for adoption as an infant). She located him through a private investigator when she began the search for her birthparents as an adult. But here's the "really gutsy move" part...she ran up to him backstage at a concert just before he was getting ready to perform on-stage, and literally threw herself at him and told him who she was. And here's the wonderful part, he has totally accepted her into his family and actually seemed overjoyed with finding out he had a daughter, and now they are great friends. He told the story on DWTS as the dance was to be a tribute to a memorable moment or person in your life. He introduced her to the world on DWTS, and I think that says a lot about his character as a person.

It just seems that some celebrities want a baby as an accessory.

Blessings to you Darshan and Charu. You have been in the thoughts and prayers of many over these past months!

I agree with Jada, this article did not seem to mesh with "positive adoption language Abrazo style." I did agree with some points (such as not continuing to call a child adopted internationally a "foreign child.") The sentence that bothered me the most, though, was calling a meeting between a person once adopted and his/her first parents as "making contact" and not a "reunion." You can "make contact" with someone by inadvertantly dialing a wrong number, for pete's sake.