Stop, Drop and Blog

This was a crazy week. BigBrother started Kindergarten and we have apparently all survived. Despite the craziness, I still managed to read some great pieces on the web.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• Two great pieces on racism: Parenting Tip – Open Up by Soulseeds and Parenting Challenges: Race, Color, Identity and the Need to Belong by Christy at QuirkyFusion. Both amazing pieces to read about race and family and parenting, even if you think that you don’t need to be concerned with such topics — because you do.
• Just Another Night by The Kitchen Witch. I dare you to not be moved by this poignant post about aging, love and the compassion we can have for others. I cried just now, reading it for the third time. It is an amazing and powerful piece of writing.
• I Support My School.. My Way… With Music by Greeblemonkey. Now that’s a school fundraiser I’d go to. But awesome music aside, it is so encouraging to see so many people willing to come together for the good of our kids’ education. High fives to Aimee and all who were involved: You inspire the rest of us to do more, be better.
• About as Real as It Gets by Mandy at She Breathes Deeply, a blog I discovered earlier this summer and have fallen in love with for many reasons. This post, however, could have been written by me after BigBrother was born. I still grapple with my perfectionism, as I think many of us do. This was just a beautiful, raw piece.
• I Won’t Photograph Ugly People by Jen McKen Photography. Read it, especially if you have teens online. She refused to take the senior portraits of a group of girls when she came across their hateful speech and postings on Facebook. I applaud this photographer as a photographer myself, as a girl who was bullied in high school, as a woman and as a mother.

In case you missed me elsewhere this week:

• I wrote about the Guatemala kidnapping-adoption cluster on BlogHer
• On Chronicles:
• I wrote about postpartum depression clinics and relinquishment issues and how it gives me hope for our future;
• I freaked out about school and adoption issues from the birth parent side of things.

And, lastly, my favorite picture from the week (other than, you know, these or these):

Here’s hoping for another week of survival!