a brief time-out...

Very soon now, I will start talking about adoption again. We're in the waiting, and it's just a matter of time... and I still need to raise like $20,000+ dollars, so I'll start being creative and selling T-shirts and maybe blood or kidneys, and I will preach at you again and make you think about starting an orphanage in your apartment building or something.

I think I needed an emotional break from it all, both from the disappointment of losing this potential baby and more, really, from some of the critical feedback I got in Texas. Most of it was just teaching moments- this is what adoption is, this is how it works, this is why it costs so much. I can handle that. I have a much harder time when it's anonymous reports coming back to me, of really hurtful and sharp statements. I can't defend myself against the faceless, and I really don't want to try to take on that kind of stuff here, because I hate it when blogs go defensive and negative.

I have taken it in, swallowed the meat and spit out the bones. In other words, where there was truth, I try to take it, and separate it from the unkindness, and grow. Ouch.

Anyway, I feel mostly recovered. Therefore, I will soon jump back on my soapbox and answer some of the questions that came in a couple of weeks ago.

In the meantime, ponder this. An aquarium in a toilet. I don't have a great track record with fish, but I think this is awesome. And if something went wrong and the toilet bowl filled with goldfish, that would be kinda awesome, too.